Orlando Massacre: The Two Sided Truth

My new book, The River of God, (which is currently being perused by a publisher), describes the worldview battle taking place in our time.

The Western Front of that war–primarily in Europe and the United States–is a titanic struggle between biblical faith (our heritage) and secularism (atheism) which is trying to topple it. On the Eastern Front, the Islamic worldview rules in parts of the Middle East, Africa and Asia.  It’s at war with all infidels (non-Muslims).

That particular worldview inspired a man to kill fifty people in Orlando, Florida this week. And now proponents on the Western Front are spinning their solutions.

Here’s my two-sided take on the truth behind the Orlando Massacre.

I will focus predominantly on the battle between biblical faith and secular atheism. We understand the simple strategy of Islamic jihad:  kill anybody who resists Mohammed and Allah.

But the Western World battle is more subtle and nuanced. After the horrific murders in Orlando by a killer I refuse to name, I want to shed some light on who is saying what, why they are saying it, and analyze where the truth lies. Knowing and living the truth should be the great goal of our lives. Truth brings freedom (John 8:32).

In the search for the truth, I will discuss the Orlando Massacre from four angles:

• Guns and National Security
• Sexual Lifestyles and Liberty
• Koranic and Cultural Islam
• The Depravity and Ideology of the Killer.

Guns and National Security

There have been a number of terrorism attacks under the current Administration. When most of them occurred, the voices of secular ideology–including that of the president–focused primarily on the need to limit or ban guns in the United States. The POTUS said so again emphatically this week.

Why do secularists always blame violence on guns and try to legislate gun control? Because the secular mind-set is all about control–liberal fascism is a fair term for their view of life. Fascists have always taught that the way you control societies is to take away their arms. A nation without guns is one that can be ruled by tyrants. This is the secular end-game though many refuse to admit it.

Biblical faith, on at least a governmental level, stresses self defense against evil (a concept the secularists don’t appear to understand). National security in all its forms is a legitimate response against evil forces, whether they be armies or the government itself. America’s 2nd Amendment concerning the right to bear arms was designed to protect Americans from all forms of tyranny.

So when terrorists strike, biblical voices say “We need to defeat evil and help people protect themselves!” Secularists say “We need more gun control and regulation of firearms!”

I believe the truth has two solutions here. The 2nd Amendment is a good idea and America’s military should destroy the terrorism source (currently Isis). Also, if we really want to protect lives, let’s use metal detectors in schools, security guards in other public places (retired police?), and ban no carry zones. If one person had possessed a gun at the club in Orlando, many lives would have been saved.

Congress should declare war on Isis and cut off the “head of the snake.” On the home front, we should act to protect more people with more fire arms for defensive purposes and more metal protectors–not less. Both of these would have stopped or hindered the Orlando murderer

Lifestyle and Liberty

Secular folks believe there is no God to whom we are accountable. They believe that all sexual activity is okay and God is not the author of marriage or healthy sexual relationships. Fornication, adultery, homosexuality, bestiality and pedophilia are simply “lifestyle choices.” There’s no right and wrong in sex.

On the other hand, faith folks believe God is wiser than people–that all sexual relations outside of a man and a woman in marriage are personally and corporately destructive. People of biblical faith cannot condone the sexual choices of those who rebel against their Creator. In that one regard, biblical faith and Islamic teaching are similar.

But that’s where the similarity ends. In the Old Testament period, God prescribed severe penalties for sexual sin (even death in some cases), but that’s because unleashing venereal diseases in a primitive world was a death sentence to whole societies. New Testament grace and modern medicine removed those penalties–but not the view of what is immoral.

Islam never changed. Practioners of the Koran still condemn sexual sin–they believe it should still be punished by death. This was apparently one of the motives of the evil Orlando killer.

Followers of Jesus do not. We condemn the sin but love the sinner. We believe in liberty–even for those who sexually sin. God will be the final judge. In the meantime, we must live and share the truth just as many Chick Filet outlets did in Orlando the day after the massacres.

Jihadists kill sinners. Followers of Christ serve them to bring them to salvation.

Koranic and Cultural Islam

Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hilary Clinton have all said that “we are not at war with Islam.” At the least, that is misleading. At the worst, it could get us all killed.

It’s true that many Muslims are not violent people. They’re normal human beings who want to live their lives in peace. In essence, these folks are nominal Muslims just like some Christians are nominal in their faith. This really means they don’t practice their religion–it’s just a thin cultural veneer.

Let’s call these “peaceful” folks cultural Muslims.

But the real strain of Islam–the historical one that was embodied in Mohammed and written about in the Koran–has never been peaceful for those who refuse to conform. The Koran contains over 100 war verses that motivate devout Muslims to hate all those who refuse their terms. These views are not “perverted” as President Obama tells us, or out of the Muslim mainstream.

Whereas cultural Muslims are the bigger group, the ones who take Mohammed and his Koran might number as many as sixty million. Not all will kill with impunity. But many are sympathetic to it.

Let’s call the jihadists Koranic Muslims–because it is from their holy book that their terror ideas derive.

Two things must happen to win the War on Terror. Just as the West united to defeat the Nazis seventy years ago, we must unite again to crush Isis and all its affiliates. Then we must convince he remaining peaceful Muslims of the world to reject the Koran and worship the true God in peace and civility.

The Depravity and Ideology of the Killer

The man who committed mass murder in Orlando was quickly labeled a terrorist because he identified with ISIS. Secularists tried to avoid that label because they have sympathy with diversity–even when it’s lethal. But the outlets with a more truthful biblical worldview saw it for what it was: he killed in the name of religion. He was a Koranic Muslim.

Many people said he specifically targeted the Pulse nightclub because Sharia Law pronounces death to homosexuals. That could have been part of his motivation.

But we later found out  that he was either engaged in a homosexual lifestyle or at least had homosexual tendencies. Those tendencies indicated he’d given in to temptations we all face in different ways due to our human depravity–in this case, those of a sexual nature.

So, did he kill because as a jihadist he hated homosexuals, or because he hated himself or been rebuffed at the bar by other patrons?

Only God knows. But both human depravity and ideology are in play.

There are a few practical lessons to learn from the Orlando Massacre:

1) We must militarily defeat the Islamo Nazis–ISIS.

2) We must better protect ourselves from those who devalue life.

3) We should trust God and follow His wise commands regarding human sexuality.

4) We must report evil when we hear about it, and

We must fervently pray for a moral and spiritual awakening in our world to restore God’s blessings and protections.