There’s really nothing good about the news that Westboro Baptist Church plans to picket East Lansing High School on Thursday. Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) is well known for protesting funerals, desecrating American flags, and promoting its signature message that “God Hates Fags.” A trip to the Westboro website makes you wonder if this “church” (actually, Pastor Fred Phelps and his large family) is completely sane. What kind of group announces they’re going “to picket the worthless brats who attend East Lansing High School”? And why are they coming to our fair town anyway? I don’t think anyone really knows, other than that it appears they’ll already be in the area.
There are many reasons to protest the sign-wavers from Kansas. WBC is rude, disrespectful, tone deaf, strident, mean-spirited, and foolish in the way they choose to communicate. And worst of all, as far as I can tell, their message has no gospel, no good news for sinners in need of a Savior. I don’t want to dignify WBC by trying to reason with them. When your chief (sole?) means of communicating with the public involves picketing and press releases, I can’t believe you are seriously interested in interacting with other people’s ideas (and oh yeah, on their web page it says zero equals the number of “nanoseconds of sleep that WBC members lose over your opinions and feeeeellllliiiiiings.”).
But might there be something conservative evangelicals can learn from Westboro? Not any positive lessons mind you, but anything we can glean from their monumentally misguided example? Let me suggest three things.
1. Any truth promoted to the exclusion of other truths can become an untruth.
WBC seems particularly anxious to celebrate the wrath of God. Their web site contains numerous references to God’s judgment and his hatred for sin and for sinners. These things are true and need to be defended in our day. But when WBC gives exact figures for the number of people damned while visiting their website, it’s safe to say we’re visiting the lunatic fringe. God’s hatred for sinners is mentioned in the Psalms and elsewhere, but it’s hardly the essence of the apostolic deposit, certainly not all by itself. The biblical storyline is about how God so loved the world that he gave his only Son that whosoever believes in him might not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16).
Yes, divine grace apart from divine wrath is meaningless. I would be the last person to deny the doctrine of hell. But the preaching of the gospel celebrates rescue not reprobation. WBC quotes a lot of Bible verses, but it is possible to quote a lot of the Bible and quote it in such a way and in such a context that you’re actually conveying something quite contrary to the message of the Bible.
2. It matters how we’re heard.
I don’t believe WBC has any interest in persuading anyone of anything. Their goal is protest and provocation. But if we are concerned to “win some” as the Bible would have us be, then we must consider how we are heard. Of course, this does not mean we change the message for a fickle audience. But it does mean there’s no reason ever to use the word “fag” to describe homosexuals. It gains nothing, wins a hearing with no one. Whatever the derivation of the word, it is now a slur. I understand that sometimes people will hate Christians no matter how mealy-mouthed they make their pronouncements. Some offendedness we can’t avoid. But we can avoid needless provocation. Yes, tone does matter.
3. We must refuse to play into the binary stereotype which says the opposite of unconditional affirmation is fuming hatred.
There are two ways to make Americans more and more accepting of homosexuality: one is by making same-gender erotic relationships look normal and the other is by making those who oppose them look nasty. Everything about WBC plays into the thinking that says “either you approve of homosexuality or you despise homosexuals.” This is one of the things that makes their visit to East Lansing so sad. It’s sad to think of the students who will feel rightly repulsed by the in-your-face “God Hates Fags” provocation, and then will figure the only safe place away from that rhetoric is to land far on the side of “God couldn’t be angry with anyone or anything for any reason.”
If I were a pro-gay advocate, I’d send camera crews to follow WBC wherever they go. I’d send them money and buy them oversized signs and markers. Every “God Hates Fags” protest makes it harder for orthodox Christians to say what the Bible says, that God is angry with homosexuals (and with all sinners), but lovingly calls them (and us) to repent, to change, to be forgiven in Christ.
For all the parents and students in East Lansing, please know that this pastor of an East Lansing church is sorry for the picketing, sorry for the hurt and confusion it will cause, and sorry that a better message isn’t being shouted from the rooftops–the message that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and the by believing you may have life in his name (John 20:31).
