If a nightclub in Orlando
is not a safe place for LGBT people to gather, how do we create safe places for
us be different together? A hate crime against one person or group is a discriminatory
assault against any one and every group. How do we support one another? What
will we do and say and be this week and every week?
The head of the NAACP
spoke eloquently Sunday about the need for us to stand together against hatred
and discrimination of all kinds. Likewise Nihad Awad, executive director of the
Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), spoke about the connections
between homophobia, transphobia, and Islamophobia.
Faisal Alam of the Muslim Alliance for Sexual and Gender
Diversity in an interview Sunday said that there are those in many religions
that call homosexuality a sin. A statement by that group put out Sunday said, “There is no religious justification or precedent in Islam for
mass shootings targeting any population, regardless of identity, nor is there
justification in American law or values. This tragedy is a reminder of the
terrible harm that can result from the wide availability of guns and
explosives. The proliferation of guns facilitates acts of violence by
individuals whose own values conflict with those of most Muslims and most
Americans which hold human life to be sacred. With that in mind, we call for a
renewal of the national conversation around strengthening gun control.”
It is true
that within many religions, including Christianity, there are segments that
make their case against homosexuality and transgender identity. However, even
though there are thousands of Christians who are LGBT that does not translate
into fear of or hatred of all Methodists, or Baptists, or Lutherans, or Roman
Catholics. It may, however, translate
into LGBT people not feeling welcome in some local congregations.
How do we
create safe places for us to be different together? For a person to really be not only tolerated,
but welcomed? Not only welcomed, but
understood? Not only understood, but
embraced? At such a time as this, we may
easily grow more fearful. We may
fearfully grow more closed in. Or we
might dare to become insistent activists and more radically inclusive.
First,
breaking a record--“The largest mass shooting in American history”--is not a
worthy record. We have noted before that we have become almost immune to death
by gun violence, calling it “senseless violence,” (it is making sense to the shooter), seeking the details, gluing
ourselves to the television for the required number of days of attention. We
can change. We can heed Nihad Awad and
Faisal Alam. There is no religious justification in Islam for mass
shootings. Nor is there in Christianity
or Judaism, or other major religions.
This is a land of many religions. We need to be a nation where it is
safe to be different together.
Second, what
can faith communities do? Coincidentally, Saturday night, I was attending a regional
church assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Our church body
does ordain women and men who are gay and lesbian. We are open to diversity. And yet we also need to continue to talk
about how we can be even more inclusive, not just welcoming of people who might
happen to come on a Sunday, but known in the community as congregations that
really are places where all can really feel not only accepted, but embraced and
cherished for who they are.
That’s a
challenge for all us of, I believe, in whatever communities with which we
associate, whatever our beliefs. We can
care about, mourn for, and pray for those “over there in Orlando.” Good. But even better, is to change our own
gathering places, communities and this nation into safe, healthy, trustworthy
places to be different together.
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