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LETTERS:   A test of faith with Freddie and the Fanatics

To the editor:

“You’d better watch out, you’d better not cry, better not pout, I’m telling you why: Santa Claus is coming to town!”

I suspect Christians and non-Christians could agree with me on at least one thing — substituting the words “Fred Phelps” for “Santa Claus” in that treasured little Christmas ditty is a thoroughly disgusting proposition.

“God Hates Fags” isn’t high on anyone’s list of favorite season’s greetings, save for Phelps and the Brother Fred Travelling Damnation Show of Westboro Baptist Church. But coming to town they are, to a church near you, this Sunday. Be sure to arrive early to get the best view.

Verses in the Bible about hating are the ones that consume Phelps. The Bible says God hates evil acts and evil people. Believers are to hate evil. The vengeful God in Revelation will instill hate in others to destroy an evil world. Old Testament prophets who were bluntly outspoken in condemning the sins of nations are his models. And because Phelps has honed in on the Scriptures about hate, he is blind to the ultimate message of Good News revealed to others.

Phelps and his flock have raised twisted and perverted preaching of their home-cooked version of God’s message to a grotesque art form. It is deeply and rightfully abhorrent to Christians who personally know the God of love and salvation to see Westboro Baptist Church hijack families in pain and sorrow for their own purposes.

But the arrival of Phelps and his minions in Marion Sunday provides followers of the Lord of love and salvation with one of the sternest tests of faith they are likely to face in their walk with God — how do you love the unlovable?

One of the most remarkable things to spring from true Christian salvation is the ability to let God love others through you. If you need help getting started, focus on the children. There are almost always children among the WBC protesters. How could anyone not find it in their hearts to love a 6-year-old girl, carefully taught and deliberately warped to proclaim hateful words she cannot understand?

It is difficult for people to imagine loving someone shouting in their faces that they are evil and are going to burn in Hell. That’s not the stuff of which warm fuzzies are made. Truly loving these hateful protesters will ultimately rest in believers’ dependence on God’s grace and strength.

Jesus deliberately gave a two-part answer to the question of what is the greatest commandment. To love just God was incomplete — loving your neighbor is necessary as well. Not tolerate or suffer your neighbor — love them. The answer doesn’t let the believer off the hook with saying “God loves you;” the answer compels the believer to add, in a holy and meaningful way, “and so do I.”

Think what a witness it would be to the power of God through Jesus Christ if Monday’s lead story in the Wichita Eagle has the headline, “Marion Christians Love Fred Phelps.” That would make all the national broadcasts. Phelps and his clan come and go without so much as a single discouraging word, leave with clean windshields instead of slashed tires, maybe even with some donuts for the ride home — and a community of people praying for them.

Does that sound crazy? Of course it does. But isn’t faith all about going crazy over something?

It is hard, so very hard for those who have witnessed and experienced unbelievable pain and anguish inflicted by Phelps and his followers to even consider loving them. It seems impossible.

But for believers, it is possible. Loving people while despising their behaviors is possible. It’s called for. Not “love your well-behaved, right-thinking neighbor” — love your neighbor. Love the unlovable. Crazy. Radical. Christian.

And hey — didn’t God already do it for us? What do you think Christmas is all about?

“For God so loved the world ….”

David W. Colburn
Marion

Last modified Dec. 9, 2010

 

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