Buyer Beware

One of the downsides to the rampant religious freedom in this society is that absolutely anyone can call themselves a church. This isn't a rant on Scientology, but that's a "religion" made out of whole cloth by a science fiction writer so, c'mon, how much more proof do you need? So last week when I came across some YouTube videos about the Westboro Baptist Church my first reaction was extreme anger. WBC is the "church" that protests at funerals of soldiers and announces that "God hates fags"! What drew my attention was their announcement that they would protest at funerals and vigils for the slain students at Northern Illinois University. I spent my entire ministry career in Northern Illinois and some of my former youth group kids are still students at that school. The Valentine's Day shooting was very traumatic for me even though none of the kids I know were in that classroom.

So along comes this nut job "church" that primarily consists of "Pastor" Fred Phelps and his progeny calling themselves Christian and spewing hatred and vitriol backed by scripture. They've been denounced by every legitimate Christian organization I can think of, including the real Baptists. They come out of Kansas and make a name for themselves by claiming every human tragedy is somehow God's retribution for our tolerance of homosexuals. It makes me wonder if Fred Phelps is a latent homosexual trying to work out his own salvation by attacking his own kind.

Out of my anger I wanted to heap scripture and tons of righteous condemnation on Westboro Baptist Church. Then I took a breath (or two) and realized that this sad, pathetic man and his highly dysfunctional family aren't really a church. At least not a Christian church. They get to call themselves a church because we live in a country that allows freedom of religion. As a country we don't discriminate when it comes to calling some whacked out idea a church. That makes it all the more important that, as individuals, we are discriminating. Just because someone hangs a shingle out front that says "Church" doesn't mean that what's going on inside is Biblical, God honoring and Christ centered. Even churches that are connected to mainline Christian denominations can stray from the truth. No church is perfect.

The saddest part of all this is that Westboro Baptist Church often makes the news with their shenanigans. The news doesn't distinguish between real, loving, compassionate Christ following Christians and the WBC wackos. We all get lumped together and the non-believer's view of Christians takes another beating. I guess the bottom-line for me is that people know that no single individual, group or "church" is a fair representation of Jesus Christ. If you're looking for a body of believers to connect with be ready for a process that will take time, effort, thought and probably a very large dose of common sense on your part. Not everyone who claims the title Christian actually is...and that's a bit of wisdom straight out of the Bible!