Monday, June 13, 2016

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.

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