During a late night (early morning) bout with insomnia I stumbled across a good friend’s facebook post concerning the “Westboro Church's” plans to stage a protest at the upcoming funeral services of several soldiers. As can be imagined (and for good reason) there was an outcry of rage and insult perforating the sub-post commentary. My initial reactions are a mixed bag of horror, outrage, disgust, and sadness.
On one hand the constitution that has made our country so incredible protects these people’s right to hold such a protest. On the other hand, I find it deeply troubling that anyone would ever even remotely desire to do such a thing. And then, there is the third reaction that arrives from the notion that these people are somehow supposed to be a “Church”.
The last time I checked the one true Church was comprised of what Paul referred to as the Body of Christ. In essence, the Church itself is a collection of people aspiring to the basic tenets of the Christian faith. To belong to the Church is to belong to Christ, who himself gave His life willingly for mankind so many years ago.
John 15:13 records these words during one of Christ’s sermons, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” Being the Church means being Christ-like, literally the name Christian means “little Christ.”
It seems to me that if someone or some group aspires to celebrate the deaths of people who sacrificed their lives for others; they are living quite contrary to the very words of the savior they claim to espouse. My generation has a word for people like that, but the term hypocrite works much the same.
