The Infamous Eleven

Maybe you’ve seen that church group from Topeka, Kansas that attends the funerals of soldiers slain in battle, and holds up signs with hateful sayings on them. Their favorite seems to be “God Hates Fags”. In fact, that’s even the name of their website.

Wikipedia reports that their church has 71 confirmed members, 60 of whom are related to the pastor. Apparently this pastor is the patriarch of a large family who all inherited his ‘hate’ gene, and blindly follow him in his folly. And a church packed full with the members of one confused and demented family is fairly easy to understand and dismiss.

---

A church packed full with the members of one confused and demented family is fairly easy to understand and dismiss...

---

But my question is, “Who are these other 11?” I mean, does somebody just drive down the street, pass a church with a sign that says “God Hates Fags” and say, “Hey Martha, let’s visit that church” - “Sure George, they look like the nicest people.”

And how dysfunctional does a brain have to be to somehow link a soldier slain in battle to the concept of homosexuality? The soldiers whose funerals they protest were not even homosexuals… at least not to the public’s knowledge. But their claim is that the death of these American heroes is God judging our nation.

There are two problems with their theology (at least):

1) God does not hate homosexuals. In fact, God loves sinners - ALL sinners - so much that he sent his Son Jesus as a sacrificial lamb to pay the price for their sins, be they homosexuality or hatemongering, murder or adultery, or even my weaknesses – gluttony and envy.

2) God is not judging this great nation. The fact of the matter is, God ALREADY judged this nation, along with all the other 200 or so nations on this earth. That judgment took place 2000 years ago at a little place in the Middle East called Calvary! God’s judgment fell on Jesus Christ at Calvary, and Christ paid the uttermost price.

OK… lest you get the wrong idea, I agree that homosexuality is a sin. And I too am amazed and appalled that it has become so accepted in our “modern” society that the ones speaking out against it are characterized as bigots. And I appreciate and support those who are willing to take a stand against homosexuals wanting to be treated as if their lifestyle falls somewhere within the range or normalcy.

But folks, it’s time to revisit the concept of “Hate the Sin – Love the Sinner”. After all, that’s what God does. And Jesus… he does that. So I’m trying to do it too. Besides, I’ve figured out that if somebody has to be sin free to be my friend, then the guest list for my parties would be pretty short. Let’s see… there’s God… and Jesus… Actually I wouldn’t even be able to come to my own party! Jesus – lock up on the way out, will ya?

Ya know, to make this party really interesting I might even invite George and Martha, and the rest of the Infamous Eleven. But that’s where I draw the line on guests from that church! After all, I might be inviting some homosexuals to the party.

http://www.everystockphoto.com/photo.php?imageId=2443719