For a Sunday afternoon in Orlando, it is unusually quiet. By
now, normally the roads and streets are bustling, lawn mowers are humming, sidewalk
joggers rush by in pairs, and there is chatter in the air; from neighborhood grill
outs, get togethers, and pool parties. But today, the silence is eerie. The
whole area seems to be stunned by the news that 49 people were murdered and
even more injured in this morning’s shooting at the Pulse nightclub in downtown
Orlando. 49 people dead! These are battlefield numbers. These are casualties that
occur when at war. So this isn’t a tragedy. It’s an atrocity.
The gunman, identified as Omar Mateen, called 911 reportedly
from within the club around 2 AM with a message of support for ISIS just
minutes before he opened fire. He decided, on the basis of his avowed faith in
Islam, that killing people was what Allah wanted. A Texas pastor used the
occasion this morning to declare the Christian god was in complete agreement. He
is saying that Yahweh or Jehovah sides with Allah, and that justifies the
slaughter. Would Mateen have killed if not motivated by a religious
belief? Would a Christian minister have sided with an Islamic jihadist if not
for his religious belief? These men are evil. They are the face of what is
wrong when motivated by their holy books. When was the last time someone killed because of what they read in a Harry Potter book?
Like that Texas preacher, a longtime FORMER friend on Facebook
(who will remain nameless as I will never acknowledge them as a member of the
human race again) decided to show his love and understanding of the situation this
morning by quoting Galatians 6:7 from the bible: “Don't be deceived: God is not mocked. For whatever a man sows he will
also reap.” When I read that, I went to his Facebook page and was astounded that he had
published even more vicious, gay-bashing, and biblically-oriented rantings and ravings all in
support of this mass killing. I did not bother sending him a message or ask for
clarification. I immediately unfriended him. If I see him at any upcoming national
meetings that we have attended together in the past, I will not shake his hand or even nod in his direction.
This is the face of 21st century Christianity. This is what he really thinks Jesus meant
in Luke 19:27 when he supposedly said “But
those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring
hither, and slay them before me.”
I’ll state my reaction plainly….WHAT HORSESHIT! You, FORMER
friend on Facebook, are the reason more and more people find your religion not just
stupid, but wicked. And YOU are stupid and wicked for quoting it. You give the
word HATE a whole new meaning. The Orlando victims did not sow death and
destruction anywhere. They did not reap any godly justice for any sin. It’s
like saying because people were buying fatty foods at a San Ysidro California McDonalds
that James Huberty has a right to come in and gun them down on
July 18, 1984…or that if you watch the movie The Dark Knight Rises, you should
expect someone like James Holmes to pop in and open fire as he did in Aurora,
Colorado on July 20, 2012, because clearly watching a movie or eating McDonalds
food is worthy of death. And now Christian bigot, loudmouth, and homophobe Pat Robertson has claimed that this is God's judgment on our nation because same sex couples are allowed to marry. As I stated at the beginning of this paragraph...WHAT HORSESHIT!
The source of evil.
Why did it happened? Some are already
claiming that it’s the atmosphere of hate created by candidates like Donald
Trump. I doubt that. I think it has more to do with holy books and people’s
interpretation of what they read that led to this massacre. This is a logical
extension of the Huguenot slaughter perpetrated by the Roman Catholic Church in
the 1100s, the wholesale murder of Mormons by Christians in the state of
Missouri in 1838, the Cave of Patriarchs massacre by Baruch Goldstein on Muslim
worshipers February 25, 1994 near Hebron Israel, or the mass shooting in Peshawar
Pakistan by Islamic militants at a school crowded with children on December 16,
2014. The common denominator is religion. In each case, the killers indicated god told them, through their holy books, to kill. Christopher Hitchens had it
absolutely right. Religion does poison everything.
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