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ReVision

The Westboro Mess

I'm grateful for the Supreme Court's ruling in the Westboro Baptist case.

At issue was the question of free speech, which, as we all know, can get a little ugly at times. By preserving this most fundamental American freedom, the Court ensured that people may continue to make a spectacle of themselves by their speech, even when their speech is deemed to be hateful, lacking in compassion, or otherwise offensive to some people.

By so ruling, the Court made it very difficult to restrict or restrain the speech of pastors, should their messages be deemed hateful or hurtful by certain members of the congregation or the community. For this reinforcement of free speech we should all be grateful.

But that still leaves the problem of the Westboro Baptists. Even a cursory examination of the demeanor of our Lord Jesus at funerals in Nain (Lk. 7) and Bethany (Jn. 11) will show that the Westboro Baptists are completely lacking in the compassion, reverence, sympathy, and dignity that Jesus demonstrated on such occasions. Their behavior in no way resembles His; indeed, their behavior is in every respect exactly the opposite of what we have good reason to believe Jesus Himself would do.

This is, in the first instance, a local problem, one that should be addressed by the pastors and churches of Kansas. Let some courageous pastor post on his website a petition, inviting other pastors and churches in the State of Kansas to join him in declaring that, whereas the members of the Westboro Baptist Church deliberately do not comport themselves in a manner consistent with the example of the Lord Jesus Christ, they are therefore no part of His Body, and not a church at all.

And let them also then petition the Secretary of State of the State of Kansas to revoke the legal standing of the Westboro Baptist Church, since it is not a church at all and thus is in violation of its agreement with the State, and to admonish the members of that assembly to desist from referring to themselves as a church at all, until such time as they can satisfy the scrutiny of the pastors and churches of the State. They may continue to meet, perhaps as a hate club, but they should be prohibited from advertizing themselves as a church, for they would have been adjudged by true churches in the Stae to be not a part of the Body of Christ.

It would be good for the Westboro Baptists to know that every church in the State of Kansas has united to excommunicate them from the fellowship of Christ's Body. It would be good for them to have to stop claiming they are a church. The State issues licenses to those desiring to conduct business as a church; therefore, presumably, the State has a right to revoke such licenses, especially by the witness and at the urging of the other churches in the State.

It was wrong to think that federal courts could make the Westboro Baptists go away. This is an ecclesiastical matter and a concern of local government. With respect to where to turn in resolving the problem of the Westboro Baptists, well, there's no place like home.

Additional related texts: Romans 13.1-4; 1 Peter 2.13-17; Revelation 2.8-11

A conversation starter: "Don't you wish the churches in Kansas would rise up as one and condemn the Westboro Baptists?"

T. M. Moore

T.M. Moore

T. M. Moore is principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He and his wife, Susie, make their home in the Champlain Valley of Vermont.
Books by T. M. Moore

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