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ACLU Lawyers Blame Christians for Orlando Shooting

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Two attorneys with the American Civil Liberties Union are blaming Christians for the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history, according to Catholic News Agency.

On Twitter, ACLU attorney Chase Strangio spoke out against those who offered their "thoughts and prayers" for the victims and their families.

"You know what is gross - your thoughts and prayers and Islamophobia after you created this anti-queer climate," Strangio tweeted.

Strangio also rebuked "the Christian right" for calling for laws that ensure the conscience rights of individuals and business owners are intact.

"The Christian Right has introduced 200 anti-LGBT bills in the last six months and people blaming Islam for this. No," he said.

Eunice Rho, another member of the ACLU, scolded Republican lawmakers who showed solidarity and offered prayers after the shooting. 

Rho said the legislators were behind the "extreme, anti-LGBT First Amendment Defense Act."

According to The Daily Caller, Rho seems to have since deleted her Twitter account. The Daily Caller reports it tried several times to find her account, but to no avail.
 
However, Christian leaders around the country rejected the arguments of the ACLU attorneys. They say that even though they do not support gay marriage, they advocate for the dignity of every human life, regardless of a person's sexual orientation.

They say it's incorrect to declare that policies that prevent a person from having to participate in a same-sex wedding are somehow connected to the terrorist attack in Orlando.

"Christians who have resisted the redefinition of marriage, and who now want to be free to live what their faith teaches them is the truth about marriage, do not hate anyone, and legislation to protect their freedom is not 'anti-LGBT' except in the minds of the intolerant enforcers of coerced conformity," Matthew Franck, director of the William E. and Carol G. Simon Center on Religion and the Constitution at the Witherspoon Institute, told CNA.

"The worst response to an atrocity is to take it as validation of one's own political passions and an excuse to demonize one's political opponents," Franck said. "Sadly, this is what some representatives of the American Civil Liberties Union have done."

"In the wake of the horror in Orlando, the temptation to demonize any group making arguments for its rights in the public square - LGBT, Christian, or Muslim - should be steadfastly resisted by all people of decency," Franck continued.

"Anti-LGBT bigotry exists and is wrong. It should be condemned," Ryan T. Anderson, with the Heritage Foundation and co-author of the book, What is Marriage?, told CNA. "But supporting man-woman marriage and male-female bathrooms aren't examples of it."

Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, tweeted, "We weep with those who mourn their loved ones as we also weep with those who mourn the presence of such violent evil in the world. ." 

"Like all Americans, I am deeply saddened and outraged by the murder of 49 Americans in ‎Orlando," Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Jerry Boykin, executive vice president of the Family Research Council, wrote in a Facebook post.

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