Reflections on culture, nature, and spirituality from a Christian perspective
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These guys make me angry.
Anger calls me to action.
But then the words come: “But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them.” (1 John 2:11)
Don’t hate the folk of Westboro Baptist Church. Don’t hate as they hate. Pray for them. Pray they’ll find the living God and abandon their false God. Pray actively and act prayerfully.
“Behold I bring you glad tidings of great joy — God hates you.”
That is not evangelism, it is kakangelism.
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sigh … they make me nuts, Matt. But I join you in prayer for them — that they would come to know God as they really are!
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I suspect there are elements within Australian Neopentecostalism/Fundamentalism who believe in the same kind of warlike stuff.
Don’t they respect Paul’s statement in Ephesians where he states that “the weapons of our warfare are not carnal …our warfare is not with flesh and blood [fellow humans], but against the principalities and powers of darkness [corrupt, unjust, evil and exploitative institutional systems abusing power to manipulate, oppress, enslave and unduly control]”? It is spiritual (eg. through prayer, declaring of C hrist’s world view as an alternative to the dominant world view, confronting hate with Christ’s love through practical good deeds, speaking hard truths in love etc).
Jesus advocated putting away swords, not taking them up against fellow humans. How can we be blessed as peacemakers if instead we publish and pracxtice, and pursue warlikeness?
Choices of language in comments used recently to describe `evangelistic’ intentions at a Blacktown churches gathering betray a warlikeness which hovers painfully close just under the surface – “a major crusade”; “We really are at war”. I don’t think it was just nostalgic usage of language viz rememberances of the Billy Graham Crusade type of language for some people there. Since Blacktown has a high Muslim and Sikh population. I am sure if they heard such words being used, they would interpret it as threatening of impending violence against them in the style of the middle ages crusades.
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Whenever the topic of WBC comes up, I think it’s important to keep in mind the 1992 letter that Fred Phelps’s own (estranged) son, Mark wrote to the people of Topeka, Kansas about his father:
http://www.rickross.com/reference/westboro/westboro8.html
The following part always speaks to me:
“You see, the causes that he crusades for, including the Bible, are not the issue here. He simply wants to hate and to have a forum for his hate. If the causes he focuses on were the issue, that is, if they really meant something to him in his heart and he meant for the things he does to be for the good, his behavior would not be what it is. He would not betray his message with his behavior. But, when he needs to, to vent his hate, he readily goes outside the bounds of any previously stated ‘value’ or ’cause’ he may have supported. He experiences no moral dilemma when it comes to doing what he wants to do. If it weren’t the homosexuals, it would be something else.”
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worthwhile point, you’re making, Jarred.
following on what you’ve said, Andrew, I found a very interesting link… not sure if this shortcut will work here, but give it a try
http://bit.ly/imiSVd
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