Let’s Not Pretend

Yesterday (Sunday, June 12, 2016), I was about to do the pre-service announcments for our second service when someone referenced the event in Orlando the night before. I do not take time to look at news or social media on Sunday mornings and thought that she was talking about the murder of the young singer. When I said that it was Friday night, she told me what had happened.

I spent time in the afternoon trying to catch up on the events. Local news was showing network coverage and bits and pieces came together. At last count 50 people died and 53 were injured in an attack on a LGBT club in Orlando. A lone gunman died during this interchange. Some radical Islamic site published a statement wherein a group claimed responsibility. We do not know whether they are responsible or riding on the coattails of a lone actor. This is to be determined.

I watched social media and was surprised that the response was as calm as it was. Mostly, I saw calls for prayers and posts in solidarity with the LGBT folks. Today, it seems to be heating up a bit, but mostly focused on regulating guns.

Each time something like this happens, I am shocked. This time, however, I was deeply saddened and greatly angered. I think that I have moved beyond disbelief. I am not surprised that this happened and that it happened to the LGBT folks. I am tired of seeing it and before we become too complacent with an unacceptable pattern, I hope that we can begin to change it. But to do so, we must stop pretending.

Let’s not pretend.

I stand in solidarity with the LGBT folks. I support and encourage them in their spiritual lives. I love many people who are lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgendered. They are friends, relatives, parishioners, acquaintances and a few enemies. I absolutely loathe that this happened.

But, let’s be clear. It happened to them and not to me. My participation and support is my choice. They had no choice. They were the planned target of hate and violence. They were and are the ones terrorized by this. I can choose to walk away, but they cannot.

Sure, this happened on American soil. But, I doubt that this shooter really cared about the nationality of the people in Pulse. After all, he was an American. Rather, he targeted LGBT, regardless of their nationality. Let’s not pretend that this is about us, other than how we choose to make it so.

Let’s not pretend.

As I indicated, most of what I saw in social media was about praying for victims, families and friends. I am a great believer in prayer, especially the part says that prayer changes us. But, prayer is not changing this trajectory of increasing hatred and violence. Prayer is effective if we take action to make it so. So, let’s not pretend that our words of prayer without prayerful action are going to change anything.

Let’s not pretend.

I read somewhere that there has been a huge increase in the guns purchased during the past eight years. Many of these were bought by the same people with some increase in new owners. Much of this has come as fear has been stoked by unsubstantiated claims that the government was going to seize guns. Other claims have been that the main deterrent to escalating violence is the potential of more violence (if only criminals have guns….). It is curious that despite an increase in gun ownership, gun violence (and other violence) has increased. Perhaps, we should consider that violence perpetuates violence and that only as a last resort and in very limited situations does violence stop violence.

We live in a violent culture and world and it seems to be increasing. Not only do we take arms against each other, our current political climate demonstrates the presence of increasing levels of hate and violence. Calling people and groups derogatory names is a provocation and can be a violent act. Bullying is violent. The unwillingness of our politicians to work together for the common good perpetuates an “us vs them” scenario. We carry weapons into department stores as a show of force. Such actions are all around us and seem to indicate a trajectory of increasing violence. Given this, how can we continue to be surprised by attacks like yesterday? Only by pretending.

Let’s not pretend.

Let’s not pretend that the answer is in more guns or fewer guns. Let’s not pretend that the answer is in empty words of prayers or speeches. Let’s not pretend that the remedy is in Christian versus Muslim. Let’s not pretend that the answer is in choosing who to hate, building walls or chanting “Give peace a chance”. Let’s not pretend that there is an easy solution or that there is no place to begin. Let’s stop pretending that we are at war with each other over violence.

Let’s agree that we have a problem that will destroy us. Let’s agree that we are willing to work toward solutions that are beyond our current thinking. Let’s agree that working together, we can accomplish much and that working against each other we will accomplish very little. Let’s agree to be respectful of each other. Let’s agree to sit together with the intention of open conversation toward a resolution. But, first

Let’s not pretend.