If I were to nitpick about anything at all: one cross should have sufficed, to indicate the cross offered for the salvation of any who would accept. GENERALLY, Christian faith reserves individual crosses for those who gave an accepted testimony before they died.
And yet, did any pray for salvation before they were slain? Maybe some did. Mateen wasn’t even masquerading as Christian; he was a tangibly demonic presence. Maybe he was permitted to serve as God’s warning to some perishing elect.
But we can surely apply some charity and allow all of them to stand for, at least, the hope that all would accept salvation. This isn’t saying here lay saints. This is saying here lay sinners who need help just like you and I and the most holy saint who ever walked the earth (whoever that is) do.
And it strikes me as a supernatural omen that about 24 hours before that, one of the few known modern American Christian martyrs, Christina Grimmie, was slain in that same city. I do not know what exact grudge Christina’s killer had, but apparently he had sent a threatening note to her, and, perhaps Judas-like, he committed suicide at the scene.
God does not let martyrs die without a reason, a plan, and a purpose in mind. Typically, the church explodes in membership in the wake of such events; many believers are saved and testify. If we see that here, we should not be surprised, but give glory to God for His love and wisdom.
“Take away guns and haters will use knives. Take away knives and they’ll find something else until we’re all forced to eat steak with teaspoons. Evil always finds a way.”
Box cutters.
The problem is simple:
They do not believe in God; they therefore do not really believe in good or evil.
They believe in Society: Society giveth and Society taketh away.
That is why they seek to destroy unalienable rights, and that is why they seek to defend evildoers:
They think that if a person commits a so-called bad deed, it is because he was not properly socialized by the government, and the answer is always to increase the power of the government over the individual.
To the secular, atheist, leftist mind, good is not only relative, it is extrinsic - supplied and endorsed only by society.
That is why a true leftist will kill an unborn child, but save an adult murderer - and feel righteous in both instances: The worth of a person is extrinsic, imputed only by the grace of Society:
The unborn has had zero investment from Society; it is therefore a non-person with zero value. It makes sense to a leftist to kill it before Society invests anything in it, if that investment seems in any way questionable.
The murderer has had years of flawed investment by Society. Society - their true god - somehow failed that adult, and Society must rectify that failure; the murderer cannot be held accountable for his deed.
The unwanted unborn must be murdered; the manifest murderer must be redeemed.