So, yes, in case you didn’t hear, Blacksburg has the distinct “honor†of hosting a group of protesters from Westboro Baptist Church. If you aren’t familiar with the name of the church itself, they are the “godhatesfags†people. Let me give them the chance to tell you why they are coming. The following is an excerpt from their website.
Virginia Tech N. Main St. & E. Roanoke St. (SW Corner) WBC to picket Virginia Tech to connect the dots. God sent the killer because of your proud sin! You raise your kids to believe they can disobey God with impunity, and that His commandments are all on the table to be disposed of whenever you please. That’s why they think fornication, adultery, and sodomy are all just in good fun (instead of the filthy practices they are), and that’s why the wrath of God is on them. God is cursing you by killing those same children that you have lied to all their lives. VA Tech was just GodSmacked — another of your students murdered — and you still refuse to heed and obey the standards of God. Woe unto you! “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness…!” Isa. 5:20. You’re going to Hell, and you’re taking your kids with you.
Ahh… if it wasn’t so offensive and if it didn’t deal with such painful memories, it would almost be funny.
As the fact that they were coming has settled in, I, and many other leaders in NLCF and other local churches and ministries, have been asked what our response is going to be to the protest. The suggestions have ranged from completely ignoring the whole deal to some things that verge on the illegal. 🙂  The question, are they accurate in their perspective of why these horrible events seem to keep happening here? is easily answered with a very loud NO. Understanding how to respond in a Christlike way to them is a bit more difficult. We need to reflect carefully to come up with a response that blends the purity of God with the love of God.  Obviously, the best blending of qualities that we can look to is Jesus.
Three different possible responses to their protest have received the most attention, so here are my thoughts on each.
On the issue of aligning with a plan that will raise money for groups that are not specifically Christian groups.
The most widely accepted plan for responding to the Westboro protestors is to put up a table near each of their protest locations, then raise money for the groups they are protesting. Personally I love this idea. It takes the opportunity they are creating to produce something good. Love it, love it, love it.
Some that I have spoken with are concerned because the groups we will be raising money for are not Christian groups.  When reflecting on an issue like this one, I think that we look to how Jesus interacted with non-Jewish people or those who weren’t following the Jewish code in his day.  Clearly those people were doing things that God didn’t want them to do, just like any of us.  But Jesus went straight for them.  Now we don’t know what jokes he laughed at when he was at the parties that earned him the label of friend of drunks, and which ones he would have turned away from, but we know that the people at those parties liked him. They sensed an acceptance from him.  To me, that is important.  I feel compelled by this to be as involved with as many groups as we can possibly be.  There are many groups that are pursuing aspects of the reality God is calling us to be a part of, they just aren’t doing it out of devotion to him. I believe we should look to see where we can link up in cases like this, certainly there would be reasons that would make that desire impossible, but I haven’t seen anything in what we are raising money for that rises to that level in any way.
Also, the shootings were a very communally felt moment for us all. Â I feel that to come together in responding to this protest is the right thing for us to do.
On the issue of concern about sending a thank-you note to Westboro Baptist Church.
An additional component of the raising money plan was to potentially send WBC a thank you note. The note would thank them for giving us the opportunity to raise money for those groups and give them the amounts we were able to raise.  Obviously, there is a bit of sarcasm in there, and personally, I like the idea. But I have been hearing very good points that it is an unnecessary slam on them. That it seems cruel.
All I can say on that one is that the arguments against sending the thank you note are very solid.  Because we are cooperating with what the university’s student government is doing,  we at NLCF don’t control whether or not it is sent anyway.  Ultimately I am cool either way.  In a great book, The Humor of Jesus, many of Jesus’ puns and one liners are brought more to light.  I think Jesus took little shots here and there to make his point.  He never did it passive aggressively, he was always moving towards an overt point and the zingers were used to make the point another way.  So, I can get behind the letter as that zinger, and I can respect the opposing viewpoint.  I am cool either way.
On the issue of showing love to the protestors.
Some have suggested that if we really want to show counter-cultural love to WBC, we should seek to serve them in some way. Give them water, food… all Ex-Lax free.  🙂  Personally I love the question of how do we love them, as we are called to love our enemies, but I disagree with this way of doing it.
The more I reflect on it, the more I sense the Westboro protestors should be seen as modern-day Pharisees.  They are sporting a very false righteousness and in the process, they are almost completely missing what God is doing.  Jesus told the actual Pharisees that they picked up on some parts of truth and missed others entirely.  Very much what the WBC people are doing. So, if we look at Jesus’ response to them, he tended to express grace towards them in other ways.  As I have reflected on the gospels, I tend to notice that he goes after them in response to their accusations, their attempts at entrapment.  It doesn’t seem like he seeks these moments out so much as he responds what they are trying to do to him.  So I don’t think we should plan to go after them verbally or otherwise.
While I like the concept of handing out water to them, and LOVE the fact that the question of how do we love our enemies in this context is being asked, I would suggest we not do that. Â One reason is that Jesus’ strongest words seemed to be reserved for those who were misrepresenting the truth about God. Â People that should know better. Â He said it would be better to tie a stone around your neck and drown yourself than intentionally mislead people about the faith. Â He called the Pharisees one of the most unclean things they would have known in their day. Â He referred to them as nicely painted tombs, Â places where bodies were decaying. His point was that they way they were calling others to be clean rendered them unclean. Â They were focusing on an outward show and missing the centrality of inward humility and faith. Â Strong stuff.
One thing we need to understand is, that was grace.  Jesus was showing them grace by speaking very directly to what was warring against their souls. Hatred and arrogance like the Pharisees and the WBC folks demonstrate is not neutral to your heart, it tears them apart.  Exposing that for what it is, is love.  I think the other way Jesus showed grace was by allowing anyone (for example Nicodemus,) to come and be helped.  He didn’t say, “You are one of them, get out of here!”  He would allow ANYONE to come to him if they came with a heart of humility. That is why you see him talking to prostitutes, alcoholics, blue collar workers, white collar workers, people from the lowest strata in society to the very highest, and also to Pharisees.
But, if you challenged him in arrogance, whatever you were: a rich young ruler, a scribe, or one of his own brothers, you got the challenge right back.
Jesus also had very challenging words for those who used the power they had been given wrongly. He truly cares about how we use the power that is available to us. I don’t believe that the Westboro protesters seek God in faith and humility before they decide to protest every site they travel to.  And I don’t think they would be willing to speak to those they have hurt with any sense of godly love.
I believe they have become what they claim to be against. I believe they have become a protest organization that claims it speaks on behalf of God, whether he would have them speak or not. They are not open to being in community with other churches and they are not willing to submit to the broader body of Christ. I believe they protest simply because that is what they do. I feel that they have become a protest organization.
The way I think this works out is like this… Â We don’t come with water or any other affirming gesture, or with aggressive posturing. Â If any of the WBC people show a desire to speak or come to us in humility and honesty, we should be prepared to respond with love. Â If anyone else in the crowd begins to attack them, if the police aren’t there, we defend the Westboro people. Â We pray for them in faith that God is capable of showing them the error in what they are doing.
It would also do us well to make sure that we aren’t the same type of person that they are. Are we willing to allow others to speak to the deep parts of our lives? Are we willing to allow others to show us how our lives could more reflect the love and life of Christ?
God, please be with us as we go through this.
Jim
chad frank said...
1Good thoughts JIm… God’s grace to you guys!
04/7/10 9:43 AM | Comment Link
TracyTrorm said...
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06/16/17 4:41 PM | Comment Link