Okay, some responses to what's been said so far:
First, a short note on "the Word of God" -- if you actually read the Bible, the term gets used in three ways. First and foremost, it's Jesus Christ, the Eternal Son, in His capacity as the co-eternal member of the Godhead efficaciously causing all things which were made to be made. See John 1:1-18 for details. Second, an individual utterance spoken in God's name by one of the prophets. And third, the collection of such utterances taken as a unit, as in 'You have put God's Word to no account for the traditions of men.'
The Bible is a precious document, our primary source for learning of God's will and the history of His dealings with man. But when it becomes elevated to a status equal to Him of whom it speaks, then those well-meaning Christians who have done so are guilty of the same sin as those described in Romans 1: substituting a created thing for the Creator. To give proper respect to Scripture without doing so is a fine line to walk, but it's what we're called on to do.
Second, it appears that some people hjave convicted Lawrence King of the "sin of homosexuality" -- which Bread Alone at least defined as homosexual acts. (I'm not singling him out, but what people mean by "homosexuality" seems to vary with the poster, and he at least made clear his understanding of the term.)
To be specific, this barely-15-year-old eighth grader "came out" as gay to his classmates, and wore makeup and jewelry. (Which is not saying that all gay people do that -- merely that this one boy did. I've seen the terms 'femme' and 'genderqueer' used in a non-pejorative sense to describe this; someone with more knowledge may want to clarify the proper usage.) There has been no evidence in any news reports to indicate that Lawrence actually acted on his sexuality -- was 'homosexual' in Bread Alone's usage. He was gay -- homosexual -- only in the sense that he identified as having same=sex desires, the customary meaning of the terms when used by gay people and those who support and defend them. And, tragically, he gave a Valentine to classmate Brandon McInerney, and in consequence was shot twice through the brain and died.
Brandon is a tragedy too. Here we have a 14-year-old kid, also in the 8th grade, who somehow got access to a gun and somehow formed the idea that it was acceptable to kill another person for making romantic advances to him. And in consequence he's to be tried as an adult for first degree murder, aggravated as a hate crime, plus a couple of lesser charges. For all practical purposes his life is now over as well.
This hits home with me. Just before I loaded this thread, I exchanged e-mails with a fellow author in a "shared universe" group of stories. And among the memorable characters he created is a boy named Lawrence, 15 years old, gay and with gender dysphoria issues, and was (like Lawrence King) estranged from his family. The story he appeared in is two years old now; Lawrence will be supporting cast in an upcoming installment of one of my stories. The fact that his Lawrence is blond and lived in Florida (the real-life Larence had dark brown hair and lived in Oxnard, California) seems almost negligible beside the similarities.
For me, this is not a random news story of a tragedy somewhere else. I've had that boy's fictional analog running around inside my head, trying out variant plotlines for the installment he appears in. I know that boy; this is family that got killed.
Now, to me the question is, how did Brandon get the idea it was right to do what he did? And knowing the answer to that, how can we stop it from happening again? Maybe not a murder, just some kid getting beat up, and it barely makes the local news if that. And what's our culpability about all this? How could we have prevented it, and didn't?
For me, the next person to redirect the issue of violence against gay people into a debate of their sinfulness is guilty of being an accomplice before the fact to assault and/or murder. We Christians have had the public ear, and we''ve filled it with the idea that gay people are abominable, evil people. And those who would use violence against abominations and evil have gotten a license from that that it is OK to beat up and kill gay people. It doesn't matter if that's not what you consider just and proper -- by your words you are enabling the ones who do consider it just and proper.
There needs to be an end to it. Now. Before there's another Matthew Shepard or Lawrence King. If you choose otherwise, their blood is on your hands.
