A Dangerous Backstory Emerging from the Orlando Massacre. Christians Beware!

Faithful Christians are messengers of TRUE freedom in an age being increasingly held captive by new versions of determinism

The dangerous backstory I refer to, arising out of the tragedy in Orlando, is any effort to misuse this tragedy to persecute Christians and suppress the Christian message that the fullness of freedom comes through turning away from sin, and turning toward the Lord. While we mourn the deaths of the innocent and affirm that all men and women, including those with same sex attraction, are created in the Image of God, we will never deny that God's loving plan for human freedom calls for all of us to turn away from sin and toward the Cross of Jesus Christ.

CHESAPEAKE, VA (Catholic Online) - In the aftermath of the evil act committed by Omar Mateen we have begun to ask the existential questions. Mateen claimed to be associated with the Islam spearheaded by the ISIS Caliphate. He made a 911 call twenty minutes into the attack pledging allegiance to ISIS.

A surviving witness heard him shout "stop killing ISIS". Others heard him shout "Alahu Akbar" (God is Great) as he killed 49 innocent people and injured nearly fifty more. ISIS claimed him as one of their own, boasting over the radio, "God allowed Omar Mateen, one of the soldiers of the caliphate in America, to carry out an attack entering a crusader gathering in a night club...in Orlando in Florida, killing and wounding more than 100 of them."

Media speculation abounds. Was he radicalized over the internet or during his visits to Saudi Arabia?  What about his Afghani father's history of support for the Taliban? How did he buy firearms when he had been under F.B.I. investigation twice? Then, there are the escalating efforts to raise gun control arguments which blame the gun, rather than the man who fired it repeatedly while laughing as the blood of the innocents covered the walls.

But, as details emerge, there is a backstory with dangerous potential, especially for classical Christians. Some are already trying to insinuate faithful, classical Christians into this horrid tragedy,  because of their support of marriage as between one man and one woman and unwillingness to accept the agenda of a fringe, activist wing of the homosexual movement.

For example, Catholic News Agency has noted the trend. In an article entitled ACLU lawyers say Christians caused the Orlando shooting, Matt Hedro recently wrote:

"ACLU attorney Chase Strangio skewered those who offered their "thoughts and prayers" for the victims and their families. "You know what is gross - your thoughts and prayers and Islamophobia after you created this anti-queer climate," he tweeted.He continued by lambasting "the Christian right" for pushing legislation to protect the conscience rights of individuals and business owners. "The Christian Right has introduced 200 anti-LGBT bills in the last six months and people blaming Islam for this. No."

I suspect that this kind of overt, anti-Christian bigotry which tries to blame Christians for having anything to do with this evil act will continue. Classical, faithful Christians, whether they identify as Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant, Evangelical, Non-Denominational or any other label, will never alter their position concerning the nature and ends of marriage and the loving plan of God for human sexual expression. They cannot do so. It is written into the Natural Moral Law, clearly taught in the Bible, affirmed in the unbroken Tradition of the Christian Church and unchangeable. It is integral to the Christian claim.

Just holding, professing, proclaiming, sharing and living this unalterable position on the nature and ends of marriage - and Gods loving plan for sexual difference and human sexuality - raises the ire of some cultural revolutionaries. Christians find themselves facing a growing backlash precisely because of their faith. Sadly, the evil massacre in Orlando, rightly condemned by all Christians, all people of faith and all people of good will, is already being used by some to further an agenda.

The Homosexual Equivalency Agenda

Mateen targeted a bar which catered to homosexual, lesbian and transgendered men and women who are openly celebrating their active lifestyle. Reports indicate that Mateen was a frequent patron at the Pulse Bar and had homosexual attraction to other men. There is an effort to connect his possible shame over same sex attraction with this murderous act. 

This effort could be one step away from blaming "traditional religion" for such evil acts. Why? Because such "traditional religion" opposes homosexual and lesbian acts. The next step would be to attempt to use this opposition to homosexual and lesbian sexual practices to persecute people of faith who refuse to recognize a moral equivalency between homosexual conduct and conjugal relations between one man and one woman in marriage.

Sexual conduct between people of the same sex is condemned in Islam. ISIS embraces strict Sharia Law. Practicing homosexuals and lesbians can be killed under Sharia Law. In ten Muslim countries, homosexual acts are punishable by death. Mateens parents are from Afghanistan where consensual homosexual and lesbian acts are subject to brutal Sharia punishment. 

Sexual conduct between people of the same sex is also condemned in Christianity. However, that is where any analogy with Islam ends. The Christian claim is that anyone who makes a wrong choice and commits what is theologically referred to as sin can be forgiven, and begin again. That includes the wrong choice to engage in homosexual or lesbian sexual acts. (Romans 1:26-28, 1 Cor. 6:9,10, 1 Tim. 1:10)

However, in Islam there is a radically different view of the human person and the nature of human freedom than that which is found in Christianity. Though many Islamic scholars would disagree, Islam is deterministic.  Determinism and the Christian Gospel are incompatible. In the words of the Apostle Paul, "it was for freedom that Christ set us free". (Gal. 5:1)

Freedom or Determinism 

In 1971 I was finishing High School and B.F. Skinner released his book entitled Beyond Freedom and Dignity. I was a young hippie searching for the deeper meaning of life. I plowed through it and realized just how much I disagreed with its sad vision of the nature of the human person.

My return to the Christian faith was fueled by a rejection of the materialism, nihilism, lack of solidarity, violence and idolatry I saw all around me. I came to see that the movement which called itself a counter culture back then was a fraud. It wanted to replace the social order it decried with something far worse.

I also came to see that what I rejected in the culture around me was present within me. Though I knew what was right, I was often held captive by my wrong choices and led astray by my disordered appetites and passions. When I read the Apostle Paul's similar struggle expressed in the seventh chapter of his letter to the Christians in Rome, a light bulb went off.

I accepted that I was a sinner in need of a Savior. I turned back to the One who I had embraced as a child, the One sent from the Father, Jesus the Christ. I was led back to the Cross on Calvary's Hill where the New Man, Jesus Christ, stretched out His arms to embrace the world in redemptive love and begin a New Creation. On that Cross, the Living Word, through whom the Universe was created, re-created it anew in His gift of Self.

There, for all who turn to the One who is the Way, the Truth and the Life, real freedom can be found. However, it takes a choice. In fact, it takes a life of choices, for God's loving plan as fully revealed in Jesus Christ and the Gospel. 

Our Choices Make Us 

The capacity to make choices reflects the Imago Dei, the Image of God, present within us. The Fathers of the Second Vatican Council in my church wrote in their document on the Mission of the Church: "Authentic freedom is an outstanding manifestation of the divine image within man. (GS #17) However, our freedom is fractured, due to sin. We need a Savior and God sent One.

The fullness of human freedom is only found in a relationship with the God who is its source - and inHis Son  Jesus, who is the Way, the Truth and the Life. (John 14:6) He alone can set us truly free. When we choose Him, we find the freedom for which we all long.

The Gospel of John records these words of Jesus concerning this connection between freedom and truth, "Jesus then said to those Jews who believed in him, "If you remain in my word, you will truly be my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." (John 8:32)

Faithful Christians are messengers of TRUE freedom in an age being increasingly held captive by  new versions of determinism. For example, that people cannot change. Or that disordered passions and appetites must rule us.

Human persons are not their sins - nor are they their disordered appetites or passions. They are created in the Image of a God who desires their freedom. Yet, they cannot achieve this freedom they desire on their own. In a sense, our freedom has been fractured by sin. Only the Splint of the Cross of Jesus Christ can restore it. Only God can give us the grace we need, through faith, to be saved and set free. (Eph. 2:8,9)

The Catechism of the Catholic Church offers this insight: "The more one does what is good, the freer one becomes. There is no true freedom except in the service of what is good and just. The choice to disobey and do evil is an abuse of freedom and leads to "the slavery of sin". (Cf. Rom 6:17) (CCC#1733)

Conclusion

The dangerous backstory I refer to, arising out of the tragedy in Orlando, is any effort to misuse this tragedy to persecute Christians and suppress the Christian message that the fullness of freedom comes through turning away from sin, and turning toward the Lord.

While we mourn the deaths of the innocent and affirm that all men and women, including those with same sex attraction, are created in the Image of God, we will never deny that God's loving plan for human freedom calls for all of us to turn away from sin and toward the Cross of Jesus Christ.

There we can make the choice which alone can set us free, embracing the truth. Jesus said, "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not continue in the house for ever; the son continues for ever. So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed." (John 8:36)

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Deacon Keith A. Fournier is an ordained minister, a Catholic Deacon, who works with other Christian leaders across confessional lines. He is the Founder and Chairman of Common Good Foundation and Common Good Alliance. He and his wife Laurine have five grown children and seven grandchildren. He is a human rights lawyer and public policy advocate who served as the first and founding Executive Director of the American Center for Law and Justice in the nineteen nineties and has long been active at the intersection of faith and culture. He is a senior contributing writer to The Stream.

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