The Orlando Massacre resulting in deaths of at least 49 GLBT people at a gay club was motivated by religious faith. Many “Christians” would be in denial claiming that faith is about love even when thousands of gays being killed by faith regimes in Iran and Saudi Arabia. This is not some kind of radicalized faith, but rather common as newspapers in Turkey were celebratory of the killings. Even the murderer’s father was hinting that it was God’s religious judgement. To claim that this is only about hate or homophobia is a sad denial of truth.

The mass killing in Orlando is mostly young people. We are shocked at the lost. At the end, their deaths will not be in despair, for it will bring us closer to the basic freedom and rights for GLBT communities all round the world suffering from religious oppression. We reflect too on our own lives, the many years that we have lost, denied of love, to love and be loved, denied of basic rights, relationships, and family, and forced to live in closets as if a tomb stone.

John 3: 18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

We are not called to condemn people simply because their faith. For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. By default we are all condemned and we need not add further to it. In John 3:18, Jesus came not to condemn us for our sin, because ultimately if we do not believed Jesus as Lord and Savior, we stand condemned, guilty as charged with no mitigation nor savior to pay for our sins. The more we try to save ourselves, by being more pious and religious, we will end up blaming others. Gays are the victims, the gentle lambs sacrificed by religious faiths, to sooth their conscience of their own hidden sins. Whatever is hidden, is dark indeed.

Jesus is light, but the world is in darkness with many of her religious faiths  based on worshiping other gods, the demonic angels of old who rule the world. The resultant is faith that in the radicalized forms easily motivated to do violence and to do deep evil as we see in Iran and Saudi Arabia against gays. The evil of Isis, and the radical warring parties in Syria and Iraq all have faith motivations. There is no peace because there is no light. Many people of faith brings with them darkness, and carnal flesh. Gays are targeted not merely because of general homophobia but a deep religious desire for a scapegoat for their sins which are many.

There are many so called Christian faiths and global institutions, but they are actually man made rocks, of flesh, the small rock “Peter” rather than the large rock based on the Peter’s own declaration that Christ is the Messiah. For the Jews, this entails the forgiveness of sins, power of miracles and healing, and reconciliation with God. We have indeed exchanged the relationship with God the Father, to the confession to the “father”, the priests, and bowing down to fleshly Saints who may be more perfect than us but human and sinners nevertheless.

Ironically, if the authorities do insist on no foreign influences for/against Pink Dot in Singapore, it would be pertinent to look at the church on the seven hills a great distance from Singapore, and the foreign  western speakers who speak in “correct” English each Sunday in the mega church pulpits. After all, the term Love Singapore is a cover for the less palatable “Dominion Singapore” where the church influences all sectors of Government and Society under the foreign Dominion theology (the opposite of Western liberation theology). Those wearing white do so because they had transferred all their sins on the hapless gay community. It is just that these gentle lambs will not suffer forever nor silently, their blood on our hands.

Matt 16: 16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” 17 Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven.

The conservative revelation of many churches are based on “flesh and blood”, carnal in nature when they stand on Peter with their false sense of self humanistic piety through abstinence even of marriage and denial of their own sins. These churches are so much against gay marriage, even wearing white, because they don’t really believe in the forgiveness of sins once and for all through the blood of Jesus Christ. They come against gays to justify their own righteousness as they deem gays the worst sinners, and of course to transfer their hidden sins on gays.

In essence,  when Love Singapore calls for Christians to show sympathy because those killed will be “permanently” separated from their loved ones, they were implying indirectly that being gay resulted in such a great sin that God sends them to hell as a result. But in John 3:18, the only sin is unbelief. And yes, they are going to hell, if they do not have a confession of faith that Jesus is the Christ, the Savior but so is the vast majority of the population.

Jesus was standing near the cave of Caesara Philippi, known as the Gates of Hell because it is a place of demonic worship of various gods with human sacrifices. It was a portal to hell. Jesus was saying that forces of darkness that rules the earth centered on demonic altars will not overcome a church where there is supernatural revelation that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah. In other words, the gates of hell would surely attempt to conquer the church and will succeed to make it their altar if it is based on carnal human righteousness. We will surely fall if we stand on the small rock of carnal humanity rather than the solid rock of Jesus Christ.

As the churches in Orlando and else where mourns for the evil killings of GLBT peoples this Sunday services, it is the living that are suffering. The dead, feels no pain any longer. They are nearer to God. The older generation of gays are still living, but have suffered a lifetime of denial of their right to love, and be loved, and rejection by the church denying many of their relationship with Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. There are very few older GLBT people in Pink Dot because they know their life and hope is over. The freedom is for the young, but their own lives are already over.

The sounds of ringing mobile phones filled the pulse club the morning after, their loved ones desperate to contact them. Let us treasure life, let us treasure life that by living we may be a testimony to one and all, and be the child, the partner, the friend, the brother, the sister, the Father, the Mother loved by all. Then, we may truly become the community bearing one another. We stand with the victims of the Orlando massacre, we stand with gays killed in the name of faith in the Middle East, and Jesus weeps for them too. These are the little children that Jesus will welcome with open arms.