Shooting in California

I read a post today on LDS.net about the shooting of the bishop in California. The poster was a gay man who, as I’m sure many of us understand, felt very much harmed by the church. He expressed that although he felt remorse for the bishop and his family, that there was some sort of relief he experienced at hearing of the death of the bishop, as if this shooting filled some sort of “proxy” to the pain he felt in his experience growing up as a gay Mormon.

I’m disgusted by this sentiment – and had to publicly disassociate myself with this line of thinking. While the damage the church has caused to gay couples throughout the nation is no laughing matter, and without belittling the church’s involvement in horrors we have all experienced at its hand – no person deserves to be brutally murdered or have their death set up as a proxy or atonement for another person’s pain. To allow someone else to pay such a price is immoral.

Needless to say, this person was banned, but his post is still visible for all to read, standing as a singular testimony which I worry could be viewed as a representation of the thinking in the gay community. As such, it certainly doesn’t portray the general gay population in a decent light, and no doubt will be a roadblock to those who read it in opening up dialog about further gay issues. Why would someone purposely polarize this issue in such a way, burning the bridges so many have laboriously established? I would comment, but the thread has also been closed, leaving other members the inability to disagree, or express concern over the post.

I should note that there has so far been no connection to this murder and the Prop 8 issue in California – but this on particular gay person brought the two together personally for him.

I am also not naïve enough to doubt that there are members of the church who would like to see gay people physically harmed, just as there are members of the gay community who would like to see members of the church physically harmed, but both of these fringe groups cause me to be… very sad.

May we all choose humanity, love, compassion, dialog, and kindness over revenge, anger, violence, hatred, and silence.