Investigators are still trying to piece together exactly what motivated Omar Mateen to murder 49 people and injure dozens more in an Orlando nightclub. One fact we do know is that Mateen called 911 minutes before the shooting and claimed allegiance to ISIS. The fact that such horrific violence could be justified in the name of God has been a difficult issue for groups of all faiths. Over the past few days WGBH News went to various religious services to ask Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders how they are making sense of it all. 

Rev. Walter Kim, Pastor, Park Street Church, Boston:

“Now, regardless of our political opinions, or our views on human sexuality, we ought to find the terrible loss of life in Orlando reprehensible. Reprehensible not simply for the act, which is evil enough, but reprehensible for the inability to engage rightly with those with whom we have a disagreement.” 

Rev. Ellis I. Washington, Senior Pastor, St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church, Cambridge:

“Since this happened to be a gay club, I recognize there might be some Christians who would look at that and say, 'Well, their lives are probably not as important as other lives, simply because they were gay or simply because they were in such a place. You know, there's just that judgmental attitude. 

“I don't want us to look at those young people and think God didn't care for them. God was not concerned about them, because that's not how God sees.” 

Rev. Bill Rich, Vicar, Trinity Church, Boston:

“This is personal, because I'm a gay man. I'm married to my husband—though I don't go to clubs anymore. I spent a lot of time in gay clubs when I was younger and it could've been any one of us there.” 

Rich addressing the congregation:

“You might think, 'Oh, this has nothing to do with me. These people are other, different.'  But wherever Jesus goes is a place we need to think about.” 

Rabbi Margie Klein Ronkin, Sha’arei Shalom, Ashland:

“I hear people who say, 'Oh, this is because of the Muslim extremists. This is what the Quran says, so this they have to do.'  And I feel like there's this desire to simplify when we look at other people but not actually look at the complexity that's in other people and in our own tradition. And I just don't think it's that simple.” 

Imam Safwan T. Eid, Executive Director, Islamic Institute of Boston:

“You ask why we have not been able to combat Islamophobia? It's because the Muslims have not committed themselves to fighting xenophobia, to fighting racism, to fighting homophobia. It's because we haven't focused on the other communities that Allah has not given us a victory in our own communities.” 

Rev. Miguel Angel Bravo Alvarez, Our Lady of Lourdes, Jamaica Plain:

“We pray for these people when we found out that happened, this massacre in Orlando, and because they are human beings, and our life as human beings is sacred—to pray for them not because they were gays or not gays, because they were human beings and they suffered unjustly.” 

Rev. Jeff Mansfield, Associate Pastor, First Church Somerville, United Church of Christ:

“We have to find a way to not just remember and not just pray for, but truly honor the people who lost their lives.

“In a world full of racism and homophobia, much of which has been perpetuated by the church throughout history, we must demonstrate our faithful love for queer people of color by doing our best work to disarm the haters' intent on doing them harm.”