Trying to comprehend the incomprehensible

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At this moment the nation’s heart is broken. Its head is spinning.

Fifty people are dead after a massacre early this morning at an Orlando, Fla., nightclub. One of the dead is the shooter, an American whose parents were Afghan immigrants.

Omar Mateen opened fire with an AR-15 assault rifle. His father said his son was apparently enraged when he saw two men kissing, so he walked into the gay nightclub and killed all those innocent victims.

Did he commit an anti-gay hate crime?

Not so fast.

Now we’re getting word of a pledge of allegiance to the Islamic State.

Was this an act of an Islamic terrorist?

Mateen’s father said “religion had nothing to do” with what his son did.

Then we have the Texas lieutenant governor, Dan Patrick, sending out a tweet — which he has since deleted — that quoted a Biblical passage from Galatians that said men will “reap what they sow.” Hmmm. Of all the passages he could have picked, he perhaps could have looked at Mark’s Gospel, which instructs us to love our brothers.

This was an act of terror, no matter how you choose to define it.

The nation is sickened by what has happened.

Let us pray now for the families of those who died and let us pray for the people charged with answering the key question.

Why?