Horrible news from Orlando

Moral approbation or disapprobation of people's noncriminal conduct does not generally disturb me. Everyone approves or disapproves of others' actions to some degree. Because I believe faith and obedience to divine commandments must be freely chosen, I uphold the freedom of all to be religious or to be areligious, to adhere to religious mandates as to one's own behavior or to not adhere. I reserve the right to support or oppose legislation depending on whether it fits my conceptions of how to promote a "good society," yet I recognize the importance of individual liberty and highly value the secular government of the United States of America.

My entire life I have learned and lived the principle of chastity, i.e., no sexual relations outside of marriage, but never have I nor any of my co-religionists picked up a gun and gone to shoot up a nightclub, no matter how unpalatable I found the activities within (and some nightclubs, such as in Berlin, are known for behavior that much of the world's population would likely find distasteful). I reject the idea being pushed right now in media and on the internet that this past weekend's Islamist mass killing is somehow due to a wider failure by everyone to embrace homosexuality. The problem is that an extremist who adhered to a violent, illiberal version of Islam answered the call of ISIS in Orlando, Florida. I can adhere to my religious values and still mourn the evil slaughter that occurred at Pulse, and I do.