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Title: Opinion piece about Westboro Baptist Church.
Source:
sltrib.com
URL Source: http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/lifest ... oro-baptist-god-corey.html.csp
Published: Sep 12, 2010
Author: Corey J. Hodges
Post Date: 2010-09-12 14:14:49 by Ferret Mike
Keywords: None
Views: 124067
Comments: 131
Westboro Baptist Church preaches that all the world’s tragedies can be blamed on society’s tolerance of gays.
Pastor Fred Phelps Sr. leads the Topeka, Kan., congregation of 70 to 80 members, most of whom are his children and grandchildren. Although Westboro identifies itself as Baptist, it is not affiliated with any known Baptist convention or association.
The congregation has made headlines by picketing at military funerals, arguing that the soldiers’ deaths are God’s punishment for homosexuality. The group also protested at the Rev. Jerry Falwell’s funeral, calling him a “false prophet,” and recently in West Virginia, where 29 miners were killed, with signs that read, “Thank God for dead miners.”
Albert Snyder, the grieving father of one fallen soldier, sued Westboro for invading his privacy and inflicting emotional distress (Snyder’s son was not gay). The legal dispute is now headed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
There is no biblical defense for Westboro’s hateful message and insensitive demonstrations. The group’s philosophy and approach are riddled with contradictions. Westboro cannot truly believe in the Bible, which speaks of God’s love, mercy and grace. Jesus vehemently opposed earthly agents of condemnation. He said, in Matthew, “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged. … Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye.” Westboro’s hate is a huge plank.
Some argue that, although Westboro’s protests are despicable, they are not illegal. The fear is that if the high court restricts the group’s First Amendment right, it will have dire consequences for all of us. Private speech endorsing religion is protected under the Constitution’s Free Speech and Free Exercise clauses. People of faith always worry that a ruling limiting First Amendment rights could affect religious speech.
It seems, therefore, that the only way to combat the Westboro radicals and other hate groups is through counter-protests. When Westboro showed up in West Virginia, counter-demonstrators staged a far bigger rally.
While Westboro’s actions may be not be illegal, they are immoral and unethical. People of faith must remember that the law cannot be the sole decider of behavior. We should hold ourselves to a higher standard. The law may permit us to do certain things, but our religious convictions should restrain us.
Corey J. Hodges is pastor of New Pilgrim Baptist Church. He can be reached at coreyjhodges@comcast.net.
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Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 44.
#1. To: Ferret Mike (#0)
We, I'm glad to see you are doing your part to see His work is not perverted by hateful people. Even though you are posting this to disparage others, you are aligning your work with His. You just need to straighten out your attitude problem.
Standing by your convictions is not easy sometimes, standing by unpopular convictions like the Word of God, can be dangersous at times, it takes guts, perserverance, and those who go through life in a fog, not knowing what, or who to believe in, they can't deal with it unless it's with anger, and an attitude...it's all they have, it's takes faith in something to behave any other way, all they have is raw emotions. jmo
I agree. Hate the sinful, perverted behavior but love the sinner. Libs hate that, for some sick reason.
Is that both of you expressing your love for me? [snicker]
That tag line just drives you to distraction, doesn't it? I think I'll keep it around awhile . . . :-P
:-P Any tagline that is portrayed as an 'original' Murron quote is just too funny. Maybe you'd better try to find who she stole it from. I would guess BE.
Whining mold, I see you responded to whore's invitation to spam. Class shows through. If whore were honest and had virtue, he would have explained to you that I previously tried to iron out authorship with him (whore) and he devolved to catty name-calling. Frustrated by this, I returned Murron to the authorship since that is where I first read the quote. Don't like it or Murron? I don't care. Get a life and stop being at war's beck and call.
More of that love coming thru...
They all steal from each other to the point they all sound the same. There's not an original thought in the whole group.
BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! FROM THE SITE'S TWO PREMIER LIBERALS, NO LESS!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you, God for the great laugh.
I've found that cyberpace is filled with trillions, upon trillions of thoughts, ideas, and just plain words, that it's nigh on impossible to form an opinion that hasn't already been spoken. It doesn't mean that a person has stolen anything, it's that most of us do have the same thoughts, and/or opinions, you couldn't sling a dead cat out in cyberspace without hitting a thought or idea that hasn't already been posted somewhere. So these trolls who can't seem to come up with an original thought of their own (ironic, isn't it?), resort to attacking those who do express themselves, in an attempt to save face. jmo
#47. To: Murron (#44)
(Edited)
Translation: throw a dead cat in a library and it will hit a book with words I have used before. Honey, stop trying to save face; we forgive you for your misrepresentation of the words of others, but don't push your luck by trying to pass the blame off as belonging to us. I would quit before you push your luck to far. ....and what the heck is cyper pace anyway?
Speaking of unoriginal trolls who attack instead of contributing, I'm still waiting for your apology for this: " Skip is correct it happened under Bush. mininggold or lucysmom taught me that. But it was revealed when Obama was president. Then I owe him an apology, but I still haven't seen a link posted showing this, everywhere I go, the date '2009' pops up, so if you have a link to the original story connecting bush, I'd like to see it. Thanks! "I really wanna care. I wanna feel somethin'. Let me dig a little deeper:. No, My give-a-damn's busted"~ Messina Jo Dee Murron posted on 2010-09-12 0:03:24 ET Linkydink is here.
Murron gasped as she looked at the cover of the book the stiff, cold pussy hit in the library after trying to see if a worn metaphor she likes to use really does work in real life.
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#6. To: Rudgear (#1)
Even though you are posting this to disparage others, you are aligning your work with His. You just need to straighten out your attitude problem.
#7. To: Murron (#6)
#13. To: Rudgear, Murron (#7)
Well, [war's] got to do something for attention, his multiple personalities aren't speaking to him any more, and his imaginary friends keep finding excuses not to come over. (Murron)
#17. To: war (#13)
#18. To: Rudgear (#17)
That tag line just drives you to distraction, doesn't it? I think I'll keep it around awhile . . .
#22. To: mininggold, war (#18)
#25. To: Rudgear (#22)
Whining mold, I see you responded to whore's invitation to spam.
#29. To: war (#25)
More of that love coming thru...
#33. To: mininggold (#29)
They all steal from each other to the point they all sound the same. There's not an original thought in the whole group.
#44. To: Rudgear, mininggold (#33)
"They all steal from each other to the point they all sound the same. There's not an original thought in the whole group."
Replies to Comment # 44. "I've found that cyberpace is filled with trillions, upon trillions of thoughts, ideas, and just plain words, that it's nigh on impossible to form an opinion that hasn't already been spoken. It doesn't mean that a person has stolen anything, it's that most of us do have the same thoughts, and/or opinions, you couldn't sling a dead cat out in cyberspace without hitting a thought or idea that hasn't already been posted somewhere."
"So these trolls who can't seem to come up with an original thought of their own (ironic, isn't it?), resort to attacking those who do express themselves, in an attempt to save face."
#48. To: Murron (#44)
So these trolls who can't seem to come up with an original thought of their own (ironic, isn't it?), resort to attacking those who do express themselves, in an attempt to save face. jmo
#50. To: Murron (#44)
End Trace Mode for Comment # 44.
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