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Who loves the Westboro Baptist Church

In case you’ve never heard of them, the Westboro Baptist Church are the folks who are infamous for picketing the funerals of soldiers with signs that say things like “God hates fags.”

It’s become very fashionable on Facebook and such to take “brave” stands against them.

Um… that’s not brave. They’re midguided idiots with no power. Everyone who’s decent in any way despises their conduct. Protesting and standing against the Westboro Baptist Church is as safe, cozy, and majoritarian as it gets.

It’s easy to hate them.

Who is bringing them the gospel?

Many folks on the left of American politics might be surprised to learn that I — a passionate conservative Christian — believe I have more reason to hate the Westboro Baptist Church than they do. After all, every day, with every protest, with every hateful sign, they profane the name of my best friend and King.

I know Jesus. He’s a friend of mine. He does not hate any human being. He would never use a word like “fags.”  And every time the Westboro Baptist Church says otherwise, they are spreading a painful lie about someone I love.

The conduct of the Westboro Baptist Church is best described as sin. They are, quite literally, taking the name of the Lord in vain.

The bible provides guidance about how to deal with someone who calls himself “Christian” and yet not only sins but refuses to change that behavior:

“If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over. But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church; and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector. –Matthew 18:15-17

So what should we do with the Westboro Baptist Church? We should treat them as those who don’t yet believe, or as tax collectors, one of the most hated groups in biblical times.

But what did Jesus say to the most famous tax collector in the bible?

As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him. –Matthew 9:9

That, my friends, is the story of Matthew, the author of the first gospel.

If we are to follow the Matthew 18 guidance about how to deal with unrepentant sinners who call themselves Christians, it’s about time someone starts loving them, inviting them in, and telling them the truth about Jesus. No one needs to hear it more.

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Jesus On Economic Freedom

There’s a very well known parable that Jesus tells, about hiring workers in a vineyard. In the parable, the vineyard owner goes out in the morning and hires some workers at the rate of a denarius for their days work. They go out to work, while the owner comes back to the marketplace at noon and again in evening, hiring more and more workers, promising each of them a denarius as well.

At the end of the day, the ones who started very late in the day are paid, and they get a denarius. When they ones who started at the beginning of the day get paid, they’re angry when they only get a denarius as well.

They protest to the vineyard owner, saying basically “Hey, we worked much longer, we deserve much more.”

Add this is the landowner’s reply, according to Jesus:

But he answered one of them, ‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’ –Matthew 20:13-15

It’s hard for me to imagine any clearer answer to the question of whether Jesus is in favor of economic freedom.

1) You agreed to work for it, so this wage is not unfair.

2) I have the right to do what I want with my own money.

And lest anyone doubt, at the beginning of the parable, Jesus specifically says the Kingdom of Heaven will be as described in this parable.

Now, before anyone goes overboard, this is a parable. It’s designed to show through story some aspects of what it’s like when we place ourselves completely under God’s rule. The parable is not about the landowner and his workers. It’s about the fact that God gives eternal life to everyone who chooses to be with him, regardless of how hard they worked or how long.

But the landowner does represent God in this parable, and Jesus would not represent the father with a person of whose conduct he disapproved.

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Love One Another

http://bible.com/111/HEB13.1.NIV

Keep on loving one another as brothers and sisters. Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it. Continue to remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.
Bible.com/app

I love how he says “continue” here. If anyone thinks that God views humans only as a collection of sins, here is an example where be believes the best of us.

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The Truth Shall Set You Free

I’m going to transfer my very occasional series of posts that I call “The truth shall set you free” over to this blog. For those just joining, the series is a response to the concept of the social gospel, or social justice gospel.

The social justice gospel holds that Jesus’s teaching about helping the poor should lead us to support laws that help the poor.

My response is that Jesus absolutely positively did teach that those who followed him should love and give our lives up to help everyone who needs help — people who are poor, people who are oppressed, people who are sick, and many others.

But he always — always, always, always — charged you to do it. He never said “get the government to help the poor.” He never said “pass a law making sure everyone else helps the poor.” He certainly never said “use the implied threat of force to coerce people into helping the poor.”

You. Yes, you. The one looking down at your smartphone right now. You. Get out and help the poor.

Those who read Taking Jesus Seriously will hopefully remember that posts in this series generally focus on a particular verse or set of verses that I’ve read that day which seem relevant to the question of whether Jesus’ teaching to help the poor is model legislation or a guide for individual people’s lives. This is the one on my heart today:

“If someone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need but shows no compassion—how can God’s love be in that person? Dear children, let’s not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions.” — 1 John 3:17-18 (NLT)

This clearly says “take from what you have and give it to those who are in need.” The showing of compassion is directly and clearly tied to an individual person (“someone” does not indicate a society or class of people) and their personally owned resources.

So get out there and love the poor. Do what you can to help them. Don’t let slips into self-indulgence or acquisitiveness make you feel like you can’t do it. Just get back on the horse and try again.

Don’t wait for, expect, or try to force someone else to help the poor. Help them!

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Thanks for stopping by!

This page is currently inactive. It used to be the home of my blog about Jesus, but that’s now located at www.takingjesusseriously.com.  This page also used to be the home of my write-in campaign for Clerk of the Montana Supreme Court. That campaign is over. All those who helped me, working together, earned 4,400 votes, which is pretty amazing for not even being on the ballot. Thanks to all of you!

Not much is being done with this page at the moment. Why not click on over to www.takingjesusseriously.com?  You might find that God is way more than everything you’ve ever been led to expect.