So, the inevitable piece of news. Â Westboro Baptist Church is coming to Blacksburg today to protest in front of Cassell Coliseum today just before the
A bully in middle school taught me why.
There was a kid who lived near me (I won’t name a name as I am always surprised to see who reads this) Â who loved to mess with me. Â It kind of became his thing. Â I was a small kid with… ladies prepare yourselves… Â a bad haircut, bifocals, braces with headgear… Â That’s right. Â Add to that an almost complete lack of coordination, and a very smart mouth that often moved a bit faster than my brain.
Needless to say, I talked myself into a lot of situations.
This guy, who was much bigger, decided I would be his bullying muse for the year. Â I tried to fight back – verbally, physically. I tried being nice. Â Nothing would work.
Then I decided to simply render his insults irrelevant. Â He would make a comment and I’d say “not bad.” Â He would shove me when he walked by and I would say “nice form.” Â The first thing that did is it calmed me down. Â The next thing it did was it removed the audience he loved to get by messing with me.
I took his audience away.
In Proverbs 16 we are told that a wise persons’s heart makes their speech wise and more persuasive. Â I have learned over the years to tame my mouth -most of the time. Â Sometimes that means overlooking a wrong, other times to speak against it. Â Both of those pieces of wisdom are given to us in Proverbs and both are right.
But I think of this response as neither overlooking or speaking against.
I think Proverbs 26.4,5 shares the tension we walk in…
4 When arguing with fools, don’t answer their foolish arguments, or you will become as foolish as they are. 5 When arguing with fools, be sure to answer their foolish arguments, or they will become wise in their own estimation.
Both are true. Â When you understand the proverbial wisdom nature of, well, Proverbs, then you see these aren’t in contradiction. They are both right. Â Wisdom therefore, needs to guide us into which one we invoke. Â I think, today, verse four.
People have tried for years to speak wisdom and truth into these folks’ lives. Â I tried when they last came to Tech. Â I spoke with Shirley Phelps-Roper, unsurprisingly to no avail. Â They want the audience, they are somehow energized by the counter-protests. Â Their revenue stream is dependent on getting big numbers of web-hits, drawing big crowds. Â So, now, like my middle school bully, let’s move past them.
Let them come.
Ignore them.
With the prayer-filled hope that they will just fade away.