Faith In The Wake Of Tragedy

President Obama has called the Orlando, Florida massacre a case of “homegrown extremism,” with gunman Omar Mateen reportedly pledging allegiance to the Islamic State during the attack at a popular gay nightclub. But the religious sentiment was altogether different at a Sunday evening vigil in downtown Kansas City to honor the dead and wounded from what is now being called the deadliest shooting rampage in American history.

The event drew a variety of faith leaders, and Flatland gathered their perspectives on the tragedy as part of the KCPT and Hale Center for Journalism project Beyond Belief, a series of stories and discussions about faith in our city.

‘True Muslims Would Never Commit Such a Terrible Act’ | Abdulrahman “Wajeeh” Alkhiary, Human Rights Activist

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‘Stop, Pray, and Love.’  | Rev. Donna J. Simon, St. Mark Hope and Peace Lutheran Church 

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‘We Are All Created, As We Say in Hebrew, B’tselem Elohim: In God’s Image.‘ |  Rabbi Douglas A. Alpert, Congregation Kol Ami

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‘God Loves All of Us, Even the Person that Committed This Horrible Crime.’ | Beau G. Heyen, President and CEO, Episcopal Community Services

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‘We are Bigger than This, We are Better Than This.’ | Kevin White, Deacon, St. Mary’s Church, Kansas City.

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‘How Can We Make Changes in Our Society?’ | Josh Paszkiewicz and Tam Bi, United Buddhist Church

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For continued coverage of the Orlando events, follow NPR’s The Two Way blog.

This story is part of the KCPT and Hale Center for Journalism project Beyond Belief, a series of stories and discussions about faith in our city. The project is part of Localore: Finding America, created by AIR, a Boston-based network of independent public media producers. Principle funding comes from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

— Daniel Boothe is a reporter for Kansas City Public Television. To reach Boothe email him at dboothe@kcpt.org.