what do we do with westboro

Use your Linda Richman voice when reading this:

Westboro Baptist Church is neither in Westboro, nor Baptist, nor a church.  Discuss.

Okay, so it is in Westboro in Topeka, KS.  But, on the other two points, the Baptists kicked them out, so they are not baptist.  As to the question, "are they a church," my inclination is to answer "no," but I suppose I don't have the authority to make that determination.  That said, I don't have to call them a church, so the above sentence is the last time I will refer to them as such.  So, from here on, I'll just refer to them as "Westboro," (apologies to those who live in Westboro).

Of course it doesn't matter if they are a church or not.  What matters is hat what they stand for is wrong, and how they go about it as wrong.  I first heard about them several years ago, and checked out their website.  What I found deeply disturbed me.  Since then, there have been times due to incidents where I've been tempted to drop by the site and check up on them, but I decided that it would be best to just ignore them.

For most people, reaction to Westboro tends to be visceral:  anger, hatred, and fantasies of violence.  As fun as that sounds, they feed on that.  Their whole religious framework is based on hatred.

That seems so odd to me.  But, on Monday, I dropped by their website again.  I'm headed to Connecticut in a few days to spend Christmas with my in-laws.  And, I heard that Westboro was going to be picketing, and I thought I've got to do something.  What, I don't know?  But something.  

So I went to check their picket schedule.  Connecticut wasn't on the schedule, but I got to browsing around.  It's all about hate.  They even have a list of verses about God's hatred.  It's 8 verses.  Seriously, their entire theological framework is built on 8 verses.  Only one is in the New Testament, and it's Paul quoting the Old Testament (this is part of why I don't consider them a church.  There is no Jesus whatsoever).

The difficulty in dealing with Westboro is that most reactions either have no effect or actually play right into their hands.  Reacting in anger is what they want.  Hating them is their religion.  If you disagree with them, you've proved them right.  Realizing this, I've wondered about responding in love . . . giving them them hot chocolate during a cold protest, that sort of thing.  Some churches take that approach.  Maybe sending a lot of kindness their way may soften some of them at some point, but I think most of that just bounces off of them.

It's attention that they crave.  So, let's just ignore them, and they'll go away.  That's the approach most of us took.  Even the Topeka media started ignoring them.  And it was working.  But they came up with a plan, a way that we could not ignore them.  

They started picketing funerals.

Jesus said, in Matthew 5:

4Blessed are those who mourn,

for they will be comforted.

This is another reason they are not a church.  Jesus comforts those who mourn.  Westboro taunts those who mourn.  This is why, for those of us who follow Christ, we can not ignore them.  This is why all of us, regardless of who we follow will not ignore them.

Which is actually quite ironic.  Westboro realizes this, which is why they picket the funerals.  They prey on our decency.  It's ironic because supposedly it is our depravity that they are protesting. In their view, we have gotten so bad that every tragedy is a judgement of God.  There is no talk of love or redemption because it's too late.  There is nothing to redeem.

But, they clearly don't really believe this, because it is our goodness they are using to get our attention.  And it's our attention that they want.  Some even speculate that it's just a money making scheme:  a family of lawyers hoping to get punched so that they can sue.

Either way, they are winning, because we have to respond.  We must comfort those who mourn.  There have been some cool responses:  The Texas A&M students forming a wall that couldn't be passed, the Illinois radio station that gave them 2 hours of airtime if they wouldn't protest the memorial for the NIU shootings.

These are great and these are creative.  But what if we came up with something that could be replicated everywhere, that wouldn't play into their game.  No anger, no violence, no attention.