What I Think About the Orlando Shooting

Sometimes being a Baptist pastor can be uncomfortable as people hear other Baptist pastors saying things in the media and wonder if that is what you think too. The Baptists are a very broad church with divergent beliefs and practices across the globe. So if you are concerned about what I might be thinking, here is what I do think. I'm not speaking for anyone else here.

1. Every person who was killed was a precious child of God made in God's image. Every death was a terrible tragedy and waste. Our world is terribly broken by sin and needs a saviour.

2. For whatever motive, and it seems complicated, the killer targeted these people because they were part of the LGBT community, this is therefore a hate crime against LGBT people as well as an act of terrorism. Those who try and downplay this are badly mistaken. Regardless of your beliefs on personal sexual morality we should all be saying: this was not acceptable, we love and accept LGBT people as part of our society, we must keep them safe. LGBT people are persecuted for their identity around the world and Christians should be standing up for them as we should for any other vulnerable people group.

3. Some people, among them some allegedly Christian pastors, have suggested that the fact that the victims were LGBT makes this act acceptable or even to be celebrated. Those who call themselves Christians while espousing such views are abominations who have perverted the Gospel of Christ beyond all recognition. Theirs is not a point of view but rank heretical poison direct from Satan.

4. Those who continue to work to block gun reform law in USA for the sake of profit have an ever increasing amount of blood on their hands. They will face the judgement of God for it, and it will have been better for them if they had never been born.