| Sigh |
[Jan. 25th, 2008|11:04 pm] |
Mark 11:25 (NIV) "And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins."
Hebrews 8:12 (NIV) "For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more."
Proverbs 24:17 (NAS) "Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and do not let your heart be glad when he stumbles."
Ephesians 4:31-32 (Phi) "Let there be no more bitter resentment or anger, no more shouting or slander, and let there be no bad feeling of any kind among you. Be kind to each other, be compassionate. Be as ready to forgive others as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you."
The news of Heath Ledger's untimely death sparked sorrow and remorse as to the circumstances of his passing. But one group, the Westboro Baptist Church (more popularly known for the site godhatesfags.com), decided that his death wasn't untimely but rather was a result of the 'abominations' that he has committed by portraying a gay person in the movie Brokeback Mountain. They are intending on protesting his funeral and just causing a general ruckus, past the ruckus they have already tried to create to bring attention to themselves.
The scope of this post is not to debate the morality of homosexuality from a Christian standpoint, but rather to bring to attention the sheer hipocrisy of this group's message. The Church has been known to make some even further outlandish claims and, even in a religious context, their message is dubious at best.
John 7:24 (Phi) "You must not judge by the appearance of things but by the reality!"
John 7:24 (NIV) "Stop judging by mere appearances, and make a right judgment."
1 John 4:1 (TEB) "My dear friends: do not believe all who claim to have the Spirit, but test them to find out if the spirit they have comes from God. For many false prophets have gone out everywhere."
Matthew 7:1-2 (Phi) "Don't criticize people, and you will not be criticized. For you will be judged by the way you criticize others, and the measure you give will be the measure you receive."
The basis of the Westboro Baptist Church's claim is that because Heath Ledger played the role of a homosexual in Brokeback Mountain, he is 'perpetuating' the cause of the 'homosexual agenda.' As I said in jest before, the reasoning at work here can open a slippery slope (and has, I'm sure, for the members of this church) that just having taken part in the movie is as wrong, in the eyes of God, as actually committing a homosexual act. And so too would merely watching the movie..or even talking about it.
Sadly, their claims go much further than that. The church says that all of the tragedies that have happened to the United States, such as 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina, were the direct result of God taking vengeance upon us for our collective homosexual transgressions. Personally, I think the only real point of the screaming that this small group of people do is to make a fuss and be acknowledged if for nothing else but cheap bublicity, but it seems that if they are going to take the word of God and make it so fire-and-brimstone by stretching it out as far as it can conceivably go, they may want to look at some of the other verses in the Bible aside from Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13.
Do I want the people of Westboro Baptist Church to go away? It would be nice. I can only hope they realize the respect they should show for Heath Ledger's family and not patronize and judge him during their time of mourning. And I am sure there are thousands of times more people out there perfectly willing to judge them with the same hatred they are willing to dispense. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black. But as inane and close-minded as I think their message is, I want them to continue to say it. Not just for the reason that I believe in free speech, but for the reason that the louder these people scream, the louder others will scream back.
I would leave the members of the Westboro Baptist Church with one last verse from the Bible
Matthew 7:1 (KJV) "Judge not, that ye be not judged..." |
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