Hatred stirs up dissension, but love covers over all wrongs. – Proverbs 10:12
When I saw this picture it was supposed to be funny, note the man holding the "God Hates Signs" sign. I have to say in actuality it broke my heart. I couldn't believe that someone could be so moved by their own hatred that they could not only convince themselves that God shared in such vile emotions but also teach it to their children. Whenever I look at it I can't help but think about who that child will be when he grows up. Will he be like his mother, will he embody the ignorance he was raised in? Or, one could only hope, that adolescent rebellion will serve this little boy some good later in life.
The second noteworthy reaction I had in seeing this photo was to say "See! This is why I am not a Christian!" This was about a year before I started going to church and I thought all Christians were either like this woman, brainwashing their children to hate or at least had the capacity to. I was so moved by this image and so set in my beliefs (which were just as ignorant as this woman’s by the way) that I brought this picture up in my first discussion with my pastor. Thinking back on it I wonder what he thought about the crazy girl spouting off about hateful Christians and gay marriage. At the time he just sat down on the ground in a welcoming gesture that let me know he was listening and answered with the words that started my journey behind "enemy" lines "I can't tell you what's in their hearts but I can tell you what’s coming out of it and it is NOT Christianity."
To me, this was one of those moments in life that sets everything spinning. It's not?!? Then what is Christianity?
After reading The Bible and studying it for over a year now I am not only appalled but shocked and confused at how people can justify using The Bible for hate. The Bible is littered with phrases of love and acceptance...
"This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another." 1 John 4:9-11
"My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." John 15:12-13
"As for the person who hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge him. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save it." John 12:47
To name a few
I recently learned that hate has a name and a face and it is Fred Phelps founder of The Westboro Baptist Church. I had never heard of him before until yesterday when I read about a protest they are planning at the funerals for the victims of the Arizona shooting. Apparently these psychos... i mean people think that God sent the shooter. The picture above was from one of their protests as is the one below...
"Thank God For September 11th" I can't even begin to touch on that one...
Curious as to just how crazy these people really are I visited their website www.godhatesfags.com I found this on their home page ""GOD HATES FAGS" -- though elliptical -- is a profound theological statement, which the world needs to hear more than it needs oxygen, water and bread." Really?!? In today’s society I think we need to hear the word hate like we need a whole in the head.
As a Christian I am not supposed to hate Fred Phelps. I am not supposed to hope to see the day he looks into God's face and has to explain all the hurt he has caused. And the fact is I can't hate him. I feel a tremendous sadness for him and for anyone involved with him. What a horrible existence it must be living with so much hatred in your heart, believing in all the evil that is on that website must be a heavy, heavy burden. I will pray for him, and I hope you will do the same. "You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you." Matthew 5:43-44
What I will also do is send a message of my own. A message I think the world needs to hear more than we need bread and water and air. God does not hate! God loves everyone and everything he created. God loves you, God loves me, and God loves Fags (and if you are a bundle of sticks as the dictionary defines it I just let you know that God loves you twice, because he does, and twice more after that and twice more after that.) How much God really does love you is a subject for an entire blog of itself, so for now we will leave it at that.
Whoever tells you they are a Christian and preaches hate "from The Bible" at the same time is a liar. Don't take my word for it..."We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen." 1 John 4:19-20
Or I guess I'll take a cue from someone I have grown to admire very much and say "I can't tell you what's in their hearts, but what I can tell you is it NOT Christianity."
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