Below you find part of the press release issued by Westboro Baptist Church in anticipation of their protest at the funeral of Elizabeth Edwards.   Yes, the WBC followers will put down their God hates fags signs for this event and pick up their God hates Elizabeth Edwards signs.
While of course there is so much wrong with Westboro’s beliefs and therefore their tactics, I will try in this post to focus in on a point that isn’t often made on news stories or Christian postings about this group. Of course, they run God’s name through the toilet by putting words in God’s mouth that he has not spoken and they dishonor Christ by never mentioning the good news of salvation, focusing instead on rigid obedience to the law as they see it.   But there is another tragedy as well.
Because Phelps and the gang are so obnoxious, many people assume that every teaching underlying their side show is also wrong. Every sign they hold convinces another passerby that homosexuality must be okay if those guys are against it. Similarly, they will mislead people at Edwards funeral into thinking that her denial of a God who intervenes in the world is proper, that her refusal to yield to God even as death approaches is wise, that her tinkering with reincarnation is fine. Passerbys will again think that whatever this group speaks against, they want to be for. And is so doing, they will move farther away from God.
Because if you take away the revelatory additions to scripture, the offensive signs, and the legalism, there are some biblical truths at the heart of their madness. The problem is that no one will ever see them. In fact, as I have contended, they will assume those truths are lies in order to make sure they are not on the same team as WBC. The tragedy is that such choices might well serve to keep them away from God’s team as well, the mystical body of his Son Jesus Christ.
Phil – this is the first I’ve heard about her denial of God. Could you point me toward something credible that talks about it (I’m not saying you aren’t credible – I just want to read her words). Thanks.
Phil,
Unfortunately, their medium has become their message. And so for many, myself included, i can’t buy into their message – because their message is no longer the beautiful biblical truths of grace, forgiveness and hope offered in the person of Jesus. I think someone rejecting WBC is not an automatic denial of the biblical realities of sin and separation from God but from a group of people who don’t offer the true message of the Gospel. I say this because, when you write: “Because if you take away the revelatory additions to scripture, the offensive signs, and the legalism, there are some biblical truths at the heart of their madness.” – the signs, the legalism, the hate, the venom has become their version of the biblical truth. Take those things away, like you suggest, and they have nothing left. This is what i am getting at: their medium is not only entwined with, it has become their message.
This is why i am convinced that words matter. Tone matters. Attitudes matter. How we say something, in communication, is just as (and probably more so)important as what we say. And it is sad that if someones only encounter with scripture/Jesus, etc. is WBC that they will most likely reject God….honestly, i probably would too….WBC’s website press release on their picket of the funeral talks about her “Godsmack” of cancer (of course this goes with their lovely signs of “Thank God for Breast Cancer”. If you read the press release, which I am sure you did, their is nothing about forgiveness, grace, love, etc. it is basically a judgment against a woman and praises the fact that she is now in hell (because she was horrible woman spewing blasphemy) and basically the choice is to “obey” God. Lost in this press release is the wonderful grace and forgiveness that God offers in the person of Jesus – as I read their press release their is nothing in their version of christianity that i would accept because their is no good news they are offering.
Hope this makes sense. These guys just really bother me and do a huge disservice to those of us who don’t always get everything right ourselves but who know that love, grace, forgiveness will get us a lot further than simply telling people how wrong and immoral they are, how unloved by God they are, how hated by God they are and how the solution just seems to be “obey”.
People do sin and are separated by God….but if Jesus (where is Jesus being offered by WBC?), love, grace, forgiveness – the cross and resurrection aren’t offered as part of the hope we have…then what are we truly offering people?
Sorry such a long reply.
I agree with you. I hope my post did not come off as a endorsement in any way of them.
http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=the_original_theology_of_elizabeth_edwards <----- Genevieve try this
Phil,
I didn’t take you that way….ie, that you endorsed them as a group. What I gathered, and please correct me if i am wrong, is that you believe that “….there are some biblical truths at the heart of their madness” if we take away some of their hate-filled rhetoric. But this is my point…to me, their cruel, hate-filled rhetoric has become (and is) their message.
Interesting. I had never heard any of that. Thanks, Phil.