Modern Pharisees

In an article by CNN, which can be seen here, readers are told of the plans one church has to picket the funerals of those who died this past weekend at the attempted assassination of U.S.  representative Giffords.  Westboro Baptist Church has come to be more known as a "hate group" than a church.  This is likely because they have behaved more like a hate group than any church ever should.  Routinely they attend high-profile funerals or political events to make their stance on sin painfully clear.  The group has now decided to attend the funerals even of the innocent such as the nine year old girl who died this past weekend at the shooting.  So, what's next for this "church?"


My advice would be to stop calling themselves a Christian church.  As Christians we are told to take upon ourselves the same nature Christ did, which was that of a servant, humbling ourselves before others, loving our enemies and those who hate us (Philippians 2, Matthew 5).  I do not see this attitude amongst those in the Westboro Church.  Instead I see hypocritical and pharisaical attitudes of hate and judgement.  They attack those who have sinned... Don't you know, people of Westboro, you too have been found sinners!  Yet while you were still separated from God by your sinful nature, Christ died for you (Romans 5).  Only through Christ have you been found pure, and this not of yourselves, but as a gift from God Himself (Ephesians 2).  So, Christ tells us not to judge, for we will be judged in the same way (Matthew 7).


Christ came not to save the righteous, but sinners (Matthew 9).  He reached out to the lost and the Pharisees attacked Him for "eating with sinners" (Luke 19).  With love Jesus told the adulterous woman to turn from her sins.  Nor did He condemn the thief who hung on the cross next to Him, instead He forgave. 


This is not to say there is no wrong in sinning, but that we as Christians should reach out in love to those who are hurt and lost.  To help them turn from their sin.  To be patient and kind.  To love those who hate us.  To forgive as we have been forgiven.  


It is my hope that those at the Westboro Baptist Church will see this, and instead of spending money and time condemning the lost, would instead put all their efforts toward taking upon themselves the very nature of a servant.  If they will not, it is time they stop calling themselves a church... for that is not what they are.  They are not tarnishing their own name, nor ours, but Christ's.


To those who lost loved ones in the shooting this weekend, our prayers are with you all.  May you find peace in Christ Jesus.


Blessings.