theology 101: blasphemy and freedom

Wellp, reckon at least one of ‘em’s a blaspeeeemer !
I know which side I’m rootin’ for.

After reading [Westboro Baptist Church] signs proclaiming God’s hatred for homosexuals and other assorted groups, [this here 9-yo kid] asked [his Mom] if he could create his own sign proclaiming his different view of God’s outlook.

His sign, written in pencil on a small sketchpad, read simply, “God Hates No One.” [more]

Mebbe not, but ol’ God sure as shootin’ has t’ be gettin’ a mite tired’a these jackasses.

Attaboy, kid. Be thankful you’re in a country that doesn’t allow ‘em to lop your head off or burn you at the stake for that.
(What? Oh, yeah.)
… and vice versa.

20 Comments!

  1. JoeBandMember®
    Posted May 14, 2012 at 6:24 pm |

    As the resident Christian fundamentalist whackjob in these parts, I can tell you the kid is definitely much closer to the truth that Phelps and his bunch.

  2. MCPO
    Posted May 14, 2012 at 6:40 pm |

    JoeBandMember – True.

  3. mech
    Posted May 14, 2012 at 6:45 pm |

    Notice the kid’s shirt?

    Curious.

    JoeBandMember, You’re not alone, just a bit more vocal.

  4. Ironic in Denver
    Posted May 14, 2012 at 7:03 pm |

    JoeBandMember – yeah.

    Mech, I’ve tried reading his shirt, and I can’t resolve the key thing. Wondered about it though.

    As everyone knows, this isn’t the only topic the WBC as come out on. Uh, maybe a poor choice of words there, but anyway….
    …imagine having and worshiping a god who pretty much hates everything & everybody.

    How painful is it to live like that?

    Buy I do wish they’d quit “sharing their pain.”

  5. Paul
    Posted May 14, 2012 at 7:58 pm |

    The Old Testament of the Bible says to “lay down with another man” is an abomination and to not suffer them to live.
    Leviticus 18:22.

    Now that is a fact (and there are several passages that reflect this in the Bible, Romans 1:26-28,Timothy 8-11…)

    But in the New Testament Jesus told the people who wanted to stone the woman caught in adultly to ‘let those without sin cast the first stone’. John 7:53-8:11 (But also keep in mind Jesus told the adulterer to ‘go and sin no more’.)

    Jesus also said, “Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so? Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. Matthew 5:43

    And it is also written,

    Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. Love does not demand its own way. Love is not irritable, and it keeps no record of when it has been wronged. It is never glad about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful and endures through every circumstance. Love will last forever …–1 Corinthians 13:4-8

    So while homosexuality is WRONG as for as the Christian beliefs (and most other religions) Christ wanted us to try to turn them back toward God, not by violence, but by love.

    And that is the big difference. See God does hate homosexuality, the sin, but he also loves the sinner.

  6. Freddie Sykes
    Posted May 14, 2012 at 8:07 pm |

    The sad state of the world is due in large part to the fact that the educational systems in many Muslim country is in the control of the Wahabbis, the immoral equivalent of the Westboro Baptist Church.

    Here is the sad truth of hatred: you can never hate a person because you can never KNOW a person. You can only hate the image of that person you hold in your mind. The Westboro people are reduced to hating what they imagine gay people are. What a life! Inviting images of people you think you hate to spend an inordinate amount of time in your consciousness.

  7. rickn8or
    Posted May 14, 2012 at 9:05 pm |

    …imagine having and worshiping a god who pretty much hates everything & everybody.”

    Sounds a bit like Allah…

  8. Alan outback bacon czar
    Posted May 14, 2012 at 9:50 pm |

    God hates Westboro Baptist Church.

  9. Merovign
    Posted May 15, 2012 at 12:37 am |

    The shirt is a Yalla Vote shirt, produced by the Arab American Institute. They’re a small but typical ethnic/race advocacy group, connected with Zogby, yes, the pollster. They also received some Soros funding but they don’t have much of a history of influence.

    As far as Westboro, the storybooks all say hate will burn up your life – seems like the storybooks are wrong, hateful, spiteful, nasty people are like freakin’ Energizer bunnies.

  10. Ironic in Denver
    Posted May 15, 2012 at 6:12 am |

    ^ Ok…. Thanks, Merovign. Hard to know how to take that.

    Actually, I’ve got a couple of t-shirts I got at Goodwill because they fit, were the right color, and cost 50 cents; so who knows? But still…

    …ok, I’ve got no clue, so moving on here.

    Is ironic that we’ve got a kid in a muslim-afiliate shirt correcting an allegedly christian group about gay-hating though, isn’t it?

  11. DougM (jackassophobe)
    Posted May 15, 2012 at 7:57 am |

    Joe (1)
    If I’m wrong, I’m countin’ on you bein’ right.

    Freddie (6)
    Thanks for seein’ the Wahabbist/WBC connection.

    rickn8or (7)
    Yeah, dunnit, though.

    Alan (8)
    Nah, I’m with Joe (1). That’s why I said “a mite tired.”
    Kind’a like a long-suffering parent, I reckon/hope.

    Merovign (9a)
    Thanks. I didn’t address that, ’cause I didn’t think it affected his message.
    It’s impossible to disagree with everything that somebody one disagrees with says.
    One may, however, find oneself totally opposed to how they arrived at that sentiment; but we don’t know what that is, here. Now, if his protest were some anti-Christian slander, that’d be different; but here, it appears to be just counter-jackass. I’m cool with counter-jackass.
    (What? No, I ignored the stopped-clock analogy.)

    Merovign (9b)
    Hate is an anodyne (see post “Whoa!” above) and an accelerant, as well as a self-generated insulation against reason.
    (Anger, conviction, and passion are wayyy more useful.)

    Ironic (10)
    Ironic, indeed!
    Hence, my “Be thankful …” point.
    I doubt if his sign would go over well in certain mosques.

  12. RonF
    Posted May 15, 2012 at 8:52 am |

    No fan of gay “marriage”, but a big fan of “hate the sin, love the sinner”. Yeah, too often people have first whipped up hate against the sin and then forgot the second part – or ignored it, or trampled it in the dust – but that doesn’t invalidate either part of the original mesage.

  13. PatrickP
    Posted May 15, 2012 at 11:06 am |

    God hates semi-literate, tacky, inbred, white trash, fundamentalist pieces of shit. Says so in the Bible. Second Timothy or something like that.

  14. Ironic in Denver
    Posted May 15, 2012 at 1:49 pm |

    God hates semi-literate, tacky, inbred white trash, shitism. He loves the shitter.

    (On this matter, I can aspire to follow in His footsteps, though I sometimes often fall short, and sometimes I do not aspire at all.)

  15. katzemeow
    Posted May 15, 2012 at 2:55 pm |

    I came to the realization recently that a good chunck of the 10 comandments are more about saving yourself from wallowing in misery than directly about being religous. (Yes I know that by following them you “make God happy” – but you make God happy by not giving into the darkness, which is what saves the soul)

  16. PatrickP
    Posted May 15, 2012 at 3:00 pm |

    God loves everyone. But some of us please Him more than others.

  17. Ironic in Denver
    Posted May 15, 2012 at 5:21 pm |

    katzemeow: shoooooooozzzzzzzzzzz!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :-D

    More seriously, your (15) is an interesting post. I want to think about that some.
    Also: the principle would probably apply to more than just the Big 10.

  18. Ironic in Denver
    Posted May 15, 2012 at 5:29 pm |

    God loves everyone. But some of us please Him more than others.

    Perhaps, but if so, which of us are thought to be most pleasing seems to depend on the point of view.

    (Abdul, hand me the scimitar, I want to behead some more: infidels, fags, whores, witches, protestants, catholics, heretics, lefties, righties, profligate spenders, tightwads, rock-and-rollers, holy rollers, etc…. and all books and web sites that don’t agree with me should be burned to prevent the intellectual and moral contamination of the public.)

  19. Ironic in Denver
    Posted May 15, 2012 at 5:31 pm |

    ^ Also, I feel in my heart that the post I just made here is the most pleasing thing God has seen all day.

  20. JoeBandMember®
    Posted May 15, 2012 at 6:24 pm |

    Westboro comes under the heading of false prophets.

    Read the book of Revelation to see what’s in store for them.

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