In Part One of Post-Orlando Questions, I began a short series covering three questions swirling around since the tragic shooting in Orlando. The first question was, "I s it fair to attribute the actions of Omar Mateen to a climate of hate created by the Conservative Religious Right"?
This post will address the second question: "Is there a way to make a proper distinction between what is inherent in or necessarily follows from the beliefs and actions of a group vs. what particular individuals or sects do?"
This post will address the second question: "Is there a way to make a proper distinction between what is inherent in or necessarily follows from the beliefs and actions of a group vs. what particular individuals or sects do?"
When people do terrible things in the
name of their religion or worldview, are they acting consistently? Are they the
true ambassadors of the group, or are they the aberrations, the outliers who
have co-opted a religion or worldview for their own disturbing purposes?
I won’t attempt to answer for Islam, the faith with which Omar Mateen claimed affiliation. [1] I also won't attempt to answer for all the other political and social groups to whom this question equally applies on both the Right and the Left. [2] My interest lies in offering an answer
as a Christian. I obviously won't resolve this in a simple blog post, but I hope it can provoke some thoughtful discussion.
