This is in response to Jane E. Peterson, as the utter degree of hypocrisy in her statements is rather troubling.

I’m sorry Jane, but not all of us share the same beliefs as you. Unlike you, I’m part of the minority that was specifically targeted in the Orlando massacre and I was very insulted by your words. Having once been targeted in a violent hate crime before in my youth by two bigoted thugs, I have tremendous empathy for victims of senseless violence (luckily for my sake, I knew how to fight and they only had a nightstick and not an assault rifle or I likely would have faced a similar fate).

Now while you certainly have the right to your opinion, can you not take a step back and see that you’re affected by your own form of “tunnel vision”? After all, you’re viewing the world through a different, yet disturbingly similar view as the jihadis who are terrorizing our world right now? While you aren’t using violence as a means to your end, you are definitely trying to force your own extreme religious views down the rest of our throats. Let’s be very clear here: what you’re spouting is not objective or scientific proof; it’s very, very, very subjective, and it’s just one of many, many opinions out there.

Let’s also not forget that the ISIS sympathizers who carried out the attacks you mentioned (and the one that just happened over in Nice, France) did what they did because they felt they were righteous, that their victims were evil, that their God was the only real God, and their way was the only right way. In fact they felt so strongly about such that they willingly gave their lives to cowardly slaughter innocent people.

So don’t self-righteously say you “judge no one” when you’re clearly judging many. And when you say that your God “is our only shelter or defense, our only hope” and the “only defense for any of us will be the precious blood of Jesus”… well, a lot of us have a lot more faith in humanity than you do.

At the end of the day, your message isn’t really that different from their’s; you’re both trying to force your views on others through fear-mongering and misinformation, you both view those with different worldviews and lifestyles as “sinners,” and you both think that you’re the righteous ones.

And if prayer is currently your only answer to “fight against the evil and darkness that is spreading over our nation,” I’d instead recommend trying to open your mind, volunteering to help with the recovery efforts, or donating to the victims as opposed to blaming them for the actions of bigoted maniacs engaging in ridiculous cosmological battles.

David Krizan, Kirkland