{"id":1592,"date":"2012-12-28T11:58:49","date_gmt":"2012-12-28T18:58:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/billintheblank\/?p=1592"},"modified":"2012-12-28T11:58:49","modified_gmt":"2012-12-28T18:58:49","slug":"westboro-baptist-church-a-hate-group-whats-wrong-with-the-petition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithwalkers\/2012\/12\/westboro-baptist-church-a-hate-group-whats-wrong-with-the-petition\/","title":{"rendered":"Westboro Baptist Church a Hate Group? What’s Wrong with the Petition"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a>I won\u2019t dignify the antics of the Westboro Baptist Church group by linking to their despicable escapades. We got to experience their virulent brand of\u00a0theology first-hand here in Chardon after the shooting that took place in February of 2012<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Now an on-line petition has begun at WhiteHouse.gov <\/a>to petition the Obama Administration to legally recognize the Westboro Baptist Church as a hate group. It has over 290,000 signatures at the moment. And I\u2019ve been encountering requests from other sincere Christians on Facebook\u00a0to join the cause.<\/p>\n

But I have a few problems with the petition.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not that the Westboro group\u00a0doesn\u2019t seem to be\u00a0full of hate. For those not familiar,\u00a0 they seem to target high-profile funerals as the place to proclaim God\u2019s hatred and judgment for all sorts of people. This account from The Huffington Post on Dec. 19 <\/a>sums it up:<\/p>\n

The Westboro Baptist Church announced plans to picket Hochsprung\u2019s funeral on Wednesday in Woodbury, Conn., and \u201csing praise to God for the glory of his work in executing his judgment.\u201d The group has blamed the mass shooting on Connecticut\u2019s same-sex marriage legislation. On Dec. 14, 26 people were shot at Sandy Hook Elementary School, 20 of those victims included children ages 6 and 7.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Let me be clear: I despise what they do. They are, at best, misguided in their theology and unwise in their practice of it. At best. That\u2019s me being\u00a0non-hateful. But we could also argue\u00a0the same about\u00a0James Dobson\u2019s Newtown comments<\/a>. It\u2019s\u00a0a matter of degrees. Should Focus on the Family be labeled a hate group? I know some of you are yelling, \u201cYes.\u201d My point exactly.<\/p>\n

Which brings me to my two concerns:<\/h4>\n
    \n
  1. Why petition the White House?<\/strong> When the Obama Administration started this on-line petition thing, some claimed it an innovative way to interact with government. Then someone began petitioning to let states leave the Union. Now it\u2019s simply a high-profile way to gin up support for your cause. But isn\u2019t that what Congress is for? Regardless of which party controls the White House, the President should not have the power to declare anyone as much of anything without Congressional approval. I think members of both parties will acknowledge we\u2019ve slid far enough in that direction. We have a Constitutional process through which we declare something illegal. It\u2019s called Congress. Enough with the petitions to the Executive Branch already as if the President can or should have the power to unilaterally grant your wish.<\/li>\n
  2. Labeling them as a hate group is a slippery and dangerous\u00a0slope.\u00a0<\/strong> Once we go down the road of the government deciding which voices are suitable to be heard, there\u2019s little chance we can ever get back. Christians should be concerned that nearly 300,000 people in this country (some of them Christians) want a Baptist Church labeled as a hate group. Yes, their actions are stupid, mean, and hurtful. So were those of the flag-burners in the 1960s \u2014 many of whom now work in the White House. One man\u2019s church is another man\u2019s hate group. Remember that Rome justified the horrific slaughter of Christians by essentially declaring them a hate group, as well. After all, those religious fanatics were cannibals, don\u2019t you know, eating bodies and drinking blood!<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Lest you think I\u2019m all that far off in my concern, see this story from Reuters <\/a>and then watch and listen to Christian apologist William Lane Craig\u2019s thoughts here<\/a>. Key graphs from the story:<\/p>\n

    \u00a0France<\/a>\u00a0will deport foreign-born imams and disband radical faith-based groups, including hardline traditionalist Catholics, if a new surveillance policy signals they suffer a \u201creligious pathology\u201d and could become violent.<\/strong><\/p>\n

    A French Islamist shooting spree last March that killed three soldiers and four Jews showed how quickly religiously radicalized people could turn to force, Interior Minister Manuel Valls told a conference on the official policy of secularism.<\/p>\n

    His warning came two days after President Francois Hollande announced the creation of an agency to track how the separation of church and state is upheld in this traditionally Catholic country with Europe\u2019s largest Muslim and Jewish minorities.<\/p>\n

    Valls and two other cabinet ministers told the conference on Tuesday evening the Socialist-led government would stress the secularist policy called \u201claicite\u201d that they said was weakened under the previous conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy.<\/p>\n

    \u201cThe aim is not to combat opinions by force, but to detect and understand when an opinion turns into a potentially violent and criminal excess,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

    \u201cThe objective is to identify when it\u2019s suitable to intervene to treat what has become a religious pathology,<\/strong>\u201d said Valls, whose ministry oversees relations with religions. [emphasis mine]<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    Freedom isn\u2019t free. It requires us to put up with wackos, hate-filled protesters,\u00a0and flag-burners among many others. That\u2019s the price of freedom. If we\u2019re no longer willing to pay it, maybe we should have an entirely different conversation.<\/p>\n

    But enough with the petitions to the White House. Seriously. I don\u2019t\u00a0think our government can even afford to respond.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I won\u2019t dignify the antics of the Westboro Baptist Church group by linking to their despicable escapades. We got to experience their virulent brand of\u00a0theology first-hand here in Chardon after the shooting that took place in February of 2012. Now an on-line petition has begun at WhiteHouse.gov to petition the Obama Administration to legally recognize […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1084,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,25,5],"tags":[1070,1068,41,286,287,277,288,289],"class_list":["post-1592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian-living","category-church","category-culture","tag-church","tag-culture","tag-government","tag-hate-crimes","tag-hate-group","tag-newtown","tag-westboro-baptist-church","tag-white-house-petition"],"yoast_head":"\nWestboro Baptist Church a Hate Group? 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