The Westboro Baptist Church has gained notoriety over the past several years by holding demonstrations at the funerals of soldiers killed in the wars of Iraq and Afghanistan. Many of those soldiers died as the result of an improvised explosive device (IED). Thus the church's members are known to carry signs saying, "Thank God for IEDs." They truly believe that God is punishing America for its sins, mostly for being accepting of homosexuals. Though they have also mentioned the evils of abortion and divorce from time to time as well.
So now that they have decided to show up in Tucson, apparently they also believe that the shooter, Jared Lee Loughner, was some sort of messenger from God. They view the victims of the shooting as being deserving of what they got, and all those who grieve as being deserving of their suffering. It is a warped view of a God who is all-loving, all-merciful, and incapable of violating His nature by inflicting harm.
Before going any further, allow me to state that I am a devout Catholic. I believe that abortion is an intrinsically evil act, and I am opposed to divorce. I also believe that homosexual behavior is sinful, and that homosexuality in and of itself is a grave disorder. This is what my faith teaches me, and this is what I believe.
That being said, there is no way that I or any other good Christian could possibly embrace the doctrine being preached at Westboro Baptist Church. In one of my previous blog posts, I discussed how America has been slowly but surely distancing itself from God for decades now. I also showed in that post how disastrous the results have been, using our public schools as a measuring stick. But it is paramount that we all understand what this really means. It means that we are making conscious choices that have dire consequences. It does not mean that God is somehow punishing the human race, hurling down lightning bolts at those who decide to cross Him.
There is an explanation as to why so many of our soldiers have been killed by IEDs. There is an explanation as to why the victims in Tucson were brutally murdered last Saturday. There is in fact an explanation for every evil act that has ever been committed in the history of the world. This explanation is simple, yet profound, and it was expounded by Saint Augustine over 1500 years ago when he addressed "the problem of evil."
The question has been asked many times. If our God is all-good, then why does evil exist? Evil, states Augustine, is a direct consequence of free will. When God created man, He endowed him with free will. In my view, this was done in order to allow for true love to exist. Love, by its very nature, must be a free act. God could have created a race of automatons who simply did what He told them to do. But if He had, then love would have been an impossibility. And so we were given free will, and thus we have the freedom to make our own choices as we go through life. We can draw closer to God, or distance ourselves from Him. We can believe in Him, or reject Him completely. We can choose to do good and abide by His will, or we can choose to perform evil acts with catastrophic results. In the end, it's all up to us.
So let there be no doubt as to why our soldiers die, and as to why those innocent people in Tucson were shot. These things happen because people make the choice to carry out evil acts and harm their fellow man. God isn't the one who kills our soldiers. Terrorists do. God is not the one who carried out the shooting in Tucson. Jared Lee Loughner did. Westboro Baptist Church has it all wrong. God is all-good, and thus incapable of evil. He does not punish us. Rather, we punish ourselves and others by making bad choices and carrying out sinful acts. It is particularly tragic when innocent people are harmed or even killed as a direct result of another person's conscious decision to do evil. But such is the consequence of free will. It is the only way true love can exist, and at the same time it is the only way that evil can exist.
As I write this post, the good people of Tucson have united and are preparing for Westboro's funeral protests. Dozens of volunteers are making "angels' wings" approximately eight to ten feet in length. They will wear these wings in order to shield the protesters from those who come to mourn the victims. Several others will form a wall by locking arms, and bikers have even vowed to cordon off the families from the protesters. Earlier today, Arizona state lawmakers approved emergency legislation that would order protesters to stay at least 300 feet away from the funeral. The bill passed unanimously in the House and the Senate, and is now headed to Gov. Jan Brewer for her expected signature.
Lats fall, the Supreme Court heard arguments in a case brought against Westboro Baptist Church by the father of a soldier killed in Iraq whose funeral was protested by the group in 2006. The father, Albert Snyder, had won a multimillion-dollar verdict against the church, claiming invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress. The court is expected to issue a ruling soon on whether free speech can be curbed at specific locations and events. I am hoping that the court does the right thing and rules in favor of Mr. Snyder. It may be too late for him, but it's not too late to save others from enduring such hateful remarks at the most solemn time of their lives: when they're burying a loved one and saying their final good-byes.
What may well trouble me more than anything else is the fact that many people who are not religious, struggle with their faith, or flat out don't believe in God will point to this and say "Ah ha!" They will dismiss all of Christianity because of the twisted philosophy of a small Kansas-based church whose congregation is mostly comprised of the pastor's extended family. That may well be the gravest injustice of all, that Westboro Baptist is misrepresenting our God, our faith, and everything we stand for as Christians. I suppose the rest of us can only do what we can to live our faith and show the world what it means to worship a God who is all-good and all-loving. Through this post, I hope that maybe I can reach someone, even if it's just one soul, who might otherwise have thought less of Christianity because of the abhorrent actions of Westboro Baptist.
But as atrocious as Westboro's planned protests are, this is not a time to channel our energy toward hatred. It is a time to mourn the victims, to stand with the families who have suffered such terrible loss, and to give them our prayers and support. Let us pray for them, and let us pray that the Supreme Court does the right thing by ruling against Westboro Baptist. If they do, then the funeral protests will finally come to an end, and we may well never hear the name "Westboro Baptist" in the press again. Unless, of course, a group of people decide to picket them, holding signs that say, "Thank God for the Supreme Court."
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