Statement following the shooting in Orlando

As we mark the almost seven years since President Barack Obama signed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act into law, we realize that we still live in a nation where violence against members of the LGBT community is unremitting. There are still daily scenes of violence against those whose sexual identity might be different than our own. And, of course, just yesterday we beheld with deep sadness and revulsion a horrific and appalling act of violence at a nightclub in Orlando, which left forty-nine dead and another fifty-three injured.

At its best, the Episcopal Church should be a leader in fighting discrimination against those who identify as lesbian or gay, bisexual or transgender – whether such discrimination be in our churches or in our communities. Moreover, we ought to use our prophetic voices to speak truth to all who would cast out, drive out, and abandon those who might be different than we are. We absolutely must carry that same prophetic voice into the world, decrying violence against the LGBT community.

It is deplorable that persons who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, an transgender – it is deplorable that persons of any sexual orientation or identification have been and remain the object of violent malice in speech or in action. Such violence, whether in thought, speech, or in action, deserves our condemnation and the condemnation of the Church. Such violence reveals a kind of disregard for others which denies the authenticity of our creation in the divine image and likeness and it endangers the most fundamental principles of a healthy society. Yes, the intrinsic goodness and dignity of every person must be respected in spirit and in truth, by word and by action, through common decency and under the force of law.

The bishop of Rome, Pope Francis, tells us, "If someone is gay and searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?" Human society should be a place of mercy and hope, even as the Church is a beacon of such in the world. Human society should be a place where everyone is welcomed, even as the Church is a place where everyone is loved and forgiven. The contours of such a human society and the Church within it will be discussed by the church's best theologians, social practitioners, and by us who sit here worshipping God. What will it look like for us?

We are a people of faith who have chosen to say "yes" to welcome. Let me be clear, then: If we say “yes” to welcome, we must say "no" to violence. We must say no to violence on our streets – the kind inflicted on the body of another. We must also say “no” to violence when it is quieter and less visible, when it shuts people out and makes them less than – we must say “no” to violence in the decisions of our Episcopal institutions, in our daily interactions, and in the intentions of our own heart.

When we say "yes" to welcome and "no" to violence. It is then that we can reimagine and reconstruct human society into the dreams God has for it: a place where goodness reigns, where everyone is welcome to experience the fullness of God's redeeming love in Jesus, and where no one is excluded and no one is left behind.