Sorry I haven’t blogged this past week.
School started, as well as my internship at the Orlando Business Journal! I get to wear big girl pants now and hangout in downtown Orlando with the rest of the business men and women.
Today I ate lunch, barefoot, in the beautiful sunny weather, by my building. It was great since yesterday, tropical storm Isaac was making everyone’s life miserable. I hope that the people in New Orleans are safe, since Isaac is headed in their general direction on the 7th anniversary of the devastating hurricane Katrina.
But back on to my topic: The Westboro Baptist Church.
They are currently at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, only an hour away, picketing God knows what.
I just watched two documentaries on them, Louis Theroux: The Most Hated Family In America and Brainwashed by the Westboro Baptist Church.
This church is led by Fred Phelps (or Gramps), a former lawyer who was disbarred for perjury in 1979. It mainly consists of his family. They desecrate the American flag and teach a warped version of the Bible and doctrine. They pray for people to die and glorify God for the deaths. Basically, what they want us to know is that they believe:
God is America’s terrorist and that he hates us.
Things they picket and why they picket them:
1. Anti-gay: They picket churches that say we must love gay people. Picket stores that have any connection to LGBT communities.
2. Funerals: They picket military funerals because they say people “worship the dead.” They believe that God killed those people because they were fighting in the war. They also picket celebrity funerals, especially if they were prominent figures in the LGBT community.
3. Jews: They hate them because they claim to be God’s chosen people.
4. Obama: Apparently, he is the Antichrist. That’s news to me.
5. Deaths caused by natural disasters or terrorist attacks: They believe that all those people deserved to die.
They believe they are spreading God’s hate. However, God has infinite love for us (He loves the sinner but hates the sin), but he is also infinitely just. If the sinner repents, he/she can go to heaven.
If you watch the documentaries, you will see that a lot of their answers are textbook answers that have been pre-chosen for them. They avoid questions like politicians and they instill their beliefs on their children, with them being too young to even comprehend what is going on. These kids grow up with an unusual childhood, often the subject of classmate hatred, their only friends being their family.
Now, I’m a Christian. I try to live my life as Christ-like as possible, but obviously, I’m just a human. I don’t have premarital sex, I do believe that marriage should be between a man and a woman and I don’t believe in abortions. With that being said, I am not one to judge whether someone is gay or had an abortion (So no, I don’t hate “fags”). I’m not God and that’s not my job. I won’t shun people because of their beliefs. In my field, journalism, you meet a lot of skeptics and a lot of my friends and acquaintances come from different walks of life and have certain beliefs that I don’t agree with, but I don’t shun them for that. Often they laugh and say, “Say hello to Jesus for me” whenever I tell them I’m going to church.
The Westboro Church is going with their teachings the wrong way. You’re supposed to love your neighbor as yourself. Not judge. Nowhere in the Bible does it say, “put people down because their beliefs are different than yours.” Jesus hung out with prostitutes and thieves and murderers. I wonder if they have ever read the Bible and paid attention to the work that Jesus did. Moses was a murderer, Abraham gave his wife away, Sarah scoffed at an angel, David was an adulterer, Jacob stole his brother’s inheritance… I could go on for ages. And God used them to spread his gospel! Those SAME PEOPLE that the Westboro Church is reading about HAD TERRIBLE PASTS!
I can’t judge the Westboro Baptist Church for sinning differently than I do, but I can say that they are going to rot in hell if they don’t repent for the damage and despair they’ve caused to countless families and communities. For selfishly spreading their anger. For making their children targets.
But you know what? I thank God that the girls don’t want to focus on dating and marriage. The less they procreate, the better. I wonder if they’ll picket their own deaths if they get shot now that people have their personal information. You can thank Anonymous for this. The church wanted to picket the Sandy Hook children funeral so Anonymous retaliated. Good.
My rant is over.
I hope they get glitter bombed by the “GaYbors” of Ybor City while they’re at the convention here in Florida. That would be hilarious.
