The Need for Regulation with the Westboro Baptist Church

Learning How to deal with conflict with those who strongly disagree with you or warp your Christian beliefs is an extremely hard dilemma for many Christ followers. You might be thinking that I am addressing an issue about an "ethical gray area." Assuming that this is a harmless dispute over whether Christians should drink alcohol or use contraceptives. But it is not, it is about groups which we as Christians, have a hard time dealing with and separating ourselves from. Should we strike back and adamantly defend what our faith stands for or should we show them the love of Christ. How do we deal with those who associate themselves with the Christian faith but completely disregard God's love for humanity? How do we deal with churches who take scripture out of context and use it to promote their own political agenda? How do we deal with a church who morally stands for the same things other Christians do but warps them in a hateful package? How do we deal with Westboro Baptist Church? The goal to deal with conflict is to unify both sides of the party. That all becomes a little bit more complicated when dealing with those who were never welcome to the said party.

GodHatesFags.com, GodHatestheWorld.com, JewskilledJesus.com, PriestsRapeBoys.com are a few of the egregious websites maintained by Westboro Baptist Church, arguably the most infamous “church” in the nation. Fred Phelps founded the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas, in 1955. The church’s congregation believes that God hates and punishes the United States for its tolerance of homosexuality. Every day, members picket the same spot in Topeka Kansas, rain or shine, spewing chants thanking Hitler for the holocaust and praising Hussein for his treatment of the LGBTQA community.

The self-titled organization bears no resemblance to a typical Baptist Church. According to The Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, The Southern Baptist Convention adopted a resolution in 1999 condemning this association and their treatment of homosexuals (ERLC). Unlike legitimate churches that stand out due to benevolent acts, such as hospital and orphanage construction in impoverished regions, disaster relief, and shelters for the homeless without regard for any held belief system of those they are assisting, Westboro Baptist Church are a group of hate mongers that have a platform due to their wicked perversion of the Christian Bible. They delight in tearing down and condemning their fellow man by inflicting emotional pain, supporting the enemies of America, and cheering the death of our fallen soldiers. There is no definable purpose to this reprehensible group.

What are we as Christians to do with the Westboro then? We can take legal action and try to label them as a hate group, this would nullify their tax exemption status for being a church. In fact, there is a petition legally recognizing Westboro Baptist Church as a hate group. There are currently more than three hundred and sixty-seven thousand signatures! Signatures of individuals from all lifestyles. However, the federal government does not maintain a list of hate groups. Private organizations such as the Anti-Defamation League and Southern Poverty Law Center do.

This has done almost nothing to curve the group’s practices. It is the Christians that are using words of love and grace that God so gave to us when He sent His Son to die on the cross. Even the secular world can see that the only way to stop this group is to show them love, compassion, and unity. A brief perusal of the internet turns up hundreds of impressive images of Americans linking arms to form protective barriers that block Westboro’s incursion. Concerned Americans exercising their first amendment rights in spontaneous gatherings so large that Westboro protesters are buried and invisible in overwhelming crowds protecting innocent people from the group’s propaganda.

On their website you see various Bible verses supporting what they do, those verses are Psalm 5:5, 11:5, and Proverbs 6:16-19. All these verses point to a God that hates, and yes indeed, God hates those who partake in sin. However, Westboro is completely forgetting to mention that God loves too, John 3:16 and Matthew 5:43-48 are perfect examples of these. All of Westboro’s verses come from the Old Testament; therefore they can say that all of their hate mongering claims are biblical. However, you cannot pick and choose verses that appeal to you out of the Bible. Even if they claimed that they only acknowledge the Old Testament, they're also verses in the Old Testament that teach love and kindness such as Proverbs 16:21 and Ecclesiastes 10:12.

In conclusion, we should deal with Westboro with the truth about Jesus Christ. Jesus sought out sinners and urged them to repent not by screaming in their face or by beating them down with hatred, but by showing them love and kindness. Love always wins.