So backwards..

Just outside, Brother Jed and his wife are preaching hate, condemnation, judgement, eternal suffering, etc.  

The Pride Alliance club, a self-proclaimed safe haven on campus for the LGBTQ community, are wearing angel costumes a la the "angel action" groups that have been combating the protests of the Westboro Baptist Chuch.  

The angels are holding a big sign that says LOVE.  

Just now I was trying to find out if the angel wing groups have an official name (Angel Action was the closest I found).  This led me into a string of articles about all the funerals Westboro has protested in the past year or so.  The one that stuck out to me was the funeral service for Christina Taylor Green, the 9 year-old girl who was killed during the shooting here last year.  Leader of Westboro, Fred Phelps, was quoted in this article saying, "Thank God for the violent shooter." 


That makes my heart cringe and my whole body ache along with it.  It makes my head pound thinking of how someone could say that.  The reason members of Westboro gives for waving their signs at funerals is to warn those still alive to repent before it is too late. 

But how are people supposed to hear that message when their hearts are aching and their heads are pounding from anger?  How do groups with this kind of message expect to be trusted when they are insulting the ones they are attempting to deliver?  

I wish I had the courage, like I have seen of other Christians on campus, to walk up to Brother Jed and ask him please to stop.  I want to tell him that just like me, these students are broken and hurting.  I can't say he isn't accurate when he shouts out to passersby that they are lost, but I can say that it is probably the last thing they need to hear and the last thing they would respond to.  They need to be told what the hope is, not that they are hopeless.  They need to be told they are loved, not that their actions warrant God's judgement.  They need to be told of the freedom that comes from Christ, not made more aware that they are in chains.  They need to be given the fix, not reminded that they are broken.  

I loved watching a man the other day stand in front of Brother Jed and say so lovingly but firmly to the crowd, "This is not what God is like.  Please do not look at this man and see all Christians.  Unlike Brother Jed, I promise not to judge you, so please don't judge me when I say to you that I love Jesus.  And I don't love Jesus because I will go to hell if I don't.  I love Jesus because he rescued me.  Please don't think that this is what all Christians want to say to you.  What I want to say to you is that I am sorry for when people like this preach hate at you, because Jesus taught love."  

I am angry that a "Christian" voice on campus is proclaiming hate and that it will be the LGBTQ community, not the followers of Christ, who will be known for their love.