Below is my good friend and dear brother in Christ's blog post. It was so good and mind turning that I felt the need to share it:
"There's a lot going on in the world right now. Heck, just America is a
stressful place right now. But among the confusion and chaos, I want to
look at something that pops up ever so often nowadays: Westboro.
When they first came out of the woodwork, you knew about it. Drawn signs
of "God hates fags.," or "Pray for more dead soldiers.," flooded the
media channels and stations that would continuously play the same clips
of protestors at soldiers funerals.
And I must admit, I jumped in the bandwagon of "Anti-Westboro." But
before I go any further, I must make it explicitly clear that I, in no
way, agree with them or the message that they express. Now continuing
on...Like the rest of America, I became infuriated with a people who
would take the name of God, His Son, and His Spirit and drag them
through the mud, using them to claim their own message instead of the
story, life, and love of Christ.
But while in my storm of fury and fist shaking, there was a different thought that crossed my mind: Pray for Westboro.
And over time, that transformed from praying for them, to love them.
And in that exact moment, God took everything He is, was, and will be,
and smacked me across the face with it. In all my anger and fury I had
built up towards them, I had forgotten the one most important lesson
that I was taught for so many years before Westboro: Love the Lord your
God; and *love* thy *neighbor* as *thyself*.
Love.
Yes, they have misdirection. Yes, they distort everything Christ. Will
I be in their face given the chance I ever see them in person,
absolutely! But if I forget to pray for them and love them like Christ
loves you and me, then I'm not really any better than who they are.
There's the challenge. Is it accepted?"
What will you do with such a challenge? Should Westboro stand alone in their confusion? Shall we block them out and allow them to strike more wounds against the heart and soul of the American people?
We have a spiritual duty to our brothers and sisters in Christ to restore them and come alongside them and pull the knife from their hands with love and gentleness. Isolating them does not solve the issue. Is it not time that American Christians stopped being comfortable with passivity and watching from a distance?
We are at war, friends. But our war is not against each other, but against the forces of Hell. Satan would have us divided and hating each other. He could not operate the same with a united body of Christ standing guard. Are we willing to humble ourselves and love hard enough to strive for unity?
How will you answer my friend's challenge? How will you answer the call of God?
Hi Josh,
ReplyDeleteI'll go straight to the question, "How will you..." and say, "exactly like you." With the same love I have for all. A love which constituted starting a blog by that title. And this suggestion to love has my 100% agreement because that's what I've been trying to convey all along to the scribes and Pharisees of our time! Please put your piety down and take up arms against the devil. We have to stand united.
I meet so many people on G+ that hate God. They think Him a tyrant, a dictator, a horrific entity that commands murder in His name and atrocities of rape and destruction. Where are people getting such things? This makes me so sad. I've begun weeping now, to think of our Lord being hurt this way by those He loves so much. :(
There are some very wise young men in the world, (hint hint) I see. I'm going to share this blog post to my G+ thread. I think it's very important to get the message out via as many Christians as possible that there's a difference between conservative religion and someone who is liberal and spiritual. I fancy myself liberal. We have to love all and it's not a problem to do so.
I would like to leave the link that will take you straight to my G+ profile, Josh. Perhaps if you'd like a place to join in conversation with people from around the world, add your thoughts to a post, create your own page and post relative content (since you already have a Google account) then Google+ is for you. I never thought I'd like something like a social site, but it's added so much love to my life and given me so much opportunity to give the love of Christ back. I hope you'll join me there and enjoy the camaraderie, for truly it's a community and a very warm one (when you weed out the not so kind folks that refuse to be kind or reasonable). Ok then, you can find me at
http://gplus.to/luvdaworld
I hope to see the words, "Josh Ramos has added you to his circles" soon! I love you my brother!! God bless you!
Hey Kelline,
ReplyDeleteIt pleases me that my friend and I are not alone in seeking a different solution to the problems the body of Christ faces. It is easy to divide over issues, it is difficult to strive towards unity and make an effort to love each other other, even when disagreements are present.
I have quite a few friends and fellow patriots who are very hateful of Westboro and what they preach. I myself come from a military family so their message concerning the fallen soldiers of our nation strikes yet another blow to my heart. It is a group of proclaiming believers like this one that gives "Church" a bad name and gives our society such easy footholds to mock and question our beliefs and actions.
I believe that the Body of Christ was intended to stand united despite our culture, not conform to it. I am a firm believer that Christians are meant to be radically different than those who do not love Jesus, however that difference should reside within the doctrine and beliefs of the Christian faith. So when a community like Westboro rises up claiming to be a part of the Body of Christ even though their actions and messages indicate that they are not true believers, the Church has a duty, a calling towards restoring those people through the love and Truth of Christ.
I fear that when the Christian community tries to block out, separate, and discredit extreme groups that are too off base from our core beliefs, we allow for those people to spread confusion and resentment towards God, the Church, and the Christian faith. I know many people who have been wounded and mistreated by churches and other Christians and it turns them off towards Christianity and a church building for the rest of their lives. Many of them that I have talked to bring up radical groups like Westboro and assume the rest of us are just like them.
The Christian community in America seems to be comfortable being passive. I can only call out to the Christians around me and hope that there are more in my generation who will make a stand for Truth and for Christ and be willing to do the hard things that Jesus commanded of us.
As for G+, I thank you for the invitation and I may give it a try soon. I just recently got off of Facebook because I did not like what social networking was turning into and what it was doing to my time and my attitude. I would like to go a little longer without that distraction. But I hope that G+ is much better for me than Facebook was and I look forward to checking it out in the future. :)