Our friends who brought us "God Hates Fags" are at it again, this time attacking Lady Gaga. I guess they haven't had enough air time lately. Here is the poster. I don't recommend looking at it while eating.
Mr. L, a wonderful person on a forum that I currently frequent (when I have time between graduate school responsibilities) wrote the response below. It is long, but I think it sums up my feelings about this.
The careless ignorant misuse of the Bible by these possessed of a spirit of arrogant legalism lends itself to the worst of the worst in self-righteousness and unauthorized, self-appointed condemnation of human beings. These kind have a dangerous assurance that their knowledge of some scripture licenses them to aggressively lock, load and aim it at whomever they deem to be unworthy then firing it as an assault weapon, grants them immunity from their own foul-smelling stench ascending into the nostrils of God.
The Bible has become a hotly despised object of ridicule and scorn largely through this kind of unskilled, unqualified knuckleknobbery advancing itself in the world. One of my favorite non-scriptural quotes is, "the trouble with ignorance is that it picks up confidence as it goes along". How true that is in this situation. Groups of individuals convinced they are performing a vital service to God by selecting their favorite "sinners" and condemning them to death in His Name. The most grievous part of this to me is that the same Bible they use as a death-sentencing tool against their targeted segments of society, is the very same Bible that I utterly rely upon for my spiritual life, enlightenment and sustinence.
When I was about 12, I knew way down deep inside of myself there was something quite wrong and missing in my life. Being a preacher’s kid, I went to the "Good Book" that I was raised upon to receive any kind of guidance. Other than finding so-and-so begat so-and-so kinds of scriptures, I ran into the Old Testament’s harsh pronouncements of God’s judgments over nations who defied and fought against Him (not unlike the kind of scriptures shown in the hate flyer distributed by Westboro). It terrified me! I was not finding guidance or comfort but rather condemnation and hopelessness because I thought those scriptures were talking to me personally. I came away believing that God was irretrievably angry with me, a 12-year-old kid who really hadn’t lived long enough to piss Him off that badly! My emptiness and despair multiplied greatly after those attempts at reaching out for answers and they followed me through my crucial and formative teen-age growing up years.
Having this fixed image of a God of wrath abiding within my heart for the next 7+ years, I felt that I was on spiritual death row just waiting to be executed at God’s predesignated date and time. The Westboro bunch would’ve been proud of how submissive I was to accept my punishment from God since I didn’t have a single legitimate argument as to why He shouldn’t wipe me off the map. This dreaded existence that had sucked all initiative from my life suddenly dissolved in an instant upon my hearing the Good News (FROM THE SAME BIBLE!!!) of my acquittal from any and all offenses toward God through no right actions or behavioral modifications of my own. The knowledge of the gift of God’s abundant Grace was brought to my conscience and I was forever changed through the acceptance of His Son’s single sacrifice and that began to affect and influence my actions and behavior but again, only AFTER my heart’s comprehension of this Grace.
Wisdom has taught me that without the revelation of the Good News of Grace, the Bible can kill a person through harsh, razor-sharp legalism. This is how I believe hateful judgmentalism is born or at least incubated amongst so-called "Christian" groups. They cite "God’s Word" for their justification of condemning individuals to hell. My challenge is this from their same Bible:
"While we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly". If God is so all-fired hyped up about killing sinners, it seems He wasted a perfectly good Son to die on their behalf, as their substitute.
"For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment".
"Do not speak evil of one another, brethren. He who speaks evil of a brother and judges his brother, speaks evil of the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. There is one Lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy. Who are you to judge another?"
As an aside, I’m pretty sure it’s not referring to Pearl Forrester as being the Lawgiver in this particular instance.
The God I’ve come to know and love has an entirely different Spirit than the cruel representation of Him made on that flyer. I can think of no greater contrast between the two attitudes of the heart than from the scripture itself where it speaks of legalists possessed of the same kind of spirit as the Westboro group, and how they responded to a man named Stephen who was full of faith and under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
These legalists fancied themselves as God’s appointed leaders over the people. Stephen, described as a man "full of faith" and filled with the Spirit of God, as a skillful surgeon cut deeply into the legalists false doctrine so much so that they could no longer bear up under the verbal stripping away of their facade before the masses and being cut to the heart, they gnashed upon him with their teeth. After exclaiming that he was seeing the heavens opened and the Son of Man (Christ) standing at God’s right hand, they stopped their ears with their fingers and rushed Stephen to stone him to death. As the stones began to penetrate, beating out his life, Stephen fell to his knees begging God not to charge his murder to their account. He wasn’t begging help for himself, nor was he demading justice or judgment to fall upon them. He was pleading mercy for the hateful, merciless legalists. That sounds a lot like Christ when He was up on the cross appealing to God to forgive those responsible for crucifying Him, reminding God that "they know not what they do", even though in their mind, they were confidently convinced they DID know what they were doing.
So, who are WE to judge?
In most of the online arguments I read from non-believers, one of their biggest gripes goes something like, "I thought Jesus taught people not to judge other people". They have a good case here. Through a little study of the original word, "judge", I discovered it means to "condemn or pronounce sentencing over". I marvel at the self-appointed judges (may I say here that I find that folks owning this kind of spirit aren’t necessarily exclusively Christians, believers or church-goers) who have the audacity to wholly involve their focus upon another’s manner of life as if they themselves have no fault or error to deal with in their own life. So, from what I ascertain, we are not to ever allow our heart to exalt itself into a position of condemning or pronouncing sentencing over other individuals–EVER!
Does this mean that believers are to be devoid of any capacity to judge matters and to be absolutely enslaved or subject to whatever their neighbor, local government or nation declares to be right and wrong? Scripturally, believers are to be shining examples of those who are submitted to the laws of the land, those dispossessed of any penchant toward a rebellious spirit of hatred and defiance toward legitimate authority. But, there are increasing instances where the laws of the land are willfully separating from God’s influence and going crosswise of His declarations of right and wrong, thus placing believers in a position of having to judge matters for their own individual lives. This is not the kind of judgment of condemnation or pronouncing sentencing over others but rather the judgment of determining and discerning for their own lives what course of action to take. In cases like this, I believe judgment is imperative, in fact irresponsible if not regarded.
There is an instance of intentional civil disobedience demonstrated by Peter, an esteemed leader of the early church. It did not involve an attitude of defiance or angry rebellion but it resulted in disobedience to local authority nonetheless. Back then, the early church was very much alive, flourishing in grace and faith with miracles being commonplace in the days before legalism and unbelief overtook it reducing its stature to a current state of intellectualism and dead works driven by rules and regulations and spiritual weakness that pervades today.
Peter was involved in the manifestation of a notable a miracle upon a long-time, local resident in the community, crippled from birth. The man’s total physical restoration caused no small stir amongst the people. The religiously driven local government got nervous and commanded Peter and his band of renegades to stop preaching Christ and to cease performing miracles. Without malice, yet forthright, Peter replied, "Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard".
I find it refreshingly different that back then, the Church was in trouble with the authorities for demonstrating an unmistakably superior power to anything this world or earth had ever known. It wasn’t the spiritually empty and hateful Westboro-ian legalism attacking homosexuals, entertainers etc. It was the Church operating under the power and authority of God, reaching out to mankind with God’s goodness, love and grace. The reason the existing authority was in an uproar is that thousands were daily connecting with this electrifying power, joyfully leaving behind the existing organized deadness of religion, this phenomena threatening the jobs of those who ruled with a rigid, iron fist.
So, it is this blogger’s opinion that no one has condemnation or pronouncement of judgment rights over another aka sweep your own back porch! However, I still believe that believers have a right and responsibility to pursue the Grace of God and obey His Love wherever possible with or without the approval of the religious, non-religious or governmental entities.
Truthfully, every day there are many words, beliefs and attitudes that flow freely from the hearts, minds and mouths of people I dearly love that my own conscience and heart diametrically opposes but at the end of the day, my measure of rule ends at the borders of my own heart, mind and conscience. I listen to others and if my heart bears witness, I happily toss it into the mix. If I get an inner red flag, I don’t take that as an automatic carte blanche to judgmentally attack someone with whom I disagree. The red flag is for me to judge what I am supposed to do or not do for me not them. The exceptions to this are if someone innocent is being harmed. I tend to run to an underdog’s defense in a heartbeat. Janis is worse than me. She got fatigue jammies for Christmas which serves as a reminder that you don’t want any of her if you plan on picking on someone unable to defend themselves whom she determines is being treated unfairly. *Shudders*.
Amen, Brother L.
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