My oh my.

So I've recently acquired Netflix on my Wii in lieu of cable that I cannot afford. I absolutely love it, and I get to watch all the movies I want. Lately I've been watching a lot of documentaries, mostly on Christian-based subjects. I am always curious to see and hear how others view Christians and what other Christians are doing in the country and around the world.

I watched one last night that absolutely broke my heart. I'm sure most people have heard of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, KS. If you haven't, I'm sure you've heard of some of the things they have said and done out on the streets. Basically, they believe our nation is doomed because of homosexuality and that God's wrath is the Iraq war and natural disasters, etc. They actually believe that our soldiers are dying because they are fighting for what they call a "fag nation". They also believe that God sent the shooters in such tragedies like Columbine, Virginia Tech and other mass killings to somehow show the people that God is pouring out his wrath on them...what??!

They take horrible signs out to certain places and shout out that God hates them and they are all going to hell. They carry signs such as "Thank God for dead soldiers". I think the craziest thing one of the picketers said was "Remember when someone bombed our church (westboro)? Well God is avenging them by using IED's in Iraq". What bothers me the most is that they have the nerve to do these pickets right outside soldiers' funerals.

Now I know these people are not representing the true Gospel, even though they twist words from the Bible and practically fail to use any of the New Testament in their arguments. It just really bothers me that they are out there displaying such amounts of hatred when they could be instead using their influences to love and share Christ. I knew there were hate groups out there, but I guess I've never had such an in-depth look at it. Their whole philosophy is so twisted and can be easily refuted by Scripture. I can sum it up in my favorite verse:

"For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord".
Romans 8:38-39

Our God is a God of love, and while He is just, He loves His children and is jealous for our love.

I don't know why I felt like I needed to blog about this, but it just bothered me so much that people truly are that hateful towards one another. I just hope when people see such displays it only encourages them to love more, like it does for me.