A black and white head shot of O’Shae Sibley.

Richard Hollerman

Sadly, I just read an amazing and sad statement on my cell phone:  (https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/31/nyregion/stabbing-gas-station-brooklyn.html). This is what we read:

Man Fatally Stabbed in Confrontation as He Danced at a Gas Station

O’Shae Sibley, 28, was vogueing when men attacked him with gay slurs and told him to stop. A hate crimes task force is investigating.

O’Shae Sibley was at a Brooklyn gas station with friends late Saturday night, filling up a car and blasting music by Beyoncé when a group of men approached and told them to stop dancing, according to friends.

The men began using slurs, and Mr. Sibley, 28, a gay man who was a professional dancer and choreographer, confronted them, according to his friends and a video of the altercation. The argument escalated, and one man stabbed Mr. Sibley, according to the police. Otis Pena, one of Mr. Sibley’s best friends, pressed on his wound to stop the bleeding before Mr. Sibley was taken to Maimonides Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.

“They murdered him because he’s gay, because he stood up for his friends,” Mr. Pena said in a Facebook video that he posted hours after the killing. “His name was O’Shae and you all killed him. You all murdered him right in front of me.”

We are living in amazing and troubling times, aren’t we! We see headlines and announcements nearly daily and, as Christians, we wonder what to think of all of this.

We wouldn’t want to question whether this pervert was right or wrong. Yes, he (apparently) was an evil young man, employed by an evil organization, doing an evil thing, but this is beside the point.

Of course, we look at this kind of information as followers of Christ and see things differently from the world around us. As a naïve person, I had to look up this word: Vogueing. I doubt that many of our readers have ever seen this term and although I have been a life-time reader it is somewhat new to me! The dictionary says that it means: “dance to music in such a way as to imitate the characteristic poses struck by a model on a catwalk.” Of course, as a Christian this would be wrong, all wrong, but this is not at all the end of the story.

As a Christian, I have mixed thoughts about this. On the one hand, murder is wrong and sinful. And so is disobedience and hate. And, as God says, this deserves the death penalty. Murder, hatred, and disobedience should be condemned and punished.

On the other hand, we know that being “gay” (a modern term that is sinful and wrong) means sodomy, and the sodomite deserves the death penalty too. (See Romans 1:29-32.) So we definitely have mixed thoughts. The perpetrators (the murderers) are wrong and sinful and deserve the death penalty, but, on the other hand, this sodomite also is sinful and wrong and a perversion, and he too deserves the death penalty. (The “friends” are also wrong and evil, supporting this evil.)

Of course, we know that this is not all there is. Sadly, “O’Shae” was a sodomite who was dancing, listening to bad music, was employed with a popular dance promotion, and was sinful, raunchy, and evil in many ways.

What is the Christian to think and do?

First, let us allow the authorities to “do their thing.” And by this we mean that they should (if they do their job) examine the evidence and make a decision.

Second, the perpetrators (if they are caught) should be tried and executed promptly (not a year from now but immediately). In other words, all of these murderers should be done away with—not for their sake alone but for all of us who see this atrocity.

Third, the “friends” of this sodomite and this company are wrong and to receive the blame, even if they probably will not do this.

Fourth, let us all get back to God’s Word to determine His will in this and all matters. After all, this is what really matters.