When forbidden sexuality meets unchanging religious tradition

[rug]

A member of the LGBT community in Bengalaru, India, holds a candle during a memorial service June 14, 2016, for victims of the mass shooting at the Pulse gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla. Photo courtesy of REUTERS/Abhishek N.Cinnappa

By David Gushee | 19 hours ago

(RNS) Multiple reports are surfacing that Pulse nightclub shooter Omar Mateen’s profile was found on gay dating apps, that he had tried to pick up men and that on prior occasions he had patronized the Orlando club in which he massacred so many on Sunday (June 12).

If this is true, it matters a very great deal.

It might move the motivation for Mateen’s horrific act to a very different and psychologically more complex place in which one man’s inability to reconcile himself with his sexuality cost 49 other people their lives — and then cost him his own life.

It might end up making the motivation of the horrifying Orlando massacre look more like: I want you. God says I can’t want you. So I must kill you.

http://religionnews.com/2016/06/14/orlando-pulse-sexuality-religion-mateen/

[Skittles]

1. when people are fed a steady diet of religious trash

anything can happen

[rug]

2. That's pretty much true of any trash.

[Fumesucker]

7. Non religious trash doesn't have the authority of the creator of the universe behind it

You are a foul loathsome creature in the eyes of the loving God for being something that is utterly beyond your capacity to change.

The real wonder is that we don't get more of these sorts of attacks, it really speaks to how most people are at their heart good, most of us would just kill ourselves to be rid of that sort of dichotomy.

[rug]

8. No, it has the actual, palpable and immediate force of state power.

[Skittles]

9. religion is in a class all on its own

[rug]

11. No it isn't. It's an ideology like any other ideology.

[Skittles]

13. we wil agree to disagree

[Freddie]

3. Was just discussing this in my church group

We all think that self-hatred over his sexuality will turn out to be a huge factor. Add easy access to assault weapons and stir.

[rug]

4. The deeper problem is the ultimate hate does not come from himself.

No one is born hating himself or herself.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

6. Similarly, nobody is born hating other people for their skin or their lovers.

But it is easy to slip into hate, especially when parents, religions and politicians grease the skids.

[FailureToCommunicate]

5. Agreed. But there are zillions of conflicted souls around the world who don't have easy access to

guns.

It's possible that the fathers statement that his son was upset seeing two men kiss was really the son seeing the father upset about it and getting the message: self hatred. Then found a way to make religious nut dad proud, with the help of high firepower.

Whatever deadly mix it turns out to be, the common ingredient is... easy guns.

[MisterP]

10. Salafists: "we're an unchanging tradition that represents the only true Islam"

non-Muslim "analysts": "Salafism is an unchanging tradition that represents the only true Islam"
hmm

[rug]

12. Fair point.