What can you say?

A lot, apparently. These days, stunned silence is mere sentiment, and almost never a reality. The minute news of a tragedy breaks, we turn to media for comfort. And while traditional news media used to be our comfort of choice, social media has largely replaced the talking television-head.

Because we all take part in social media, we all feel the impetus and responsibility of response. We need to say something immediately because to say nothing is callous.

This impulse was articulated best by Andy Crouch in a recent episode of CT's Quick to Listen podcast. But what I want to talk about is those who step up to a pulpit and find themselves faced with the opportunity and responsibility to address what has just happened to a whole congregation of people.

This is no small thing.

The shooting happened Sunday morning, just before church. Some preaching pastors didn't even know about it yet. But those who did were faced with the sudden felt-need to devise an ecclesial hot-take, a pastoral think-piece that would salve the wounds of so many who felt so many disparate things about this event.

I have no idea what the right thing to say in those situations is, except maybe to acknowledge our limitations as human beings, and to call out in desperation, corporately, to a God who really does (seriously) hear our cries.

Here Are All Of The Victims In The Orlando Nightclub Shooting

"Fifty people were killed, including the gunman, and 53 others injured in a shooting at Pulse, a gay club in Orlando."

Grieving Together: How Orlando's Hispanic Evangelicals Are Reaching Out

Gabriel Salguero pastors a large church 10 miles south of Pulse: "If we've learned anything it's that no matter what our disagreements are, God calls us to love our neighbor and to be Jesus and to mourn with those who mourn." All week, he's been busy performing funerals for those who were killed in the shooting.

Southern Baptists Make Good

One of the largest groupings of local churches just voted to repudiate the Confederate flag, because, as Dr. Russell Moore put it, "We are more committed to the gospel than we are to a flag and more committed to the future than we are to the past." As a Southerner and Southern Baptist, that was a heartening moment, even if it seems to many to be a little late. But that was not all. In a year when refugees are largely cast by one Presidential candidate as dangerous: local church messengers voted to encourage churches "to welcome and adopt refugees into their churches and homes as a means to demonstrate to the nations that our God longs for every tribe, tongue, and nation to be welcomed at his throne."

And Finally, A Timely Note on Social Media Condolences

"If you don't feel comfortable expressing your condolences to the deceased's friends and family, perhaps it isn't your place to publicly eulogize. The simple acknowledgement that you may not understand what it's like to grieve is itself a powerful act of empathy."

Mass shootings like these are opportunities for reflection and discussion about where hate is born and the environment in which it grows. This means we should listen actively when people accuse us fostering, or at least being silent, in the face of hateful language toward any marginalized group.

And even when we have to disagree with some of the charges laid against us, we do not disagree with the angry retorts so common these days, let alone with fists and guns. We disagree with grace and love.

Thoughts and prayers,