Yes I'm Christian, and No I Don't Condone Hate

I recently watched a short documentary on the Westboro Baptist Church, and I found myself dumbfounded. My brain, literally, could not process what I was seeing and hearing. For those of you who may not be familiar with the Westboro Baptist Church they are a church that protests funerals, blatantly tells people that they are going to hell, and seems to preach a pure message of hate. The church consists mainly of one family, and lives in a small cluster of houses that share a backyard. Their antics are hard to watch and even harder to fathom.

As I watched this family do their daily, yes I said daily, protests I found nothing about them to be Christian-like. I have been to many churches in my days and I have never come close to experiencing a church filled with such putrid hate and sheer joy at the sight of others' pain. The church openly admits to celebrating such tragedies as 9/11, Katrina, and the Mississippi bridge collapse. They celebrate these mournful events because they view them as the will of God and say that they should celebrate anything God does because he is God, Who in and of Himself is to be celebrated. There was one main theme, besides for hate, that I found throughout the documentary, and that was an utter disgust with anything that can even be remotely linked to homosexuality. They even went as far as to claim that the commandment stating "Thou shall not commit adultery" deals directly with homosexuality in that many married men are having same sex relationships on the side. I found myself becoming increasingly baffled and irritated with what I was witnessing as the program went on.

I was raised in a more spiritual than religious household. When I say this I don't mean to say that we didn't attend church, because for the majority of my childhood we did, in fact, attend church. I grew up in the Catholic church (which according the WBC means I am going to Hell), I attended Sunday School, and was taught the main teachings of the Bible by my parents. It wasn't until my adulthood that I began to do my own investigation into the Bible. While I haven't read the entire Bible from cover to cover, I have read all of the Old Testament and have studied (in a college level course taught by a Christian professor) the New Testament in what I would consider a pretty theological way. Between my studies, readings, and religious/spiritual upbringing I feel that I have formed a sense of what my religious beliefs are, what good morals consist of, and have grown to be a decent human being. Nothing that I have come to know of Christianity in my 22 years, or what my fiance has come to know of Christianity in his 27 years, was displayed by the WBC. I was taught that it wasn't my place to judge others, and that as a Christian my job was to love and respect others as I do myself and to leave the judgment to God.

While I have been to churches that have preached against homosexuality, I was personally taught by my mother that God is forgiving and that I should not concern myself with judging others. My mother used to tell me and my siblings that she would love us just the same if we were gay. I personally feel that God is probably more concerned with murders, rapists, and child molesters than with those of the LGBT community who are in loving monogamous relationships. Even those who are single and playing the field, how are they any different than those heterosexuals who are doing the same? If I am not perfect, and I know that I am not, and am not capable of being perfect, I feel that if I am going to judge someone I should be judging myself. I could be nicer more often, smile at more strangers, volunteer more, stop living with my fiance, stop having sex with my fiance, stop talking behind others' backs, and the list goes on and on and on. I could spend my whole life trying to iron out my own flaws, so imagine how busy I would be if I were to start policing everyone else's.

I guess my point is this: When did Christianity stop being about God's great sacrifice of His only Son, made out of His forgiving love for ALL of his children? And more about how many people we can condemn as sinners and doomed to Hell? So, in saying this, while I don't agree with the WBC's message or tactics in conveying that message, I respect their right to do so, and will continue to pray for all of those with pain in their lives. Even if that pain is brought on by one's own hate.