For the next week or so, our fair city gets its turn with Westboro Baptist Church. Today there were protests and counter-protests in several different locations around Savannah.
This is a difficult issue for Christians. Frankly, there seems to be no obviously good option for how to respond. In talking with other Christ followers, I've heard a range of ways that the church is choosing to handle the Westboro visit.
As for our family, our decision for today (and the remainder of Westboro's time here) is to actively ignore them. The reality is that the folks from Westboro would quickly stop their nonsense if everyone simply left them alone. They travel from city to city in anticipation of protests, near riots, anger, hatred, violence, etc. Westboro Baptist visits with no intention of listening to the gospel. They have one message, and we all know what that is.
Some Christians decide to protest against them, try to share the gospel with them, or a combination of the two. May God bless them as they do so.
Our decision to ignore this group is based on the idea that the gospel itself is a precious message. It strikes me that trying to share the good news of Christ-crucified in that atmosphere is sort of like casting pearls before swine. I have no desire to do this, and as I said above do not want to give them any attention.
Instead, this morning we got together with our church family for a time of encouragement, singing, testimony, teaching, prayer, scripture reading, and eating. It was great.
As for Westboro, I'll be glad when they leave. Let's all ignore them that they may run out of money and stop taking their hatred to other cities.
This is a difficult issue for Christians. Frankly, there seems to be no obviously good option for how to respond. In talking with other Christ followers, I've heard a range of ways that the church is choosing to handle the Westboro visit.
As for our family, our decision for today (and the remainder of Westboro's time here) is to actively ignore them. The reality is that the folks from Westboro would quickly stop their nonsense if everyone simply left them alone. They travel from city to city in anticipation of protests, near riots, anger, hatred, violence, etc. Westboro Baptist visits with no intention of listening to the gospel. They have one message, and we all know what that is.
Some Christians decide to protest against them, try to share the gospel with them, or a combination of the two. May God bless them as they do so.
Our decision to ignore this group is based on the idea that the gospel itself is a precious message. It strikes me that trying to share the good news of Christ-crucified in that atmosphere is sort of like casting pearls before swine. I have no desire to do this, and as I said above do not want to give them any attention.
Instead, this morning we got together with our church family for a time of encouragement, singing, testimony, teaching, prayer, scripture reading, and eating. It was great.
As for Westboro, I'll be glad when they leave. Let's all ignore them that they may run out of money and stop taking their hatred to other cities.
2 comments:
as you probably already know, we went downtown to the protests this morning. I wrote a blog about our experience and some of the lessons learned.
I understand your reasons for not going and I don't blame you. I wrestled with the same ideas the last few weeks. I knew that God wanted me to go and I wasn't sure why. I went even though I had no plans or agenda other than preaching Christ and that is exactly what God brought us there to do.
I missed the gathering of our church family this morning. I wish I could have been in two places at once. Since I cant, I'm glad that as the end of the day approaches I know that I was obedient and that Christ goes with me. We don't have to go to a special place to meet with Him.
Miss you bro
Hi Bobby,
I'm glad you followed your convictions in this matter. This is probably one of those issues of freedom that we have in Christ.
This is also an example of Christians disagreeing about a particular issue but not being divided over it.
I hope we can get together soon.
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