My heart hurts today. My heart hurts because I wake up almost every morning and I hear about a new tragedy that has happened in my country, the country that is supposed to be the land of the free and the home of the brave. My heart hurts because instead of people coming together to raise awareness on the issues happening, people are taking sides on the matter. I was on Twitter today and saw this tweet:

Almost immediately after, there were people tweeting back, "Christians have no right to speak on this matter," or, "I'm tired of seeing these fake Christians on my TL."

This bothered me. It bothers me because we are obviously doing something wrong as Christians for our peers to feel this way about us. It bothers me because in the middle of such a devastating event, there should not be any backlash against anyone. Instead, there should only be love.

You may say that Christians have no right to speak on this matter, but in reality, we have every right. In fact, we are more obligated to speak on this matter than anyone else, because our one job as Christians is to love your neighbor as you love yourself. That's it. There's no hidden message behind the passage; just to love and love unconditionally. That means loving the gays, the straights, the blacks, the whites, and even the ones that decided to shoot up innocent people. Our job is to look solely at the hearts of people and love them for who they choose to be. We are not God, so we cannot judge. My job as a Christian is to not highlight the sins people choose to make; my job is to love them through it.

Our jobs as Christians is not to sit back and watch this matter turn worse. Our job is to speak up. Our job is to take action. Our job is to make a difference.

To everyone who believes that Christians are not fit to respond to these horrific events: I am so utterly sorry that my people have made you believe that Christians choose judgement over love. I am so very sorry that we have decided to live our lives in hypocrisy instead of equality. I am so, so sorry that we haven't made a big enough effort to make it known that you are loved.

To all the Christians in this world: It is our job to get off of our butts. Our jobs of watching these events take place is over. It is our turn to stand up and fight for the greater love. It is our job to spread The Word of perfect love so that maybe this world will realize that Christianity is a beautiful thing, not something to be despised. Tweeting, Facebooking, and speaking about this matter is not enough. We need to get up, get out, and fight for what's right.

"For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye." Matthew 7:2-5