Aurora Movie Shootings - A Conversation

Yesterday, Sunday, July 22nd, I didn't deliver a prepared service.  Instead I asked the congregation if the needed to process their feelings around the armed assault at the Century 16 Theater in Aurora, Colorado.

Here are a few points from our conversation, in no order or particular context:

• Pray for the deceased and for the injured
• Pray also for the perpetrator… "wouldn’t his mother like us to pray for him, too?"
• See beyond the actions and look for something spiritual (this doesn’t absolve him from the worldly/judicial consequences of his actions)
• Identify him as spirit, not as his actions (not: he’s an idiot, jerk, evil, etc., but: he is a child of God, unaware of his divinity and acting-out like an idiot, jerk, in an evil way, etc.)
• Our spiritual identity is always there.  We may cover it up, reject it, and deny it, but it’s always there
• Attempt to see those who died (and those who were injured) as being spiritually alive
• Feel your feelings
• Practice forgiveness
• Reach out others (the lonely, struggling, depressed, disenfranchised, etc. )
• Remember John 13:34, "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this, everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."

Bless everything,
Rev. Brad