Westboro Baptist Church...sigh
Apparently the folks over at Westboro Baptist Church have had another incident, this time at Comic-Con. I vaguely remembered seeing its protesting in the news some time ago and was intrigued when I saw the post about this on Slashdot. When I read the article about Comic-Con, I was both amused and saddened.
There are a wealth of things I could say at this point, but nothing would put it as succinctly as saying that this is a great example of people -- I'm not sure they can be called Christians -- acting in a very un-Christian way. If even half of the information on the Wikipedia article about WBC is to be believed, I have to question their motives, let alone their theology. Their actions give proper Christians a bad name, no, a very bad name. As if Christians needed to do more to be disliked / hated.
Most American Christians have no idea how good they have it. Read through some of the entries over at Christian Persecution India. These are real events happening around the world, and CPI is only one blog and only covers one country. I'm sure there are a plethora of other atrocities being committed against Christians because of their beliefs in India that aren't mentioned there. These are people who being maimed and/or killed merely for the fact that they say that Jesus is the only way to be saved. They do not run around with signs saying "God hates Mohammed" or anything, but the way they are treated, you'd think they were. Sadly, there are far too many Christians living in the United States which act like spoiled brats, nitpicking over little things. The people over at WBC are just one example. Legalism like this is exactly the kind of thing for which Jesus railed against the religious leaders of the day.
While most of the message preached by Westboro Baptist Church is bunk, there is some truth in it... somewhere. The Bible makes a clear stand against homosexuality as a sin. By no means does this mean that "God hates fags" as their signs have read. To God, sin is sin -- it's all different ways of breaking God's laws. God hates sin, but He also loves sinners. Intensely. I won't say that I understand Him or His methods, but that much I know. Christians are called to treat others with the same love that they treat themselves, and WBC is certainly not doing that.
To their credit, conference goers at Comic-Con responded with the largely tongue-in-cheek humor that doesn't surprise me one bit. Making a mockery of the hatred spewed by WBC protesters was an excellent way to defuse an otherwise potentially nasty situation. How do you fight kittens, Bender, and a guy wielding a sign that reads "Is this thing on?"
There are a wealth of things I could say at this point, but nothing would put it as succinctly as saying that this is a great example of people -- I'm not sure they can be called Christians -- acting in a very un-Christian way. If even half of the information on the Wikipedia article about WBC is to be believed, I have to question their motives, let alone their theology. Their actions give proper Christians a bad name, no, a very bad name. As if Christians needed to do more to be disliked / hated.
Most American Christians have no idea how good they have it. Read through some of the entries over at Christian Persecution India. These are real events happening around the world, and CPI is only one blog and only covers one country. I'm sure there are a plethora of other atrocities being committed against Christians because of their beliefs in India that aren't mentioned there. These are people who being maimed and/or killed merely for the fact that they say that Jesus is the only way to be saved. They do not run around with signs saying "God hates Mohammed" or anything, but the way they are treated, you'd think they were. Sadly, there are far too many Christians living in the United States which act like spoiled brats, nitpicking over little things. The people over at WBC are just one example. Legalism like this is exactly the kind of thing for which Jesus railed against the religious leaders of the day.
While most of the message preached by Westboro Baptist Church is bunk, there is some truth in it... somewhere. The Bible makes a clear stand against homosexuality as a sin. By no means does this mean that "God hates fags" as their signs have read. To God, sin is sin -- it's all different ways of breaking God's laws. God hates sin, but He also loves sinners. Intensely. I won't say that I understand Him or His methods, but that much I know. Christians are called to treat others with the same love that they treat themselves, and WBC is certainly not doing that.
To their credit, conference goers at Comic-Con responded with the largely tongue-in-cheek humor that doesn't surprise me one bit. Making a mockery of the hatred spewed by WBC protesters was an excellent way to defuse an otherwise potentially nasty situation. How do you fight kittens, Bender, and a guy wielding a sign that reads "Is this thing on?"
Comments
Post a Comment