Pondering Pastor

The Phelps family and Westboro Baptist Church members who hold pickets with this kind of sign didn’t have a good day in court on June 7th. In Baltimore, a federal judge failed to dismiss a defamation lawsuit against two members of the church filed by a father of a marine who died in Iraq. The story can be read here. In Nebraska, Shirley Phelps-Roper was charged with flag desecration when she allowed her 10 year old son to step on a US flag. Read about that here.

The people of Westboro Baptist Church believe that God is punishing the United States for its embrace of homosexuality by causing disasters like 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, and the Iraq war. Their publications are full of language I’d never use in public. They have been protesting in places guaranteed to get an audience.

(When things go against them, why isn’t that God punishing them for their sins)

I spent about 30 minutes listening to them about 6 years ago (pre 9/11) on a street corner in Indianapolis. I walked away feeling the same way as when I did after listening to the KKK at a rally. I felt dirty, embarrassed, and amazed at the power of an idea taken to an extreme, even when held only by a handful of people. The particular perspective consumes and influences absolutely every breath and act they take.

Our preferred methods of debate in this country (avoidance and confrontation) just don’t work in these instances. Both strategies play into the hands of the Phelps family and Westboro Baptist Church. In fact, they invite confrontation because it keeps them in the public eye.

They do much damage to Christianity and at the same time they issue some important challenges to mainline Christianity. How do we talk about God’s wrath and judgment without going overboard? When does our understanding of God’s grace become “cheap grace”? Do we spend more time at funerals honoring the dead than pointing to the promises of Christ?

And just what is the Christian response to Westboro Baptist Church?

On Memorial Day, 2007, rational Christians once again took a back seat to literalists. The “every word in my Bible is absolutely factual” crowd delighted to the opening of the Creation Museum in Boone County, KY. The story is easily accessible on the internet, one version can be found here. This museum actually depicts dinosaurs on “Noah’s Ark”. That’s pretty progressive compared to a friend of mine who used visits to a Natural History Museum to show her home schooled kids how God planted fossils in order to test our faith in the Biblical story of creation.

Not every word of scripture is equal … but then one would need to use the brain God gives us to figure out what is going on in scripture. One quick consideration: Jesus told “parables”. A parable is a teaching story. It doesn’t have to have actually happened. So, there probably isn’t a “prodigal son”, just as there isn’t a woman who lost one of her 10 coins and searched until she found it … then spent it on a celebration.

Likewise, there are other teaching stories/parables throughout scripture. Maybe the story of Jonah was one of them! Maybe the two different accounts of creation were teaching stories too! I think so! After all, there is no firmament in which stars are placed and that keep the water of the heavens from pouring down on the earth (Genesis 1). It doesn’t take much imagination to envision a scene where these stories are told around a campfire as the kids are getting ready for bed. It doesn’t take away from the truth. God has created us and all that exists. God cares about you … even those who don’t get it and want to put dinosaurs on board Noah’s Ark.

I’ve wanted a place to do some “pondering” aloud, without concern about my comments being tied to the congregation I serve. I anticipate this will be free-wheeling and varied. Not all of it will have to do with religion or faith, but since I am a pastor, that will certainly be a part of what influences me and my writing.