Suspect in Berlin attack tried to join Islamic State

The man suspected of carrying out a fatal attack near a Pride celebration in Berlin last Saturday tried to join the Islamic State, local officials have said. He was released from detention in May after he was sentenced to prison for preparing a serious act of violence that could endanger the state.

Now, a heated debate is taking place over why the man, who was killed in a police shootout, was freed on probation.

If you wish I would write on something else, I understand. I had no plans to write on this story, but I was sitting in worship Sunday morning and heard our pastor speak from Psalm 139, where David praises God because he is “fearfully and wonderfully made” (v. 14). In that moment, I knew what I needed to say to you, and to myself, about the Berlin attack.

Let’s begin with some facts, then a personal confession.

Why this story seems irrelevant to us

If you match the demographic profile for the majority of our readership, you are probably an evangelical Christian living in America. This makes an article focusing on a Pride event in Berlin seem less relevant to you on multiple levels.

It is human nature to care more about events that occur closer to people we care about. My wife and I once spent a memorable day in Berlin, but I don’t know that I know anyone there. And I would be even more surprised if I knew anyone who attended the Pride event in the city.

The Bible teaches that God makes us male and female (cf. Genesis 1:27; Matthew 19:4) and that he intends sexual relations only within a covenant of marriage between one woman and one man (cf. Hebrews 13:4; Matthew 19:5). As a result, Pride events celebrate behavior I consider to be unbiblical and damaging to those who participate in it. They normalize sin and encourage others to celebrate and even participate in it.

To be clear: We are all broken sexually as a result of the Fall. I am just as tempted by heterosexual sin as someone else is by homosexual sin. But heterosexual adulterers do not gather for public events to celebrate their adultery. Nor do those addicted to pornography stage events to celebrate porn and the sex trafficking and child abuse so endemic to the industry.

Accordingly, when I saw the news from Berlin, I was saddened that such terrorism still persists and that innocent people have been its latest victims. But I had no desire to write an article on the tragedy and no idea what I would say if I did.

A personal confession

Now comes the confession: my desire to avoid focusing on the Berlin attack neither mirrors the heart of God nor reflects the fruit of his Spirit.

As Psalm 139 declares so beautifully, God creates each person and loves each person he creates. This is not because we merit such love but because “God is love” (1 John 4:8). I often quote St. Augustine’s observation that God loves each of us as if there were only one of us.

Consequently, there is nothing those who participate in a Pride event can do to change God’s love for them. LGBTQ behavior is not the unpardonable sin. It is often more visible than “private” heterosexual sin, as I noted, but no more sinful.

If Jesus could love and pray for those who were crucifying him, don’t you think he can love and pray for us all, whatever our sins and failures?

Three practical results

We’ll close this conversation with three consequences.

One: The more a person is living outside God’s will, the more urgently we should offer them the compassionate grace of Christ.

If those attending the Pride event were my children, I would love and grieve for them. The more I loved them, the more I would grieve for them, and the more I grieved for them, the more deeply I would love them. Our Father feels the same way about us all and calls us to be his hands and feet, manifesting his heart to our broken culture.

Two: The more lost the culture, the more urgently we should pray and work for the lost to hear and respond to the gospel.

Only 2.1 percent of Germans are evangelicals. The odds are that many attending the Pride event in Berlin have not heard or responded to the gospel. As a missionary once said to me, if ten people are holding up one end of a log and one person is holding up the other, which end needs my help the most?

Three: We will manifest God’s unconditional love for all people to the degree that we are yielded to the Spirit who produces such love in us (Galatians 5:22).

I assumed that vocational clergy were by nature more godly than the rest of us until I became one. My license, ordination, and seminary degrees did not change my heart. I have no capacity by which to care deeply for those I don’t know or love unconditionally those with whom I disagree. Nor do you.

But Jesus lives in us. He will not enhance our love for others—if we yield our hearts to his Spirit, he will give us his love for them. And his love has changed every heart it encounters.

It will again today.