There has been much commentary on last week's shooting at the Family Research Council's headquarters in Washington. Many points have been made, mostly on the politics of the shooter, the FRC, and the media, but I won't address these issues. Instead, I'd like to address the hate directed at the religious beliefs of FRC.
Our Constitution guarantees freedom of religion. That means that it protects the right of people to believe differently from one another. The FRC expressed their religious beliefs, some of which are diametrically opposed to people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgendered. In response, a lone individual took it upon himself to menace and shoot at people at the FRC. He entered the Family Research Council building and shot a security guard, allegedly saying, "I don’t like your politics." Apparently, he was motivated by hatred – in a similar way to the man who slaughtered Sikhs in Wisconsin just two weeks ago.
This is simply not acceptable. Violence against any group based on their religious beliefs tears our society apart. It’s our responsibility to denounce violence based on religious difference at every occurrence.