As of today it has been two weeks since the terrible events in Orlando where 49 people were senselessly massacred. It’s taken me this long to be able to come to the point where I felt able to write about it.

Mass shootings have tragically become all too common events, leaving us with a feeling of “here we go again” as we turn on the news. It has happened so often we’ve become a little hardened I’m afraid. However, this one affected me more than usual, perhaps because it made me face some not-to-pretty things in my own life.

I am a Christian – a fairly conservative Christian. I’m about as straight as they come. Through the years I’ve laughed at my share of jokes about gays and lesbians and even told a few myself. I have looked down my nose at homosexuals, echoing the prayer of the Pharisee, “Thank you, God, that I am not a sinner like them”, while ignoring my own sins of pride and prejudice. But God has been working on my heart and on June 16, 2016 (my birthday), something broke inside me.

As I watched the news reports filter in of a gunman’s rampage inside Pulse, a gay bar in Orlando, I wept inside. Seeing people grieving for their partners, mothers searching for their sons or daughters, victims being carried from the club bleeding and in pain, my heart broke. No longer were these inferior beings to me, perverts and sinners. These were people, human beings just like me, sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, lovers and friends. They were just there having fun, celebrating life, and didn’t deserve what they got. No one deserves to experience something like that. I felt rage, anger, despair, sorrow, but most of all I felt shame.

I, and too many Christians like me, have been quick to condemn homosexuals, considering them somehow inferior to us. We have treated the LGPT community with hate and condemnation and ridicule. Because of this behavior we, right along with radical Islam, bear some responsibility for the events which occurred in Orlando on June 12. Unbalanced minds feed on our attitudes of hate and prejudice till they feel it is their duty to destroy the objects of such hatred. We have seen this occur over and over in the past. The Inquisition, the Holocaust, slavery, apartheid, ISIS – all the result of one group of human beings feeling somehow superior to another.

We Christians love to quote 1 Corinthians 6:9 and 1 Timothy 1:10, conveniently forgetting that in those passages, right along with homosexual behavior, God also condemns more popular sins like adultery, immorality, lying, stealing, greed, abusive behavior, drunkenness, and cheating. And don’t forget “deceit, hypocrisy, jealously, and unkind speech” (2 Peter 2:1). These are all sins we Christians practice on a regular basis, but somehow find less loathsome than homosexuality.

It is time for us to get off our high horses and stop looking down on our gay brothers and sisters. We are no better than them. Sometimes we are far worse, with our prejudice and hate-filled rhetoric. It is time for us to hold and comfort each other and realize we are all human, all sinners in need of a savior, and Christ died for every one of us – straight or gay, Christian or Muslim, black or white…you get the idea.

It is time, as my father says, for our churches to become hospitals for sinners, not sanctuaries for saints. LGBT people should feel welcome in our churches, as should tax collectors and prostitutes, liars and thieves, adulterers and drunkards, gossips and bigots…you know, the people Jesus hung out with, people like you and me. This doesn’t mean we condone sin, but we love the sinner, because we all are in the same boat. We’re all a mess, all in need of forgiveness and restoration.

Remember, Paul said in Romans 3:22-24, “There is no difference between Jew and Gentile (I suspect that today he would add straight or gay, Christian or Muslim, black or white) “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”

John 3:17 tells us, “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” Why do we think we’re any better than Christ? What right do we have to condemn our gay brothers and sisters? While we’re at it, why do we condemn all Muslims for the despicable actions of a few madmen? We are all one family. We should be lifting each other up. That’s what families do.

We need to put away the hate. Hate is what got us into this mess. Hate between Christians and liberals, hate between Muslims and Jews, hate between straight and gay. We are all brothers and sisters, children of God, and 1 John 3:15 warns, “Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him.” If we hate the LGPT community or the Muslims, we are murders, just like the man who gunned down all those people on June 12 or the terrorists in Paris or Brussels.

We are not called to hate. We are called to love. It’s high time for us to start practicing what we preach. Too often we Christians are known more for what we hate than for what we love. It is time for the words of that old song to become true, “They will know we are Christians by our love.”

At times like this our tendency is to lash out, to seek revenge, but this only adds to the problem. As Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “Hate cannot drive out hate. Only love can do that.”

We must not yield to the temptation to “… repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called…” (1 Peter 3:8).  Now is the time for us to “…be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble. (vs. 9). Now is a time for healing, for restoration, for love.

I am a Christian. I am straight. And today I plead for forgiveness from my gay and lesbian brothers and sisters for my past behavior and hurtful words and those of my fellow Christians. I ask you to forgive us for our attitudes which have made you feel rejected and unwanted. Give us a chance to change. Teach us how to love. Come home. You are welcome.

Together help us live the words of Isaiah 58 and “loose the bands of wickedness”, “undo the heavy burdens”, “let the oppressed go free,” and “break every yoke”. Help us feed the hungry, house the poor, clothe the naked, and take care of our own families. Help us show Jesus to the world.

Hate has had its day. It’s time for God’s love to show its power.

Let’s start a revolution – together.