I’m sorry. I’m so, so terribly sorry. To all those who lost a loved one in the tragic shooting that occurred last week in Orlando: my heart breaks for you. I’m so sorry for your loss.

No matter what this article says and no matter how anyone feels about my beliefs, it must be known, first and most importantly, what happened in Orlando was objectively awful. This article really isn’t about me or anyone I represent, other than expressing how deeply sorry I am, so there’s no reason to start it off by listing a bunch of critiques I have about gun control or immigration laws or anything of that sort. There’s already been enough of that.

In fact, that’s what I’ve come to say — first and foremost, that I am so sorry; and secondly, that there is something deeply troubling about the ways people are responding to this terrible event. The latter topic, however, takes many more words to explain than the former.

I don’t normally write articles regarding current political drama because I figure there are far too many angry voices out there shouting their complaints and their indignation. I don’t ever want my words to get sucked away into the void of outrage. I fear, when writing about a controversial political subject, that my words are often nothing but dust in the wind and simply get treated as those of another ignorant bystander who suddenly feels called to share her complaints about the government after a cataclysmic event. This time, however, I had to write this article in hopes that someone somewhere might understand a different point of view. This time, I was too heartbroken not to share my sentiments regarding this event. I write this, not in anger, but in love, and in hopes of participating in the great discussion that surrounds our nation at this time.

One of my many guilty pleasures is Yik-Yak, a social media app that allows people to post and comment anonymously on an online forum that is specific to different areas. If you don’t know it is, go look it up. It’s not the most wholesome of social media by any means, but occasionally I find it amusing to see what my school is anonymously saying about our surroundings. It allows you to daily see a dark and often entertaining side of the people you live near.

Anyways, I recently checked in with Yik-Yak to see what my campus was saying as of late. This time, however, I was not amused. There were dozens of posts regarding gun control laws and debating homosexuality and Islamophobia and the like. Several people were getting into heated, anonymous debates via these posts, and there was clearly a lot of hatred going around about it all. The whole thing saddened me, but none as much as one post in particular.

In response to my university taking a picture of their American flag at half-mast and posting it on Facebook to share their condolences for the families of those who were attacked, one student posted an anonymous comment on Yik-Yak saying something to the effect of how my university, being a private, Evangelical Christian school, was hypocritical for posting such a thing. They explained how they believe my school had posted that photo purely in hopes of looking good so that they wouldn’t be seen as jerks. They further said that Christians who don’t “fully embrace the LGBTQ+ community don’t get to pretend they care now.” To them, posting a photo of our flag at half-mast was just a politically safe way to look good and not offend anybody. So much for that.

I was extremely saddened by this post. Are we really in the business of critiquing how people mourn in response to such a tragic event? Logically speaking, and what I tried to explain to the person who posted this on Yik-Yak, for my school to be hypocritical in posting that photo, they would have to disagree with homosexuality enough to wish homosexual people dead; then, and only then, could they really be considered hypocrites for expressing sadness about the death of 49 homosexual people. I know for a fact that my university, a place that firmly upholds virtues of love and kindness, would never wish the death of 49 people no matter their sexual orientation.

Furthermore, morally speaking, why does this need to be the response to anyone sharing their condolences for the families of 49 dead people? Are we really so divided as a country that, when someone expresses sorrow for the death of another person, we have to judge whether or not they deserve to mourn for that person based off their beliefs? If we were really in the business of caring about true, unconditional love, why would we ever harshly respond to someone who expresses a sentiment of love for another human, regardless of their other personal beliefs?

It seems ludicrous to be debating who has the right to mourn for the death of 49 other humans after a tragedy such as this. Comments like this are inappropriate and destructive. We have enough people expressing their mourning through anger and hatred, we don’t need any more people unjustly accusing others of being hypocrites after they express love. It’s not right.

Now, I realize that this person was really probably trying to express their anger and disagreement towards the Christian Church in regards to its views on homosexuality, but they went about it in a terribly harsh and inappropriate way. Even if they weren’t quite so rude and had expressed their disappointment in a more polite way, though, I would still have liked to make something clear about the Christian Church’s views on homosexuality.

Thousands of books written and sermons given have discussed what we, as Christians, should believe about homosexuality -- so I’m not here to address the idea of homosexuality itself. Like I said earlier, the second most important reason I’m here is to tell you about what is wrong with the way we respond to tragic events such as these.

Here’s the thing, I want it to be made clear that I’m aware homophobia is a real issue. I’m aware that there are evil people in this world who wish harm, psychological and/or physical, to homosexual people just because of their sexual orientation. I know it exists, and it breaks my heart. But I also need it to be made clear that ‘homophobia’ and ‘disagreeing with homosexuality’ are not the same thing. Christians do not have to agree with homosexuality to “embrace the LGBTQ+ community.”

As Christians, we believe in showing true, unconditional love to all mankind. However, we also have a sacred view of marriage that we believe exists solely between a man and a woman. Like I said, I’m not here to debate the specifics of what Christians are to believe about homosexuality, but it cannot be denied that, in some realm, Christianity and homosexuality are at odds.

That being said, Christians are allowed to disagree with homosexuality and still love people who might think differently about it. In fact, it’s integral to what we believe. We’re called to love people of all different races, genders, religions and world views. We’re called to love others tenderly and unconditionally, even if that doesn’t mean agreeing with everyone about everything.

I fear that others have confused loving people with always agreeing with them. These two are not the same thing. If we believe in religious freedom, Christians should be allowed to disagree with homosexuality in some form, so long as unconditional love for others always comes first. Love must always come first. If love doesn’t come first, we’re doing it wrong.

I’m not pretending that this is an easy topic to debate. I know it’s confusing and painful and there are a lot more sides to it than I might be recognizing. What I do know, though, is that love has the power to pass between all people regardless of differences. If we don’t believe love has the power to overcome our differences and unite humanity, what power does it have?

I am a straight, white, Christian girl, and I don’t have to agree with homosexuality to properly mourn the loss of my fellow 49 humans who were killed in Orlando on Sunday, June 12, 2016.

We all need to recognize this event as a tragedy, regardless of what could have been done differently in relation to gun laws or immigration laws or Islamophobia. Those issues are important, but, again, love must always come first. Discussing the ways in which we can prevent things like this from happening again need to happen in order to ensure a safer nation, but they must be done in the name of love, not in the name of angrily shouting our differences at one another. We should be united in trying to fix this problem. And we should all mourn the death of our 49 brothers and sisters who lost their life to such a tragedy.

So yes, love does win. And if love doesn’t come first, we all lose.