Stop it.

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I mentioned the tragedy of the weekend shooting to a friend the other day and they asked “Which one?”  I was referring to the massacre in Orlando but my friend had a point. Hardly a day goes by without the report of another fatal shooting south of the boarder.

The outrage over the Orlando shooting seems to be compounded by the fact that those who were shot were identified with the LGBTQ community.  But the reality is that whenever there is a mass shooting in the States the victims are a part of a group. 

In 2007, the thirty-two victims were identified with Virginia Tech.  In 2012, twenty children were killed simply because they attended Sandy Hook Elementary School and the list unfortunately goes on.   The shooter in Orlando was identified as (I won’t use his name) and he was linked to ISIS and in 2015 the same group beheaded 30 Ethiopian Christians, just because they were Christians.

The Bible is clear, to murder someone is wrong for everyone.  For the Christ Follower, Jesus makes it even stronger when he commands us to not even hate, and in the book of 1 John we are told that if we hate someone we are guilty of murder.  And hate, like tolerance, is a two way street.

Have a great week and remember: To see what is really possible, you will have to attempt the impossible.