The Orlando Massacre and the Culture War: Lessons to be Drawn

The Fact: Brutal mass murder at homosexual night club.

Perpetrator: Omar Mateen, Muslim of Afghan origin.

The Spin: divert the focus from Islamic terrorism to so-called “homophobia” or irrational hatred of homosexuals.

For a while now a kind of warfare has been waged between two factions of the public in our country and throughout the Western world. It is the so-called Culture War, whose “conceptual weapons” are used by both sides in an attempt to win over public opinion or influence the laws and regulations of the powers that be.

Influencing Every Fiber of the Human Mind

This “Culture War” is part of the revolutionary psychological warfare that communist hacks have been developing for decades in a bid to seize power through the transformation of mentalities.

Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira explains: “[P]sychological warfare targets the whole psyche of man. That is, it acts on him in the various powers of the soul and in every fiber of his mentality. It targets all men … uses any means … in every area: in religious, political, social, and economic convictions; in cultural attitudes; in artistic preferences; and in the ways of being and acting in the family, in the workplace, and in society.”¹

The Orlando Killings Used As a “Semantic Weapon”

The leftist forces bent on destroying Christian civilization could not fail to use the tragic event that took place in Orlando to advance their agenda.
But in order to do that they had to spin the occurrence in a way that would fit their strategic designs. So the first thing we must do is a reality check to find out what the facts were actually like.

Reality Check

1.  Allegiance to Islamic State

Before invading the place and beginning the killing, Omar Mateen called 911, stating:

I pledge my allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi of the Islamic State.

On Sunday morning, after the killings and just before being himself killed by police, the terrorist posted on his Facebook page:

I pledge my alliance to (ISIS leader) abu bakr al Baghdadi…may Allah accept me. The real Muslims will never accept the filthy ways of the west …You kill innocent women and children by doing us airstrikes…now taste the Islamic state vengeance.

“May Allah accept me,” “real Muslims will never accept the filthy ways of the west,” “now taste the Islamic state vengeance.” These words leave no room for doubt that in the terrorist’s mind his act had an Islamist religious value and he saw himself as an ISIS “combatant” in the struggle against the “filthy West.”

2.  The Massacre and Ramadan’s Observance

In May, the leader of the Islamic State organization had issued a message calling on its affiliates and sympathizers to carry out attacks in the West during the Islamic month of Ramadan, of religious significance for Muslims, which occurs in June.

Thus, the slaughter perpetrated by Omar Mateen on June 12 seems to heed this calling, in line with other ISIS-inspired attacks during Ramadan; for example, in Aktobe, Kazakhstan, several ISIS-related terrorist attacks left 7 dead and 37 wounded; in France, a police commissioner and his wife were murdered by terrorist Larossi Abdalla. Paris prosecutor François Molins declared that the attack was a response to ISIS’ calls to “kill non-believers where they live” during Ramadan.

3.  ISIS: Possible Inspiration for the Orlando Massacre

Although no direct link has been established between Omar Mateen and ISIS, CIA Director John Brennan testified to Congress that “Omar Mateen, had ‘no direct links’ to ISIS but was inspired by the organization.”

The Spin: Switch Focus From Islamic Terrorism to So-Called “Homophobia” or Irrational Hatred of Homosexuals

In spite of all the evidence, the liberal media sought as much as possible to present Mateen’s rampage, not as a jihadist terrorist act but as resulting from his own “homophobia.”
However, this version was partly abandoned when evidence began to surface on the possible Muslim jihadist’s own homosexuality.
So in order to interpret his action not as an act inspired by Islam and by admiration for ISIS, the media began to call it the fruit of out of control emotions.

While seeking to diminish or eliminate the jihadist scope of Mateen’s insane action, the media sought to exploit the fact that the victims of the cruel attack were killed in a homosexual night club in order to attract sympathy for that lifestyle.

On the other hand, the liberals did all they could to somehow blame the slaughter on Christians. Leaving Islam aside, they proposed this fallacy: the Church condemns homosexual practice, and therefore any act of hatred made by anyone, even by a Muslim, is her fault.

The Left’s Choir Is Joined By…Bishops and Priests

It is no surprise that liberals would have recourse to such dialectical devices or “semantic weapons” in this Culture War of revolutionary psychological warfare. But it is surprising indeed that a bishop of the Catholic Church should do the same. Well, unfortunately, today it is no longer that surprising on the part of many prelates and priests.

As a matter of fact, on the day following the tragic event Most Reverend Robert N. Lynch, Bishop of Saint Petersburg, Fla. made an ardent statement showing sympathy for the homosexual movement and blaming religion, including Catholicism, for the attack.

“[I]t is religion, including our own, which targets, mostly verbally, and also often breeds contempt for gays, lesbians and transgender people,” the prelate said, concluding: “Attacks today on LGBT men and women often plant the seed of contempt, then hatred, which can ultimately lead to violence.”

Jesuit Fr. James Martin, director of America magazine, posted a video complaining that with a few exceptions, American bishops had failed to duly emphasize the homosexual movement in their notes of sympathy for the massacre.

On June 18, his colleague, Fr. Francis X. Clooney, S.J. published an article in America commenting on the Orlando killings. In addition to expressing his sympathy to the homosexual movement, he proposed that Christians show solidarity by fasting in Ramadan along with Muslims.

“[I]t has been reported that Mateen chose to carry out his murderous attack in Ramadan because it was Ramadan, to do his duty as a believer,” Clooney writes. And he proposes: Let Christians, “with people of all faiths and spiritualities…join with our Muslims neighbors and friends in some fasting, and, when possible, in the sharing of the post-sunset meal (iftar) that breaks the fast.”
Father Clooney’s proposal had already become reality in the Muslim enclave in Brussels from which the terrorists departed to carry out the Paris attacks, according to the Morocco World News of June 20:

On Friday, June 17, the Church of St. John-Baptist of Molenbeek in Brussel has welcomed Muslims to a giant ftour (Iftar) [sunset meal in Ramadam] assembly for the second year in a row. About 600 people of various faiths, invited by the priest Aurélien Saniko, gathered in the religious house.

Pray for the Souls, but Don’t Support Homosexual Practice

We should pray for the souls of those who died at Orlando’s homosexual nightclub, asking God to have compassion on them just as we hope He will have on us. We likewise condemn the brutal violence that befell them.
This, however, does not imply approving their lifestyle.

Christian morality’s condemnation of homosexual practice is based on the principles of natural law and Revelation and has nothing to do with irrational personal hatred towards anyone. The struggle in defense of these perennial principles, which have been practiced for more than two thousand years and gave rise to a strong, orderly and thriving Christian civilization must not be restrained or disparaged with illogical, psychological epithets such as “homophobia.”

The Culture War and the Will to Fight

The lesson we should draw from this tragic event is that we should not get carried away by the stratagems employed by our opponents in this Culture War but keep firm and vigilant, unveiling their plots, and denouncing their maneuvers.

With the help of the Blessed Virgin Mary, on the eve of celebrating the centenary of her apparitions at Fatima, let us stay courageous and sagacious, with the innocence of the dove but the wiliness of the serpent (cf. Matt. 10:16).