…at the news of this past weekend (June 12, 2016) about the hate crime and the terrorist assault on Pulse, a gay bar in Orlando, Florida, as must be yours. It is the biggest mass shooting by a lone gunman in the U.S. ever, and the biggest terrorist attack here since September 11, 2001. Its ramifications could be just as big. The grief, pain, fear and loss it engenders will certainly be.
Instead of adding to our current cultural and political wars over sexuality, gun rights, religion, immigration, presidential campaigns, etc., now is simply the time to mourn and lament the deaths of at least 49 people and the awful, aching grief of their loved ones, family and friends.
Now is also the time to reach out in any loving way we can to the injured, to grieving survivors, and to anyone else who feels fear, for reasons of faith, or for sexual, racial or ethnic identity, immigration status, and more. It is also the time to mourn the captivity of so many souls, including the gunman, Omar Mateen, to fear, hatred, violence and the presumption of a divine duty to punish others. As for me, it is too late to ever be without sin, so I shall leave all rocks where they lie (John 8: 1-11). If anyone believes that they are called of God to punish “sinners,” as far as I know, “I am the worst….(I Timothy 1:15).”
I also mourn and fear the association of human power and agency with guns and violence, especially in mainstream masculine cultures, here and around the world. Masculinity is not the problem; machismo is. It’s one thing for well-trained, well-vetted and disciplined people to have and use firearms as tools for hunting or law enforcement. It’s another thing entirely to entrust our personal security and our sense of worth and agency in the world to lethal weapons, especially the high capacity, semi-automatic weapons that have brought an arms race to our homes and streets, and which make the lives of our precious civil servants, like police officers, paramedics, fire fighters and school teachers, more difficult and dangerous than they would already be without them. We regulate the choice and use of weapons for hunting deer or ducks; once again we prove incapable of regulating weapons in the presence of people.
I also mourn and fear for all those with reason to fear the rising tide of alienation, xenophobia (fear of strangers) and scapegoating in our society that is threatening so many people, in addition to the LGBTQ community. Could we, like those who hid Jews, Gypsies, Poles, political dissenters and others in Nazi-occupied Europe, ever be called upon to provide real and emotional shelter to undocumented immigrants who have fled violence in Central America or parts of Africa, or to Muslims, the vast majority of whom condemn terrorism? If society’s widening gulfs should ever lead to greater scapegoating and authoritarianism, could we do as did the Christians of Le Chambon-Sur-Lignon, France, in the 1940’s, who hid Jews?
I mourn and fear also for a rising tide of fear and recrimination in the wider society, especially in an election year. It’s ramping up on both sides of our culture wars. To those who say that the church is responsible for this massacre because of its historic stance about homosexuality, bisexuality and more, I would say that we would all do well to consider to what extent our moral and theological deliberations are driven by the fear of people, rather than by legitimate moral and spiritual concerns. Whether we agree with that accusation or not, we need at least to listen to the pain and fear beneath and behind it. But I find the words of Abraham Joshua Heschel more helpful: “Not all are guilty, but all are responsible.” By that he means we are all able to respond to evil, and required to do so. “Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to act.” (Prov. 3:27). Equality Florida is one accountable organization collecting money online to help with the expenses of victims and families, from funerals to medical bills. There is also such a fund started by the City of Orlando. I, personally, am not going to worry about the politics or identity of anyone needing help, or offering it. I will simply contribute what I can.
But let’s not stop at grief and fear. Nor must we let them lead us to blame, shame or scapegoat anyone. Let them motivate us to comfort the afflicted, do good to those for whom it is in our power to help, love and reach out to those who scare us most, and to reflect and pray. Pray for those recovering from their wounds, whether physical and psychological. Pray for those helping and serving them. Pray for all who have lost loved ones, for all who feel fear, rejection, alienation from others and society, hostility, powerlessness, rage and the desire to punish and avenge their own alienation and resentments. Work for and model respect, communication and understanding between well-meaning and conscientious people with different understandings of faith, ethics and Christian mission, trusting that we are in a search together for truths that are greater than our partial perceptions.
We have only limited power to disarm the Omar Mateens of the world. But when our Lord told us to love our enemies (Mt. 5:44), and when he told Peter to put away his sword (Mt. 26:52), he effectively called all of his disciples to disarm themselves. That includes disarming ourselves of weaponized attitudes, such as blaming and shaming, fear and loathing of others, the need to have enemies, scapegoats and inferiors, and the need to hate, shame or punish them. All of us are on a journey of learning and living this: that all of us need changing, and the only thing that truly changes us is God’s love, a love that does not need to change us, in order to love us supremely.
Yours in Christ,
Pastor Mathew Swora
I add to my words above those of Dr. Sarah Wenger Shenk, President of Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary:
| The Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary community grieves the horrific violence perpetrated against LGBTQ participants and others at the Pulse Orlando Nightclub. Hate-filled violence toward any person made in the image of God, whether LGBTQ or Muslim, women or men, Latino or Afghan, violates us all. Mennonite faith communities, like other faith communities, are conflicted in views of homosexuality, political candidates, gun ownership, immigration policies, terrorism—you name it. What we cannot be conflicted about if we call ourselves followers of Jesus, is that we will stand in solidarity with those whom Jesus stood with—those whom many others, including religious leaders, despised. For the love of God and neighbor, AMBS joins with other courageous lovers of God who call for all people of faith to stand like Jesus against hatred and violence in any form. As a seminary we recommit ourselves to teach, preach and embody the reconciling mission of God, rooted in the Word, growing in Christ. – Sara Wenger Shenk, president, on behalf of the AMBS learning community |