Faithfully yours - God calls us to live and let live

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Published on Sunday, June 26, 2016

By Neil Strohschein

The Neepawa Banner

An act of domestic terrorism—that’s how law enforcement officials described the event that took place in Orlando, Florida’s Pulse nightclub in the early morning hours of Sunday, June 12.

It was the worst mass shooting in the history of the United States—50 dead (including the alleged gunman) and at least that many injured. There are no words to describe the magnitude of this tragedy or to adequately reflect the outrage that should be felt by everyone who either read about, heard about or watched news coverage of this event.

Unfortunately, this event has taken on a life of its own. It wasn’t a random event. It appears to have been carefully planned by a man who was spotted in the club on several occasions prior to the shooting. The club is frequented by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. The father of the alleged shooter is known to be a supporter of the Taliban–a radical Muslim group that has had more than its share of publicity in recent years. And now we are told that the alleged shooter’s wife may have known of his plans and could face charges as an accessory to murder. No one knows what allegations will yet surface before this case is finally closed.

As I write these words, my attention is focused on the victims and their families. I am thinking of parents who lost a child, people in relationships who lost someone they loved and those who lost a colleague at work, a team mate in recreational sports, a good neighbour or a close friend. And I am thinking of the people of Orlando who have been devastated by this tragedy.

All of you, all Americans and all Canadians are asking the same question: “Why?” There are only two people who can answer that question. The first is the alleged shooter. His voice was forever silenced when he was shot dead by the police.

The one who has the answer is God; but I don’t think he will be all that anxious for us to know it. He would not want us to pass judgment on anyone—not on the alleged shooter, not on his family and certainly not on the victims and their families. He would not want us to give in to fear and start turning on each other and killing each other for no reason at all. He would want us to stand together and say: “Enough! No more violence! No more mass murders! This has to end—and it has to end now!”

He would want us to pray for those who were injured in this shooting but who survived—that they will be able to heal physically and emotionally, so that they can continue to be caring and contributing members of the Orlando community.

He would want us to pray for the victims’ families—that they will be able to find comfort and healing in the days ahead and that, as difficult at this will be, they will find it in their hearts to forgive the shooter and support his family, who are also grieving the loss of a son.

And He would want us all to learn an important lesson from this tragedy. Acts of violence against identifiable groups achieve nothing. It’s time we learned to accept people as they are, to stop the violence, to get along and to work together to build a better world where all can live in peace.

Simply put, God calls us to live—and let live!