Judgment Day

Sadly, the top news stories this morning was about Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas which was ordered to pay $10.9 million to a deceased soldier's father who recently sued the members for ruining his son's funeral. Apparently, the protesters were going to military funerals and displaying hateful and erroneous signs all in the name of God. Reading the posters with the words: "God Hates Fags" and "Thank God for Dead Soldiers" made my heart hurt and my blood boil. What really got me was a boy around 10 held another slanderous sign, not up above his head, but down at his feet, his eyes looking at the ground and his head held in shame. What future lies ahead for this boy? A life filled with anger, hatred, lies and confusion?

I found myself praying for these misguided and terribly confused people, but my heart ached for the boy. My prayer is that someday someone is going to come into his life and minister to him the real message of God. If God "hates" anything it's sin, not the sinner, but the sin itself. Why this particular group decided to fixate on soldiers and homosexuals is beyond me, but everything they are "protesting" is poison and certainly not biblical.

The bible does speak against homosexuality and says it is sinful; however, so is judging others, pride, gossip, over-indulgence, lying, stealing, blaspheme, bitterness, unforgiveness, hatred, foolishness, etc... God does not rank sin like we do, but considers ALL sin equal. Therefore, none of us can escape it. I must confess, and I'm not boasting, I can sin hourly without even trying. Truth be told, we ALL can! God in his unyielding and overwhelming love for us, saved us from ourselves and sent His son to carry that burden for us! All He asks in return is to love Him; to honor Him; to try to follow Jesus' example; to spread the message about His love.

I want to scream to the protesters until I'm blue in the face that God loves them. Yes, them; He even loves them. He "hates" the venom and evilness they are spewing, but He loves them. I mourn for the lost souls who don't experience the love of our Heavenly Father, for it's a love so pure, so undeniable, so strong. And it's because of that love from God that I am able to say, "Father, please forgive them; for they know not what they do."