Today, I am very angry. And this is why:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110302/ap_on_re_us/us_supreme_court_funeral_protests
After some extensive research (aka what I could find when I Googled it), I have become so very upset and angry with this church that believes they are doing "God's Will," that I know I need to write it out before I put this anger on display in my workplace.
Firstly, allow me to discuss the whole "God Hates Fags" issue. This is the title of their website, as well as a by-line Westboro Baptist consistently uses in their protests. I am a Bible-believing Christian, and I don't usually try to shove it in your faces, but allow me to quote scripture in my attempt to refute this issue. WBC states that God hates the gays. In the Bible, being gay is constituted as a sin, therefore making a gay person a sinner (don't hate me, its in the Bible.) Romans 5:8, says this: But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. This would mean simply that every sinner, no matter what they have done or how they have done it, is beloved of God, because He allowed His son, His only son, to die brutally for them. If you follow this logic, you discover that all Homosexuals, being sinners, are in fact, loved of God. Unconditionally loved. Where there is love, there can be no hate. Therefore, God does, in point of fact, love "fags". This is not to say that God excepts or condones their sin. This is to say that God has genuine love of His people, be they in sin or otherwise, and would have them at His side in heaven, if they would simply repent.
Secondly, this WBC has made a practice of protesting at fallen soldiers funerals, dishonoring the dead by using them as a spring board to catapult their beliefs into the public eye. This, in of itself, creates such an unholy rage in me. I come from a long line of military men. My Grandfather was medaled in WWII, my father was in the Air force, my oldest brother was in the Army during Desert storm, one of them is still serving in the Army as a Staff Sergeant, one is about to join the Navy, and my nephew is about to join the Marines. My brother served 4 tours in Iraq, seen many a good man die in battle. He has never been the same. He has seen things that he won't even tell his beloved wife about, and somehow, still manages to hang on to himself. He's lost friends, brothers, subordinates. He has done this all in defense of a country that he loves. These soldiers that this church choses to protest have all fallen in this way. They are hero's. And they chose to desecrate their memory by protesting the last chance their family's have to honor them. Forget being a Christian, this is a blatant disregard of the thing that is most fragile in human existence: life itself.
Thirdly, the practice of protesting Jewish War Memorials and the Jews themselves. The WBC states over and over again that Nazi Holocaust was God's punishment on the Jews for tolerating the above mentioned Homosexuals. They also state the Jews will not remain God's chosen people for very long because of this tolerance. Something like 6 million people were killed during the Nazi Holocaust. This is over half the Jewish population of Europe at the time, 1/3 of the world's total Jewish population, a number they have yet to recover from. Let us exclude the fact that these people are the called "God's Chosen". God allowed 6 million people, men, women, and children, to die as brutally as can possibly be imagined, by a people that hated everything about them, and now is not allowed their numbers recover? Really? As I stated before, God loves ALL people, be they His chosen or otherwise. And I don't think He would be that brutal in doling out judgement, especially since the death of His son. The Jews, believe it or not, are still God's chosen people. In Deuteronomy 7:6, it says this: For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be His people, His treasured possession. God can not break His own covenant. It goes against everything in the Bible and everything we believe in. The only change to this covenant, is the addition of the Gentiles who have confessed belief in Jesus Christ. In 1 Peter 2:9, Peter says "But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light," in reference to New Christians. I think I've beat that topic to death.
Fourthly, protesting this country. The people of the WBC have said that the terrorist attacks of 9/11 were God's punishment on a country that tolerated the gay community. They also state that this is the whole reason for the war in Iraq, and that God is using Muslims to kill American soldiers, therefore bringing judgement on America. What? Putting that aside, the issue of Homosexuality, though been around for a while, wasn't a major political issue until roughly 15 years ago, and has only been a serious issue for 2 years. So, what is their foundation for this belief? And, as we all know, Muslims declared themselves enemies of America because we have a Christian foundation and also support Israel. So, they believe that God, their God, would punish the country they live in, to get His point across? Need I say more?
There are many, many, many more topics I could cover on this radical group, but suffice to say that they are royally whack. How could a people who claim to believe the Bible and love God, protest this way? Have they not read their Bible's and seen the truth of the words reflected there? How can a group who claims to love God be so full of Hate, when it says right there in 1 John 4:16 that God is love. And in 1 Corinthians 13, John speaks of love, saying: "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails." This group has not followed this passage. They have dishonored the fallen hero's of this country. They have been self-seeking in their attempt to be heard by the public. They do not rejoice with the truth because they spread lies and hate. They do not protect, in fact, they shatter.
They are giving Christians a bad name, and while I respect the courts decision to uphold the 1st Amendment, I do not believe that this group, the Westboro Baptist Church, has any right or foundation to protest as they do. They have perverted the definition of God's love, dishonored the memory of fallen soldiers, desecrated the mass graves of the Jewish people, and built themselves up to be enemies of the American people. They are very mislead, and have only to read the Bible to see this. Their hate has clouded their judgement. Forget being a Christian. Any true believer in the God of this world would be able to see that they are wrong, even if they can not define why. Why can't the WBC?
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