this side of heaven

Every time we witness such a horrific event, we struggle with how to react. We are mad, sad, outraged, and more. The existence of evil on Earth is profoundly disturbing, and I pray we are never numb to it.

And so we cry out… we rant and rave… scream “how dare they.” Many of us will even change our Facebook profiles. This just hurts too much.

I am actually, soberly thankful that we are not numb. A society that is numb and fully fails to recognize evil is a society that I’m afraid will soon cease to exist. A society unwilling to acknowledge evil — therefore discarding any semblance of a moral compass — would seem to have lost any blessing or coverage from an omniscient, almighty God.

Let’s be clear: any time mass murder is targeted against a specific people group, it is evil; it is the clear absence of God.

And so I wrestle… how should we react?

I wish I could say that there was only one right answer with a singular fix, a sole perfect way to respond, and each of us simply needs to support and follow suit. But there is not. I think God gets the ranting and the raving… I think he also gets the crying out… I think he weeps.

Some of us then insist that we do whatever it takes to ensure this horror never happens again, no one is ever hurt, nor must we ever feel as awful as we do today. I admire that motive and emotion. I admire the desire to extinguish the evil.

Others still, call for peace, love, and the playground mantra of “can’t we all just get along.” This, too, is admirable.

The wrestling is whether our reactions are effective in the fight against evil.

The man responsible for the Orlando shooting early Sunday morning killed at least 49 people seemingly solely because they were part of the LGBT community. For my dear friends also a part of that community, I can’t imagine how that must feel. I know if I shared the same specificity for which the people group was targeted, my heart would hurt even more.

It’s true that we don’t know all the details of what happened; we may never know. Just like in Boston, San Bernardino, Ft. Hood, etc., it takes multiple days for details to be divulged. What we do know, however, is that the man was a Muslim, claimed allegiance to Islamic State, and ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack. While it’s illogical to judge all or most Muslims as terrorists, it is also illogical to ignore that many Muslims abhor various threads of current American culture — including homosexuality. Homosexual behavior is subject to severe legal punishment in many Muslim countries. ISIS routinely executes homosexuals, and on Sunday, the radical Islamic terrorist group called for more shootings in gay nightclubs across the globe.

That makes my heart again hurt more.

I wish there was a more effective way to wrestle with this evil rather than solely calling for greater gun control or invoking playground mantras. While each is a valid angle and worthy of discussion, neither will stop the man motivated by terror — the man bent on destroying another simply because of what the other believes. We must do more than that.

I also wish that it didn’t take a breaking news report about a shooting massacre to bind us together, in the recognition of the preciousness of life — and even more so, recognizing the preciousness of lives that are different than our own.

And so I find myself still wrestling, wondering how best to respond.

I will pray for peace for the families of the victims. I will pray that we each learn a little more what love really is — and learn to love those who are different than we.

And then — just as I believe the God of the universe often does — I will weep this side of heaven.

Respectfully…
AR