It wasn't until a year or so ago that I heard about a group of people that called themselves a church. Being a Christian myself, the things that this so called Church did made me feel like I wanted to throw up. Picketing soldier's funerals, the funerals of the young lives lost in the Amish School shooting, the funerals of those lives lost in the Sago Mine disaster, and many many more with hateful signs of, "Thank God for Dead Soldiers/Miners/Amish children" etc. Even their website, www.godhatesfags.com, makes me want to throw up. How could a group of people even call themselves Christians while spewing a message of hate, abomination, and being insensitive and disrespectful?
And now, they thank God for the gunman of the NIU shootings. How _Dare_ they? HOW DARE THEY? Thanking God for a murderer who mercilessly took away the lives of five innocent students is horrific! _That_ is an abomination. No one person deserves to be killed... ever. I wait and pray for the day that things do become perfect once again, when Christ comes back and claims his own, so that there is no death, no murder, no rape or violence. Those five lives cannot be given back to the families. There are mourning parents, sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, and grandparents, not to mention friends and acquaintances. The shooter, while I must love him with the heart of love that Christ had, and I pray for his family and friends, does not deserve to be thanked! God is not a God of hate and violent murder! Relying solely on Old Testament practices does not mean that you kill people for no good reason! And being a follower of Christ means that he is the fulfillment of the law of the OT, and we must follow what he does.
In no way is picketing funerals a showing of Christ's love. I am not a perfect. I'm far from perfect. But this sort of injustice makes my blood boil. How can someone call themselves a Christian while spewing hate? Christ _never_ spewed hate! He even spared the life of a prostitute... A PROSTITUTE!
I pray for the families of the victims in the shootings. I pray for their friends, their loved ones, and anyone affected. I was there with two of my friends when they found out that there were shootings at NIU and I saw the looks of horror on their faces as they realized that they had friends there.
God works in mysterious ways, but he does not operate on hate.
When will people understand?
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Oh my god. I hate the media. You have no idea. I DO NOT agree with people like that, AT ALL. The thing that I really hate, though? Isn't the fact that they pickett funerals, but that people (not to say you're doing this) look at groups like that and then think they have license to say "Those crazy christians". Screw it. I hate that the crazy, minority section of the religion projects more of an image than does the average, sane-minded Christian. It happens all the time though, I suppose. Like with muslims. We get bombed by one group of muslims, and suddenly everyone thinks that all muslims believe in suicide bombing, and hating the USA. Frickin' dumb. I wish people like that weren't allowed to make the media.
These people break my heart. There was an interview with a three of the members on Tyra, and it made me want to cry. The worst part is that these people damn these soldiers and scream that they hate America, while they use the American freedoms the men are dying for, to harass these heartbroken families. I first heard of WBC awhile back when they intended to march in NY on Sept 11... these people are deplorable. Of all the hate they spew on a daily basis, the saddest thing I heard a church member say, was that they "hoped one day they would go to heaven" These people aren't even being taught the true meaning of Salvation through Jesus Christ, and that is the most gut wrenching part of the entire "church"
Have you heard about these guys? I have strong feelings about our occupation in Iraq, but I do not vilify the enlisted men and women for it at all. I believe they deserve the full support of our government when they return alive, and they deserve a dignified burial when they return dead. The Patriot Guard is a bunch of motorcycle riders who banded together for the sole purpose of protecting soldiers' funerals from the Westboro Baptist Bullsh*t. I could not have less in common with a group of people than I have in common with the Patriot Guard, but I love them like crazy for the way they are standing up against Fred Phelps. I get weepy every time I think about them out there blocking the protest from the mourners.
Phelps showed up at Matthew Shepard's funeral when he was beaten to death in Laramie, Wyoming and at the trial of his murderers, and a group of Shepard's friends blocked their protest by dressing as angels, with huge wings built out of fabric and PVC pipe. It was so beautiful and peaceful...quite a contrast to the ugliness the WBC was spewing.
The BBC did a major in-depth documentary on the WBC a while ago. It's no longer available on YouTube, but here's a link to an article about it:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/6507971.stm
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/ediblewoman
Yeah, Fred Phelps and his gang IS rather frightening. On their website, www.godhatesfags.com they have a list of when and where you can go to protest/picket.
Scary when God's message of love is misinterpreted isn't it?
Liz
"drink from that wishing well but may it never quench your thirst" - Indigo Girls
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/flnerd
"He even spared the life of a prostitute... A PROSTITUTE!"
He told those who were going to kill the prostitute that whoever hasn't committed a sin should throw the first stone. My heart aches for their children, growing up with such hateful propaganda. I hope people realize that isn't radical Christianity. Radical Christianity is when you lay your life down for your enemies, like the pastor in China who was jailed for preaching and when he was released, went back to the police station to preach to them. When they asked him if he was crazy he said yes. He's crazy for Jesus. All because he doesn't want them to rot in hell.