Orlando is 2,313 miles from Salt Lake City. I understand that we may think Orlando is so far away, that all we can do is pray… and we need to do that. However, I believe in my heart and in my soul that was given to God at Baptism, we not only can do more—we must do more. For this is not just an attack on people so many miles away—it is an attack on all of us in Provo, Logan, Page, Salt lake City and all over.

We now know the gunman was full of hate. Hatred directed toward our fellow human beings who are LGBT. People who are indelibly stamped with the image of God just like you and me. When one hates one of us made in God’s image, one hates all of us in God’s image. When a brother or sister in Christ cries out in pain, we all cry out in pain for we are united in God’s world. Gun violence and hate crimes can no longer just be political fodder tossed around in legislatures, courts, and even churches as items too controversial to really deal with — or measured in baby steps as “lets not do too much.” The Lord measured justice in right and wrong with forgiveness powering both. The old law was not just modified to please local leaders and the majority opinion—it was completely changed to honor God’s gift of life for all.

I was moved by President Obama’s comments 12 hours after the horrific events in Orlando. In the midst of a media frenzy to discover more about the victim—presumably to offer us a chance to blame someone or something, the President asked us to turn our thoughts to the victims—those who are exactly like us in His image 2,313 miles away from us in Utah. President Obama said, “Say a prayer for them and say a prayer for their families — that God give them the strength to bear the unbearable. And that He give us all the strength to be there for them, and the strength and courage to change. We need to demonstrate that we are defined more — as a country — by the way they lived their lives than by the hate of the man who took them from us.”

And today, as we pray, let us also dig deep into our souls that indeed were given to God’s service in baptism to help define who we want to be — not who we allow politicians to keep us confined to baby steps. To again quote the President, “this massacre is therefore a further reminder of how easy it is for someone to get their hands on a weapon that lets them shoot people in a school, or in a house of worship, or a movie theater, or in a nightclub. And we have to decide if that’s the kind of country we want to be. And to actively do nothing is a decision as well.”

In this season of Pentecost, we follow the Lord’s ministry on earth. It was not only a call to social justice, it was a call to doing something NOW. Let us decide to be the kind of country where parents do not have to worry when their children walk out the door in the morning or we as old, young, women, men, LGBT, or of any religion walk out that door too. Let us be the kind of country where we do not have to be afraid to go to a theatre, a nightclub. Let us be the kind of country where all people are respected and valued regardless of ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, or religious tradition. Let us work to end the epidemic of hate, intolerance, terror and prejudice. Let us dedicate ourselves to stopping gun violence. Until we decide to do this things will remain the same and tomorrow, next week, next month we will be reading about another massacre of our brothers and sisters – of those whom we are joined with in Christ.

God’s Blessings

+Scott B. Hayashi
Bishop of Utah