Hate the Sign

I’ve been bothered, and I suppose curious, for awhile about people who claim to be Christian and yet passionately carry around signs like this:

And look, she’s smiling.  God loves a joyful hater…or something like that.  It’s almost as if they can’t be bothered with the actual words of Jesus.  You know, pesky little sayings that get in the way of genuine American hatred.  Things like, “Love your neighbor as yourself” and “Let him who is without sin cast the first stone.”

The cognitive dissonance it takes to both claim to be a Christian and gleefully hold up such hateful signs is astounding.  “You are doomed to hell! God hates you!…but I love you because you’re my neighbor.  Oh, and have a nice day.”

Then there are the nuts that assign violent acts to God as some sort of retributive act for the ‘sins’ of those that aren’t as loved by God as they are:

Yes folks, not only does the Prince of Peace hate ‘fags,’ but he gets his Daddy to kill a disproportionate number of the poor along the gulf coast as well as honorable soldiers to show us just how bad it really is…because that’s just how God rolls (can you hear the sarcasm yet?).  Or it could be that we all just look alike to God – kinda’ like the way we see ants.  In that case, it would only follow that the way God’s anger is actualized is somewhat blind and discriminatory.  (Because if there is one thing Jesus taught us it is how unruly God is, prone to unfair, prejudicial treatment of the children of God – particularly the one’s that aren’t like ‘us.’)

I guess it’s that kind of thinking like that leads so many Christians to get all worked up over the thought of getting to go vigilantly in the name of God.

After all, if God is a violent God and we are the children of God, created in God’s image, it only makes sense that from time to time we should pull out weapons of destruction and aim them randomly at those who don’t look like us  or at least threaten to – after all, they all look the same, right?

What’s the point to this post? Well, it’s mostly just a rant because I’m tired of it.  I’m tired of people trying to making God look more like them rather than trying to make themselves look more like God.  I’m tired of people acting like Christianity is a members only club that has its privileges rather than a peaceable kingdom that has its responsibilities.  I’m tired of people metaphorically putting the smoking gun in the hands of God to justify their own hatred.

I’m tired of it because it is not what God wants; it is not what Jesus taught us; it is not who the Spirit calls us to be.  And I AM MAD about it!

I guess I need to take a lesson from those holding the signs in these pictures and “hate the sign but love the signer.”