Funeral Protestors

(I blanked out the curse words in picture above)

There is a group that has been reported in the media called the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas, which protests at funerals for soldiers. (I should mention that this group has no connection with mainstream Baptist conventions.) This group has caused much distress to the families and friends of these soldiers. I do not believe that what these people are doing is good and the way that they are going about things is all wrong.

This is what they are saying:

God is punishing America for its sins (specifically tolerance of homosexuality) by allowing the war in Iraq and allowing our soldiers die in the war. They have signs that say, “Thank God for dead soldiers” and “God hates … (I won’t use the word that they use for homosexuals)”. They want even more of our soldiers to die. They say that we should stop praying for America because it’s already too late. They say that God hates America.

Now here is my commentary on what the WBC is saying:

I agree with the first statement. It seems obvious to me that God is punishing America for its wicked ways. But I am not glad that this is happening. I wish that America had never gone to war with Iraq. (I disagree with Sam and Greg on this point.) I don’t want anymore of our soldiers to die. I wish that America would repent.

Romans 12:14-15 says, “Bless those persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.” I Corinthians 13:6 says, “Love does not delight in evil but rejoices in the truth.” Jesus wept over the city of Jerusalem in Luke 19:41 (see also Luke 13:34, Obadiah 12). It seems to me that it would be acceptable to thank God for punishments if the people who have been punished have learned the error of their ways, but not otherwise. The WBC claims, “It is a sin NOT to take pleasure in the wrathful out pourings of God's justice on this nation.” They quote Psalm 58:10, "The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance: he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked.” I take the position that this is a prophecy that will be fulfilled when Christ comes back to put the all of the followers of the Beast to death (Revelation 19:11-21). It will then be too late for them. THEN God will wipe every tear from our eyes (Revelation 21:4). I take the position that God will not cause us to forget unsaved people who we knew in this life, but somehow we will not be saddened when they are cast into the Lake of Fire. This is a profound mystery. At that point, and not before, we will see things completely from God’s perspective and it will be OK for us to rejoice in everything that God has done.

God does not hate anybody, right? But what about Psalm 26:5, 31:6, Malachi 1:3, Luke 14:26, John 12:25, and Romans 9:13? God does hate people who do evil (Psalm 5:5) in some sense. The meaning of this is that those hated by God are his enemies (Psalm 139:21, 22) and they are “always under the wrath of the LORD” (Malachi 1:4). Commentators say that the real meaning of Luke 14:26 is explained in Matthew 10:37, but I don’t know if this is true or not. It’s just not biblical to say that God only hates sin, but not the sinner (at least not the way the Bible defines God’s hate). How then do we reconcile these passages with passages like Leviticus 19:17, Matthew 5:43, 44, and I John 2:9-11, 3:15, 4:20? There is hate which comes from pride and the flesh, called “hate without cause”, but there is also a righteous hatred. You won’t find two different Greek or Hebrew words for hate. You just have to know it looking at the context. The same concept is true with the word anger (Compare Matthew 5:22 with John 15:25). The meaning of God’s agape love is that He does not want for us to be under his wrath or to be his enemies (Ezekiel 18:23, Romans 5:6-10). This love is so strong that He was willing to take all of the wrath and all of the curses of sin upon himself on the cross so that we wouldn’t have to. II Peter 3:8, 9 indicates that God loves everyone with this type of love. But as long as a person does not repent, God’s wrath is still upon him. Thus, it is possible for God to both love and hate the same person at the same time. Called by some “hyper-Calvinistic”, the WBC does not believe in this, because they believe in the doctrine of limited atonement. This is disproved by verses that I have already quoted and further by John 3:16, 17 and II Corinthians 5:15. One could argue that one could commit so much sin and/or reject God so many times that God would stop loving that person (Hosea 9:15, Matthew 12:31, and Romans 1:24). The passage in Hosea is future tense and the other two also do not really give this conclusion.

Even if God did stop loving some person (before they have died) or nation, that is something for Him to judge and not us. I can’t think of verse to prove that it isn’t too late for America except II Chronicles 7:14 and Luke 1:37. We should assume that it isn’t too late until proven otherwise.

While the WBC’s statement that God hates homosexuals is technically correct, it would not be good thing to say for many reasons. Most people think that love and hate are mutually exclusive and don’t understand the meaning of righteous hatred. This should be explained first. It would especially not be a good thing to say at a funeral! These people just aren’t Christ-like. When we witness, we shouldn’t just ignore issues like specific sins, death, hell, and wrath. But their way of getting their point across is mean-spirited. Though they quote scriptures, their purpose is seems to be to hurt people and not really to win souls for Christ.

In conclusion, I would suggest that Christians use this as an occasion to good. If this topic of conversation were to come up at your work, you could use this as an opportunity to explain both God’s wrath and his love to give people a true picture of who God is. Too many churches are the opposite extreme of the WBC. We need to use both edges of God’s sword of truth. Christians should show up at these protests and make counter-protests with signs that say “God does not want anyone to die”, “God wants everyone to repent”, and “Mourn with those who mourn”.

If you are reading this, and you are not a Christian, and you want to know what REAL Christianity is, click on this link. Then read Romans 10:9, I Peter 3:18-22 and Romans 8:1.