Taking sides in grief

Each week, The World and Everything in It features a “Culture Friday” segment, in which WORLD Radio executive producer Nick Eicher discusses the latest cultural news with John Stonestreet, president of the Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview. Here is a summary of this week’s conversation.

In the days after the worst terror attack on U.S. soil since 9/11, LGBT activists emphasized domestic politics over the clear terrorist connection.

Eight hundred and fifty miles north of the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Fla., where Omar Mateen killed 49 people, Human Rights Campaign president Chad Griffin suggested that antipathy for gays was not just a hallmark of Islamic State (ISIS).

“Every time we hear a preacher that spews hate from the pulpit, every time a county clerk says that acknowledging our relationships violates her religious beliefs, it sends a signal that LGBT people should be treated differently and that we are less-than,” he said.

Russell Moore, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, pleaded for peace and for compassion. In a column posted by Time, Moore wondered, have we lost the capacity to grieve together in moments of national crisis?

John Stonestreet said political enmity arose much faster after the Orlando terror attack than it has in the past.

“In the months and particularly the years following 9/11, the political divide grew greater, but it took a while, not within hours and days as it did this week,” said Stonestreet, who encouraged Christians to respond to the tragedy with truth and love.

“There’s times where we have to put down our rights to speak back and communicate and love across those lines,” he said. “The Christian apologetic from the very beginning … not only pointed to the truth of Christianity; [it] pointed to the goodness of Christian citizens. The Christian citizens were open and loving, and they shared everything but their wives.”

Stonestreet added, “One wonders, can we really point to Christian citizenship today as being outstanding, as being above and beyond? I think moments like these give us an opportunity.”

Christians also have the advantage of a worldview that can adequately understand the power of ideology in acts of evil like what happened in Orlando, Stonestreet said.

“A secularist can’t imagine that religious ideology could drive something like this, and so they want to explain terrorism as a response to poverty or a response to disenfranchisement,” he said, adding that the culture can’t understand radical Islam. “You’ve got to understand it clearly before you respond to it.”

Stonestreet also had advice for how Christians should view the victims of the tragedy: “The primary identity of these victims is that they were made in the image of God. … Their primary identity is not that they’re gay or even American; it’s that they’re image-bearers. We need to remember that at times like these.”

Listen to “Culture Friday” on the June 17 edition of The World and Everything in It.