Monday, April 26, 2010

Giving religion a bad name (or maybe the correct name)

The Westboro Baptist Church, the ones who picket funerals with signs decrying the downfall of the USA for not incinerating gays, is a frequency target of religious arguments:
Do these people that stand outside the funerals of fallen soldiers, with family members of the lost soldiers looking on in horror, weeping for their loss, really think this is what God wants them to do? How is this squared up with other teachings in the Bible? How about Matthew 7:1-2: “Do not judge so that you will not be judged. For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you.” Or Corinthians 13:13: “Three things will last forever — faith, hope and love — and the greatest of these is love.”
Supposedly they give Christianity a bad name.  But who is to say they are wrong?  There is no measurement to take and no observation to record that will show their religion is not right and yours is.  Some would give Biblical arguments, but is there any judge or governing body that can overrule the all-mighty?  Others may offer non-religious arguments against them based on morality, sociology, biology, etc.  But this is divine revelation.  Higher powers give the truth and we receive it, end of story.
Of course, there is the possibility that all divine revelation is suspect and we should look to non-religious principles and arguments to guide our lives.

1 comment:

  1. Picture from when they appeared on the Howard Stern Show in 2004 to play "Family Feud" against a group of transvestites. Their shirts are altered for television. They have no quarrel with figs.

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