War and Religion

Today, Lacey posted a link to a newspaper article on the protesting happening at military funerals. I have to tell you how sickened I am. Not only because these people are protesting the war at military funerals, but because they call themselves Christians. These people from Westboro Baptist Church (located in Kansas) hold up signs saying "Thank God for Dead Soldiers," "You're Going to Hell," and "God Hates the USA."

I'm not kidding.

The absolute worst part of this is that these people call themselves Christians. Let me tell you this:

Under any circumstances, Christians DO NOT behave this way. Ever.

In the article, a woman said that "if you want them to stop dying, stop sinning." Well, geez. If it were that easy, don't you think people would have stopped sinning a long time ago?! It's not that easy!!!

What gets me is that this church is supposedly Baptist. Joe and I were both raised in Baptist churches. We were taught that Christians were NEVER supposed to act this way or say these things. EVER.

We believe that Jesus was born of a virgin, lived a perfect life and then gave His life for us on the cross. He gave His life so that we - sinners - could have a relationship with God. He died so that His blood would cover our sin. He died so that we wouldn't have to!

We do not believe that the death of soldiers is because of the sin of the world. War is a product of our sin nature. Since we live in an imperfect world where our enemy, Satan, is always at work, war is a necessary evil. God is NOT punishing our soldiers. Does God allow the evil to happen? Yes. Does God allow these men and women to die? Yes. But every single one of us will die in the flesh one day. That's just part of the world we live in. That's what happened when Adam and Eve sinned. They condemned us all to die of the flesh. But, we don't have to endure an eternal death, thanks to Jesus' sacrifice for us. (John 3:16, Romans 5:8-9)

It breaks God's heart when we sin. He doesn't want us to, but He knows that it's in our nature. He knows that we - unlike Him - are not perfect. He wants us to try to be like him. He wants us to strive to be like Him. The punishment for sin is death, indeed. (Romans 6:23) But the punishment doesn't come in this life here on earth. It comes after our death on earth. Personally, that's the one I'm more concerned with.

I will confidently say that God is severely disappointed in the members of Westboro Baptist Church. His heart is breaking for the families that these so-called Christians are ridiculing. If you want to be anti-war, that's one thing. Using the name of God in this way is despicable. Free speech aside, these attacks on military families are, for lack of a better word, cruel. God does not want us to be cruel. He wants us to hurt for these people, to comfort them! We are supposed to be their crying shoulder. People who do not believe in God will not reach out to people who criticize them day in and day out! They won't! People who don't believe in God will reach out to those they can trust. People who love them, care about them, and care about what they care about.

My heart breaks for the families who have had to endure their sons' and daughters' funerals through the picketing and protesting. The death of a service member, son, daughter, mother, father, sister, brother, aunt, uncle, etc. is hard enough without so-called Christians telling them that their loved ones wouldn't have died if they had just stopped sinning. It hurts them so much more. What if they don't believe in God? What if they were desperate for someone to reach out to, but now since you - the people of Westboro Church - have protested at the funeral of their loved one, they think that Christians are terrible people? What if they will never again reach out to God because of what YOU did? May God have mercy on you. Only you will be responsible for your actions in this life. We will all have to answer for our actions one day.

I pray that this church realizes this NOW and stops hurting these precious people. God loves these people. God loves every single person on this planet whether they know Him or not. He longs for a relationship with them. This is not the way to reach people. It is, however, a really good way to keep them away from God and, ultimately, to condemn them to Hell.