What does it mean? It means we were never
really married in the first place!
Or that mom and dad are living in sin?
What?
Song for this post here.
Saturday, June 18, 2016
If most marriages are invalid, does that mean the kids are bastards?
Or that mom and dad are living in sin?
What?
Song for this post here.
Friday, June 17, 2016
What the Pope said about bad marriages ... works for me.
Looks like she won the lottery. Superstar.
Pope Francis "recounted his encounter
with a man engaged to be married
who was looking for a church that would
complement his fiancée’s dress
and would not be far from a restaurant."
"Many marriages are not good; they do not please Our Lord and are not of God."
This week Pope Francis stated, “the great majority of our sacramental marriages are null...” The statement was revised for the transcript, with the Holy Father's approval of course, and reads, “a portion of our sacramental marriages are null.” A 'portion' - or perhaps 'many' as Our Lady said in 1917.
The comment was once again taken out of context.
The initial comments had come as the Pope was addressing the Diocese of Rome’s pastoral congress. After his initial scripted remarks, he held a question-and-answer session.
A layman asked about the “crisis of marriage” and how Catholics can help educate youth in love, help them learn about sacramental marriage, and help them overcome “their resistance, delusions and fears.”
The Pope answered from his own experience. - CNA
An experience perhaps quite foreign to many readers, expressed in ordinary language, in a casual question and answer circumstance. He shared anecdotes to illustrate what he meant - unexpected stories to demonstrate the significance and permanence of sacramental marriage.
It works for me - but I grew up in an Italian neighborhood with second generation children of immigrants, where old timers spoke like that. I think the 'ordinary people of the streets' understand this pope.
I love Pope Francis.
“Do you have any idea how many times
I’ve had to watch Funny Lady?”
Orlando shooting: 'They' made it all about the LGBTQ...
Fernando Botero's "Sunday at Castelgandolfo," 2009
Making it all about the gay, or ridiculously, about bullying, diminishes the victims, it distracts from the fact ISIS terror is here, in the U.S.
I've been reading some of the gay-Catholic blogs and articles online, as well as some conservative criticism of bishop(s) and priest(s) who are suggesting Catholic teaching is responsible for the homophobia which motivated the attack. I don't care what you say - these people are callously using the attack to further an ideological agenda. I think I mentioned that yesterday when I posted the following from First Things:
And so, here's the rub: The Catholic Church and the LGBT Community have divergent understandings of human nature, personal identity, the proper use of bodies, and the requirements for happiness. As Fr. Martin rightly points out, Catholics treat the LGBT Community as “other”—not because the Church wishes to exclude members of the LGBT Community from the mercy of Christ, induction into the Church, or eventual participation in the Sacraments (on the contrary, this is one of our great hopes), but because the beliefs, practices, politics, and morals proposed by the LGBT Community as an ideological bloc are fundamentally inimical to the primary end of man. - Finish reading here.The wedge is so deep - it almost seems insurmountable.
The terror attack exposed a great divide between secular and religious factions in our country and in the West. Even Prince William, after signing a book of condolences at the embassy in London, spoke about it as an attack on LGBTQ and called for an end to bullying. Emotionally moving, to be sure - but it's bigger than that. Going forward, I expect people will understand that - and unfortunately the Orlando terror will simply be an example of homophobia and not a 'terror strike'.
So I'll let it go - I'll let it be that - all about the gays.
That said, there are two things I want to clarify regarding what I've written since the attack in Orlando.
Help, O Lord for good men have vanished ... falsehoods they speak one to another.
First, I don't know Bishop Lynch, nor his background, nor do I know of any association he may have to the LGBTQ 'community' - other than hearsay. I don't care - I can disagree with what he and Fr. Martin think the Orlando shooting is about - but I'm not digging up dirt or making accusations against them to defend my POV. As I have stated in the past - I have never had a problem with Catholic teaching nor how it is worded in official documents and the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Apparently some bishops and priests do, and it is well known gay-Catholic groups do as well. In fact, they make it very clear they want the language and doctrine to change.
I'm against it.
Dens of iniquity?
Secondly, I spoke as if a gay bar is a morally neutral place to hang out at. That wasn't my point. I wanted to emphasize the humanity, the dignity of the individuals who were killed without making the event into a moral judgement on lifestyle and all of that stuff some religious people decided was more important than the lives of the so-called 'perverts'. It demonized, marginalized, and dehumanized the victims and their dignity as children of God.
As I wrote earlier: A gay bar or nightclub like this is not a sex club or bath house, it is a nightclub, a safe haven for gay people to go and dance and socialize without being afraid some gay-basher is going to beat them up because they dance with each other or wear make-up. Not everyone who goes to clubs like this are gay or looking for sex. Not every one goes out on Saturday night to drink and get drunk or try to pick up someone for sex, or heads to the bathroom looking for a quick bj. A 'mega' club like this attracts all sorts of men and women who are simply out to have fun and enjoy themselves.
Is it a place of sin? Is it a near occasion of sin? I'm not a moral theologian, but I would say yes to both of those questions. Were those at the club in a state of mortal sin? Only God knows that. Could people go to a club like that in good conscience? That's between them and their confessor/spiritual director. It's been a couple of decades since I was in a bar - but I would not go to one now. I'm not interested. When I did go to bars, was it a 'near occasion of sin' - did I experience temptation? Sometimes.
However, would going to a coffee-shop at which gay people hung out pose the same dangers? I doubt it. How about a corner bar? Maybe not. How about a gym or fitness club? See how difficult this becomes? For some people, just going to the beach is a problem.
That said, a gay club pretty much stands as an endorsement of LGBTQ life, and therefore, as Milco wrote of the LGBTQ 'community' as a whole:
They represent a highly developed political and anthropological ideology, which makes hard claims about human nature and desire, morality, the structure of the family, and the proper use of bodies. - First ThingsThat post got under gay-Catholic's skin - Melinda Selmys and many others didn't like Milco's post.
We become so accustomed to the acceptance of gay persons, we forget that elements which comprise the 'lifestyle' are indeed sinful - even though secular and civil society approves and condones them.
The events in Orlando has opened up and exposed a serious moral divide. As I said before, one could easily claim the attack was anti-Latino bigotry - which is just as ludicrous as the claim it was a homophobic hate crime. The nightclub was a soft target for ISIS terror. The attack is being used by all sorts of people now to further their agenda.
"Humans raise a barrier between themselves and God's Kingdom in two ways - first by the kind of life they choose to lead, and secondly by their demand for certain social conditions or their toleration of others." - Fr. Alfred Delp, S.J.
Thursday, June 16, 2016
Orlando Murders: Thinking it through...
That train has already left the station.
Beyond ideologies, beyond scapegoating ...
I'm glad I can't 'shake' this off my back. I'm glad I just can't move on and wait for the next tragedy, terror attack, hate crime - whatever fits yours or someone else's agenda.
I always feel as if these things 'happened to me' personally - and I have to work through it, I have to pray and sit alone and in silence, trying to sort things out. Lately I hear in the background those nostalgic strains from "Iron Sky" but I know the lyrics mean something else ... 'beyond love, beyond hate...' we cannot go beyond love - unless it be a false love. Instead, I ponder 'beyond ideologies, beyond scapegoating ...'
Why it's important for some to call the attack homophobia.
It seems very simple to figure that out - maybe too simple. It removes the act, the massacre from being an act of terror committed by a Muslim, to being a homophobic hate crime instead. As an act of domestic terrorism by a homophobic man who is conflicted about his own same sex attraction, Islam is immediately exonerated of any responsibility for the act. Hence the insistence it couldn't be ISIS terror - but homophobia. Despite the fact some American Islamic leaders believe gay people should be killed.
I formed that opinion after watching Tavis Smiley's interview with civil rights lawyer Arsalan Iftikhar, author of Scapegoats: How Islamophobia Helps Our Enemies. While I don't disagree with him on everything, I think he is wrong to claim the Orlando attack was exclusively homophobic - Mateen was decidedly influenced by ISIS and claimed the action for the terrorist group, who in turn claimed him as their own. Complicated, I know, but I think Iftikhar is doing a bit of scapegoating himself.
So you really want to make this about homophobia?
Why? Because there is an ideology to promote. It is ideological and it robs the victims of their humanity - more pointedly, the dead are being used to promote an ideology.
Calling for the American Bishops to identify it as a crime against the LGBTQ 'community' is motivated by politics and ideology. I've noted in the past few days why I think this is wrong, writing, take into consideration that one could easily claim the attack was anti-Latino bigotry - which is just as ludicrous as the claim it was a homophobic hate crime. The nightclub was a soft target for ISIS terror. The attack is being used by all sorts of people now to further their agenda with hate-filled rhetoric.
This was a hate crime on people, not just gay people.
I noticed a link to a First Things article after viewing a feed from Creative Minority Report on Fr. Martin's response to the 'failure' of the USCCB to specifically send condolences to the LGBTQ 'community':
Fr. Martin expresses his dismay over the responses of the American Catholic bishops, not because the bishops failed to express sorrow, outrage, and solidarity with those suffering, but because they did not (except for Chicago’s Blaise Cupich) direct their condolences explicitly to the LGBT community. - First ThingsI admire and respect Fr. Martin very much. I respectfully disagree with him on this however - with no loss of respect or esteem for his person and priesthood. As the author, Elliot Milco makes clear:
Note well—Martin’s complaint is not about any lack of sympathy or solidarity, but about the language with which the bishops chose to identify the suffering. “All those affected” (Abp. Kurtz) isn't enough. “The people of Orlando” isn't enough, either. We need to stand with the identity group of which those affected were mainly members, because they were targeted neither as residents of Orlando, nor as random bystanders, but as members of that identity group.
Fr. Martin's video is a great example of his thoroughgoing humaneness and care for words. He says what he means, and makes clear as always that he deeply means what he says. He is nonetheless wrong, and I think his statement is misleading and uncharitable to the bishops in question. - ibidThe Catholic Church and the LGBT Community have divergent understandings ...
To make a long post short - I will simply reprint Milco's reasoning for why Fr. Martin is wrong on this point - he makes some important distinctions.
What does it mean to be “gay” or “LGBT”? This question could be answered in many different ways: according to sexual preference, behavior, orientation, identity, psychology, biology, lifestyle, etc. There can be no question, though, that at present the label “LGBT” and its components represent more than simply a fact about the dispositions, lifestyles, or biologies of various individuals. They represent a highly developed political and anthropological ideology, which makes hard claims about human nature and desire, morality, the structure of the family, and the proper use of bodies.
To be clear, everyone who identifies with any of the labels that go into “LGBTQ...” is worthy of our love, our sympathy, and our solidarity in their quest (with all Christians) for the truth, for justice, and for eternal happiness. But what we share with our brethren on account of our common humanity does not nullify what divides us in terms of our choices and beliefs about happiness, justice, and the truth.
And so, here's the rub: The Catholic Church and the LGBT Community have divergent understandings of human nature, personal identity, the proper use of bodies, and the requirements for happiness. As Fr. Martin rightly points out, Catholics treat the LGBT Community as “other”—not because the Church wishes to exclude members of the LGBT Community from the mercy of Christ, induction into the Church, or eventual participation in the Sacraments (on the contrary, this is one of our great hopes), but because the beliefs, practices, politics, and morals proposed by the LGBT Community as an ideological bloc are fundamentally inimical to the primary end of man. - Finish reading here.This is close to what I wish I had been able to express. As I pointed out in another post: Remember that one survivor from the Pulse shootings who insisted - "this is about hate - hate on human beings - not just gay people." It's an act of terror. Make it about gay - about ideology and politics - you really become part of the problem.
"This was a hate crime on people, not just gay people. We were never a disease or abomination. We are human. We wanted to be accepted, we were in our safe comfort zone. This was somewhere we can be us. There is no judgment when you enter somewhere you are safe at, it's like your home." - Survivor Demetrice Naulings CBS
And it's a hard rain falling ...
Wednesday, June 15, 2016
The Orlando Victims List with brief obituaries.
with 2 of his children.
Many of the 49 victims of the United States’s
worst mass shooting share much in common:
Young Latino men in their 20s and 30s,
most of them gay, who gathered at an Orlando club to dance.
But the victims’ stories — promising artists, a young couple in love,
a devoted father of three among them
— are richly varied. - Washington Post
It's deeply moving and very sad. As 'E' mentioned, the youngest victim was 18 years old. Among the victims was a husband and a father of three who was there with a group of friends who came to enjoy Latin night.
Sometimes a bar is a bar is a bar - is just a bar.
I just want to say that a gay bar or nightclub like this is not a sex club or bath house, it is a nightclub, a safe haven for gay people to go and dance and socialize without being afraid some gay-basher is going to beat them up because they dance with each other or wear make-up. Not everyone who goes to clubs like this are gay or looking for sex, any more than an alcoholic is looking for cheap-over-poured alcoholic cocktails. Not every one goes out on Saturday night to drink and get drunk and pick up someone for sex, or heads to the bathroom looking for a quick bj. A 'mega' club like this attracts all sorts of men and women who are simply out to have fun and enjoy themselves.
Yet religious people online - especially Catholics - have condemned these people, one referring to the victims as 'musloids, faggots, dykes and fag hags in that gay disco, and denizens of hell on earth'. Claiming their mere presence in the club was at the very least a 'proximate occasion of mortal sin' - that might be true for some - but I don't see how it applies to everyone there. I may be wrong. Walking down the street can be a proximate occasion of sin for some people, just like going to the gym or the beach - or watching television.
That said, the more fanatical of the bunch went so far as to judge that the '50 killed in that SODOMITE NIGHT CLUB, unless they fully repented of ALL of their sins and died contrite for for what they were ENTHUSIASTICALLY EMBRACING AND PRACTICING just seconds before, died in unrepentant mortal sin.' That's a pretty heavy condemnation, certainly presumptuous, as well as an example of rash judgement. The author speaks as if the club had been hosting an orgy.
Amanda Alvear
She was with her friend
Mercedez Marisol Flores
when they were killed.
Most gay bars do not have sex rooms, much less allow sexual contact on the premises - except maybe in San Francisco and a few other dives in bigger cities. If a person wants that - they maybe can find a bear bar for it. Bars and nightclubs like Pulse attract a more diverse clientele. Straight people attend for the music, dance, and entertainment. I'm thinking Latin Night is a bit like Carnival. Many young people go for the dance music and drinks, not unlike Amanda Alvear and her friends. Amanda's cousin said she recently lost a great deal of weight and she was out celebrating. She is among the dead.
Take into consideration that one could easily claim the attack was anti-Latino bigotry - which is just as ludicrous as the claim it was a homophobic hate crime. The nightclub was a soft target for ISIS terror. The attack is being used by all sorts of people now to further their agenda with hate-filled rhetoric. These people should be ashamed.
Please read the victims obituaries, the story of their life condensed into a paragraph or two. Please recognize their humanity, their dignity as human beings created in the image and likeness of God.
And repent and pray.
“Has the Word of God then ceased to be what it was described by the Apostle?”
Pope Benedict XV said that in an encyclical in 1917 ...
Something to think about, huh?
What follows are a few random excerpts from the 1917 papal encyclical, On Preaching the Word, as well as commentary by Joe Tremblay:
“Has the Word of God then ceased to be what it was described by the Apostle, living and effectual and more piercing than any two-edged sword? Has long-continued use blunted the edge of that sword?”
“If you detect any one for his own glory or for gain, abusing the office of preaching, you should at once remove him from that function.”
The criteria for choosing worthy men for the priesthood, according to Pope Benedict XV, were three-fold. First, the candidate was a man “who always fully conformed himself to God's will.” In other words, he had to be a man of virtue and zeal, putting God’s glory above his own profit. Secondly, “he will not avoid labor or trouble of any kind.” The Holy Father went on to say that such a man should not immoderately desire the comforts of life or seek his own ease rather than the good of souls. Like Christ and the Apostles, the man of the cloth should possess the spirit of sacrifice. As such, short-term sacrifices will deter him from long-term gains. In the third place, every priest and preacher of the Word should be a man of prayer.
“(A)ll Christ's doctrines and commands, even the sterner ones, were so proclaimed by St. Paul that he did not restrict, gloss over or tone down what Christ taught regarding humility, self-denial, chastity, contempt of the world, obedience, forgiveness of enemies, and the like, nor was he afraid to tell his hearers that they had to make a choice between the service of God and the service of Belial, for they could not serve both, that when they leave this world, a dread judgment awaits them; that they cannot bargain with God; they may hope for life everlasting if they keep His entire law, but if they neglect their duty and indulge their passions, they will have nothing to expect but eternal fire. For our ‘Preacher of truth’ never imagined that he should avoid such subjects, because, owing to the corruption of the age, they appeared too stern to his hearers. Therefore it is clear how unworthy of commendation are those preachers who are afraid to touch upon certain points of Christian doctrine lest they should give their hearers offense.” - CNA
So, anyway. That covers a lot of ground, doesn't it.
For God and profit?
Tuesday, June 14, 2016
This just in: The Christian response to the Orlando murders... or why the ACLU blames Christians for the terrorist attack by a lone wolf ISIS 'operative'.
Factions are using the gay nightclub atrocity for ideological gain.
First, let me say, I am appalled by most of what I've been reading on social media regarding the attack on the gay nightclub in Orlando Florida. Be it gay-Catholic activists seeking to force the USCCB come out and discuss the attack as a hate crime against LGBT people, to the right-wing nut-job Catholic fundamentalists who claim "when bad people get murdered by other bad people, it doesn’t make them suddenly good." Even when they write PC posts purportedly caring about the state of their souls at the moment of death, one detects a sort of God-is-on-our-side triumphalism. As I said to my friend Mack in the combox yesterday:
It was an act of terror by a fanatic fundamentalist.
The people killed were individual persons. The dignity of the human person is rooted in his creation in the image and likeness of God. No one knows the state of their soul at the moment of death, neither before or after. No one. Most were probably Catholics, going by the names. Not all were gay or bi or better put - lgbtq. As you know, gay bars - esp. big clubs host a variety of people - regulars often mix with tourists out for great dance music and/or an exotic experience or simply the entertainment. These are the people who go out night-clubbing on Saturday night.
Remember Paris when the Stepford fundamentalists focused upon the name of the group and the so-called satanic connection in the name "Eagles of Death Metal"? The judged the victims and scorned those who mourned them and the manner in which they mourned them. Imagine.
You are right Mack - their responses so far have the same 'tone of ridicule and superiority' and it arises from their habit of 'dehumanizing and demonizing others.' I think it's perhaps an insular coping mechanism, which allows them to go back to their normal life, assured that they are not like the rest of sinful humanity, many reassured by the sentiment Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick tweeted you "reap what you sow".
The wages of sin is death...
and,
We will all come to the same end unless we repent.
Although Sunday night a Baptist preacher had this to say to his congregation:
Pastor Roger Jimenez from Verity Baptist Church in Sacramento told his congregation that Christians “shouldn’t be mourning the death of 50 sodomites.”
“People say, like: Well, aren’t you sad that 50 sodomites died?” Jimenez said, referencing the initial death toll in Orlando, which authorities later clarified included 49 victims plus the gunman. “Here’s the problem with that. It’s like the equivalent of asking me — what if you asked me: Hey, are you sad that 50 pedophiles were killed today?’
“Um, no, I think that’s great. I think that helps society. You know, I think Orlando, Fla., is a little safer tonight.”
He added: “The tragedy is that more of them didn’t die. The tragedy is — I’m kind of upset that he didn’t finish the job!”ISIS wants Pastor Jimenez dead too. Strange bedfellows. It appears as if Jimenez approves of ISIS tactics to rid the world of 'the rest of sinful humanity' - and he seems so grateful not to be as bad as those people who were killed.
Atrocity.
I guess I missed the announcement that the people who died in the Pulse attack are martyrs. The man who killed them turned out to be gay himself. So if these people at Pulse were killed out of homophobia, the homophobe himself was gay. It's senseless. It's senseless killing. It's sheer evil. It's an act of hatred for humanity. ISIS operatives do that. Nazis did that.
Christians killed for their faith are killed in odium fidei - in hatred of the faith. This is the martydom of sanctity - this makes the martyred saints.
Naturally the world, secular culture, social media, shocked by the immensity of the crime, deeply moved by the sudden, unexpected deaths of a group of people totally unaware death came stalking, the secular concept of martyrdom comes to mind.
Stop right there. Can't religious people sympathize and comfort the mourning and bury the dead and console the sorrowing first - before self-righteously Bible-thumping-catechetical-instructions over their heads?
The people killed were human beings - like you and me.
Years ago, a local man - a minor civil servant, yet a known personality - was murdered down by the river in a gay cruising area. I knew a priest who was his confessor and he told me the man was trying to live a chaste life but sometimes fell back into old habits. The guy was back at the park and was shot and killed by an unknown assailant - it was considered 'gay bashing' at the time. Long story short, I was at a religious book store shopping the day the story hit the news, and I heard two workers in the store speaking about it, one guy said, "As St. Paul wrote, "the wages of sin is death" - he got what he deserved." The other guy said - "Yup. Wrong place, wrong time." The murdered man was thus dehumanized and condemned, and the workers continued talking, speculating when the warning and chastisement would happen. They seemed to know all about that stuff too.
Though ACLU attorney Chase Strangio is wrong to pin this on Christians - it becomes a convenient and easy scapegoat for angry individuals and mobs. The ACLU is dead wrong. ISIS hates them too.
Gay activists who insist that Catholic leaders make this out to be a LGBTQ hate crime while rejecting their call for prayers for the victims are dead wrong as well.
As one survivor from the Pulse shootings said - this is about hate - hate on human beings - not just gay people. It's an act of terror. Make it about gay - about yourself and your political causes - "YOU are part of the problem. Your words are empty and your hearts are hollow."
Our own words, our judgments, frequently condemn us.
I stand condemned with the victims of terrorism.
Mr. Naulings
"This was a hate crime on people, not just gay people. We were never a disease or abomination. We are human. We wanted to be accepted, we were in our safe comfort zone. This was somewhere we can be us. There is no judgment when you enter somewhere you are safe at, it's like your home." - Survivor Demetrice Naulings CBS
Listen, put it into your heart, my youngest and dearest son, that the thing that disturbs you, the thing that afflicts you ...
I will hear their weeping, their complaints
and heal all their sorrows,
hardships and sufferings.
And to bring about what my
compassionate and merciful concern is trying to achieve ...
Do not let your countenance, your heart be disturbed.
Do not fear ...
Am I not here, I, who am your Mother?
Are you not under my shadow and protection?
Am I not the source of your joy?
Are you not in the hollow of my mantle,
in the crossing of my arms?
Do you need anything more?
Let nothing worry you, disturb you.
Monday, June 13, 2016
Our Holy Father St. Anthony
The Miraculous Responsory or “Si Quaeris”
This prayer of praise in honor of St. Anthony was composed by St. Bonaventure. It is sung frequently in the Basilica of St. Anthony in Padua and every Tuesday throughout the world.
If then you ask for miracles,
Death, error, all calamities,
Leprosy and demons fly,
And health succeeds infirmities.
Death, error, all calamities,
Leprosy and demons fly,
And health succeeds infirmities.
The sea obeys and fetters break,
And lifeless limbs do you restore;
While treasures lost are found again,
When young and old your aid implore.
And lifeless limbs do you restore;
While treasures lost are found again,
When young and old your aid implore.
All dangers vanish at your prayer,
And direst need does quickly flee;
Let those who know your power proclaim,
Let Paduans say: these are of thee.
And direst need does quickly flee;
Let those who know your power proclaim,
Let Paduans say: these are of thee.
To Father, Son, may glory be
And Holy Spirit, eternally.
And Holy Spirit, eternally.
Pray for us, blessed Anthony.
Make us worthy of the promises of Christ.
Make us worthy of the promises of Christ.
Let us pray.
Lord God, may the votive commemoration of blessed Anthony, your Confessor and Doctor, be a source of joy for your people. May they always be strengthened with his spiritual assistance and deserve eternal rewards. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Sunday, June 12, 2016
What's coming?
A procession of 'normal' German townspeople
touring Buchenwald after the liberation in 1945
to view the Nazi atrocities they 'didn't know about'.
[Although Hitler promised to cleanse Germany and rid
the Fatherland of untermenschen.]
Some thoughts which distracted me yesterday ...
I imagined many people walking to a designation - ordinary people walking at dusk - silhouetted against a hazy, orange sky, men women and children, nicely dressed, casually dressed - leisurely walking, speaking softly, smiling slightly, none were outwardly sad or suffering. Nevertheless there was an eerie silence and an ominous sense of impending doom - which only I could feel. I sensed something awful was going to happen to all of them. Where were they going? I imagined it to be a place like a concentration camp, a death camp, for lack of a better metaphor. At any rate, they were going willingly, casually, to their destruction. Little, by little, almost imperceptibly.
During the night many people were killed in a terrorist attack at a gay bar. The music was so loud, the bar crowded for last call, and no one knew what was happening ... when it started.
This afternoon I noticed a news story claiming "an imam speaking in Orlando in April said that killing gays according to Islamic law should be done 'out of compassion.'" That is obviously not related to the attack early Sunday morning, but jihadists have brutally executed gay men, many times torturing them and throwing them from rooftops to their death. Three days ago ISIS relased a statement on plans to attack Florida.
I think things will get worse.
Some people will blame Islam. Some will see Islam as God's scourge. Others will blame the LGBTQ agenda. Many will go with all three.
Speaking of Orlando as a gay playground, one blogger wrote: How did we normal people ever let this happen? How and WHY did we let perversity take over normalcy?
There is going to be a huge backlash - not just against jihadists either.
Triomphe de la mort (1944)
Felix Nussbaum
Here's Omar
Omar Mateen, a 29-year-old U.S.-born citizen, has been identified as the suspect in Sunday's mass shooting that left at least 50 dead and more than 50 others wounded at the Pulse Nightclub, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida.
Mateen's parents were born in Afghanistan, and he was "on the radar" of U.S. officials for some time, but was not the target of a specific investigation, law enforcement officials told ABC News. - source
Mass Murder - On Sunday Morning
Orlando gay bar shooting - at least 50 killed - story here.
Just came online - just read the news. The suspect is dead - he may or may not be connected to ISIS - it appears to be an act of terror. ISIS reportedly made threats 3 days ago. The story is developing.
If it is confirmed as terrorism, I'm surprised it hasn't happened before - gay clubs are pretty soft targets. At 2 AM chances are that many people might be fairly inebriated - unprepared for death.
Prayers for the victims - the dead and the wounded and their families.
