For mere (or maybe morbid) curiosity, I went out today to the Westboro protests at Fort Meade. Everyone has been getting all worked up this past week. I wanted to see what all the ruckus was about. I got out of the house a bit late, so by the time I got out to Meade HS, sat through 20 minutes or so of a traffic jam, found a ‘legal’ place to park and walked 1/4 mile or so to the protest area, it was breaking up and folks were heading back to their cars. As I drove by, I noticed 5 or 6 WBC protesters and a few hundred other protesters on the other side of the road. Police were directing traffic all around, to include making lanes for a line of Harleys revving their engines between the two factions. (My wife would have loved seeing all those Harleys!)
So as the crowd is dispersing, I notice that there are plenty of social subgroups that were represented. There were the Christians, the gay/lesbian folks, the military and the curious. Man, all you have to do is say ‘God hates fags’ and you are going to tick off half, if not more, of the population of this country. For the most part, as a follower of Christ, it ticks me off to no end that someone will brutalize the name of Christ for any reason especially a reason that totally defies everything that I have read in the Bible that WBC quotes.
WBC’s main sign or slogan of ‘God hates fags’ is not what is written in the word of God. 2 Peter 3:9 states ‘The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.’ Romans 3:23 says that ALL have sinned and come short of the glory of God. ALL is defined as ALL. It doesn’t matter if you are a homosexual, if you are a member of the military, if you are a student at a school on a military base, if you are a member or supporter of Westboro or if you are a follower of Christ. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
That being said, the 1st amendment of the Constitution states that all Americans have the freedom of speech, free from censorship of any government. There are just some of those times that rights, although used correctly, really is troubling. Chief Justice John Roberts stated in the recent Snyder v. Westboro Baptist decision “Speech is powerful. It can stir people to action, move them to tears of both joy and sorrow, and – as it did here – inflict great pain. On the facts before us, we cannot react to that pain by punishing the speaker. As a nation we have chosen a different course – to protect even hurtful speech on public issues to ensure that we do not stifle public debate.” It doesn’t matter what the speech says, that speech is protected.
On one hand, it was amazing that some many people showed up this morning to protest such a small group of people. In a sense, it’s embarrassing that we allow people to hurt us with words. Like we said as kids ‘Sticks and stones will break our bones, but words will never hurt us.’ Let’s be truthful, they do. The WBC folks must be so proud of themselves in inspiring so many people to take the time out of their day to come out to their protest, to spend money and time on making signs, etc, using gas in their cars, just to come out and meet them on their turf. This is the exact reason they lead these protests. It makes their cause relevant. If they are ignored for long enough they won’t be inspired to do these stupid protests.
Case in point, if you tell my daughter Julie that her hair is orange (take a crayon and compare…it really is close), she will be all in a huff and say that her hair is not orange, but red or copper (Copper is courtesy of some random lady in line at a ride at Kings Dominion). We know that this gets her railed up, and, in a slightly mean way, its funny to get that rise out of her. We know that does, so we have some fun with it. If it didn’t bother her, it wouldn’t be any fun to annoy her with it.
It is the right of all Americans to spout their opinions, hurtful as they are. However it is the responsibility of all followers of Christ to love, show love and pray for those who hurt you. (Luke 6:28). It’s a tough nut to do that, some are better than others in that regard, but if we truly claim to be followers of Christ than we must follow his direction to love. No ifs, ands, or buts. WBC has a point. America has problems. There is no one who can deny that our country that was founded on biblical principles has fallen away from that. No country on the face of the earth is perfect. There is good news though. 2 Chronicles 7:14 says that if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
We need to pray. End of story
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