Concerning Orlando

Those who follow my sermons may have been surprised to notice that yesterday I didn't preach about what had happened at the Pulse in Orlando... which was due to the fact that I only heard about it right before Church started, and I hadn't had time to process the event or even absorb any of the details.

That the shooting is horrible is obvious and does not require me to harp on it. That folks who are LGBTQ still have to worry about this sort of thing happening to them is a sad commentary on where we are as a nation, but plenty will be written about that. I am not in a position to comment on the shooter, if what he did was due to his faith, due to his political beliefs, or due to mental illness, or if the three all go hand in hand.

I don't know. If it IS faith, then it isn't my faith to comment on, though I have seen some Islamic scholars beginning to do so themselves, and so I will leave them to it.

My commentary goes to some of the others who, like me, can only react to it in the cute little ways they find so witty. I'm a pastor, a Christian leader, and Christians, you are disappointing the hell out of me this morning. Disappointment isn't even the right word... I am pissed off.

The comments that I am seeing on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media are, I believe, the sort of thing that would get Jesus flipping tables in temples. Those who see this as justification for hatred against Islam, or for pushing laws to treat them as second class citizens, are disgusting.

And the most infuriating of all are those who see this as a proper punishment for LGBTQ people. If you are saying things like that, then you are using your faith to justify hatred, to justify violence. You are breaking a bunch of Biblical admonishments and ignoring basically the ENTIRE message of Christ himself. You are sinning, plain and simple.

You're also being a miserable excuse for a human being.

And it isn't going unnoticed. Millions of people who have never experienced faith are seeing you RIGHT NOW and either deciding for the first time or being confirmed in their opinion that if THAT is what faith is, then they want no part of it. Hell, if that is what faith is, -I- want no part of it.

The sermon I did preach yesterday talked about people who use law to try to keep score, to be able to make the claim that they are better than others, to reject the idea that we are saved by grace through faith in exchange for a sense of smug self-righteousness, when the scriptures try to remind us that there is neither slave nor free, Jew or gentile, male or female.

The people who died in Orlando, who are still dying in Orlando, are people, murdered, leaving devastated friends and family in their wake. What they did, who they did it with, does not change any of that. It is a tragedy, full stop.

But the cowards who hide behind a weak understanding of their faith to justify their hatreds and prejudices, those who put on a smug "I told you so," to use this instance to justify previously held hatreds and grievances, to those who would DARE to use the name of Jesus Christ so that what happened seems like a victory...

You are an embarrassment to our faith, to all of us. You are every reason why we as Christians are distrusted in the world today. People making provisions against us at this point is a matter of self defense, not of religious intolerance. You are an active hindrance to the gospel, sinning against the Holy Spirit, literally the only sin in the Bible ever described as unforgivable. You are standing between people and Christ and actively working to deny them his love and while I believe in forgiveness of Christ in this particular moment that idea makes me feel ANGRY, rather than safe.

And to everyone else... I'm sorry. They don't speak for me, or for countless others, but frankly I couldn't blame you if, in this moment, you had a hard time caring about that.