Before I get started I just wanted to say that "hate" is a strong word. I do not claim to hate anyone or any group of people. Although I do hate some of the stupid things people do. Just wanted to throw that out there.
How would anyone know what you stand for if all you do is take a stand for what you are against? Protesting has never made any sense to me at all. Dictionary.com simply defines the word protest as an expression or declaration of objection, disapproval, or dissent. Dan's definition of a protest goes a little something like this: A group of people who are too lazy to actually go out and make something happen so they resort to holding signs with words and/or images on them and believe it's going to change things.
I think it's the equivalent of holding up a banner with the name of your favorite football team at a football game and expecting it to help your favorite team score a touchdown or a field goal. It's the activists who get the work done by going out and doing what they believe in, not the protesters who think they are accomplishing something by basically doing nothing. How many times have you seen a protester holding a sign and you think to yourself "Wow, words on a sign! Some of them are misspelled and the letter spacing is awkward, but this sign has changed my life. Thank you for holding that sign, Mr. sign holder guy!" Yea, me neither.
A couple years ago I went to Scranton, PA with a friend of mine to see a photography exhibit (no, we did not take a tour of the Dunder Mifflin paper company). Afterwards we decided to walk around Scranton and take some of our own pictures. We came across a group of people who were standing on a street corner holding signs and protesting everything from gas prices to the war in Iraq. It was a bunch of kids and one older guy who put the whole thing together. He was wearing a shirt that said "I'm running from my president." We talked with the gentleman for a few minutes. He seemed like a nice guy and the reason why he was doing this was to keep the kids out of trouble, which seemed like a pretty noble thing to do. It's too bad he didn't have them doing something more productive. One kid was holding a sign that said "Honk for peace" so every few moments someone would honk their horn. Everyone in the world could honk their horn, it's not going to create peace.
There is one group out there that I find very disturbing. I won't give out the name of the organization because this post is not about pointing fingers at people. This group I'm referring to is an extremist group which is mostly known for their protests against homosexuality as well as protests against funerals for troops who have been killed in Iraq. They claim to do these things in the name of Jesus Christ, yet they do nothing at all that represents what Christ is about. Could you imagine attending the funeral of a loved one who was killed in the war and a group of people come along with protest signs and they start yelling things like "He deserved to die". It's horrible, I can't imagine what has gotten inside their heads and brainwashed them to make them behave in this way. They claim that they do this out of love. Where exactly is the love? Their idea of love looks a lot like hate to me.
This is how love is defined in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7,"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres." Let's compare the Bible's definition of love with the actions of this group.
Love is patient: If the members of this group were patient, they would take to time to talk with others rather than shove their beliefs down peoples' throats.
Love is kind: Telling everyone that God hates them is not kind at all, plus it's a big fat lie.
Love does not envy: They don't really seem to envy since they believe they have it all figured out and they think they're right. However it's possible that they may be angry because there are some things they want but cannot have because of their beliefs.
Love is not boastful or proud: I've heard a few interviews with a certain member of this group on the xxxchurch podcast and the Nick & Josh podcast. She sounded very boastful and proud of the groups actions.
Love is not rude: Interrupting a military funeral = rude. Need I say more?
Love is not self-seeking: This group is convinced that they are the only ones in the world that are not going to hell. All 90 of them. Sounds like a pretty self-righteous attitude to me.
Love is not easily angered: I had mentioned before that I've heard interviews with one of the groups members. They entire time she was yelling and cussing at the people interviewing her.
Love keeps no record of wrongs: This group is constantly listing off the things they believe everyone else is doing wrong.
Love does not delight in evil: This group delights in the lies and the hate they spread. Those things are evil and they are going to have to answer for all of it someday.
I wasn't planning on spending this much time talking about this group but it just kind of turned out that way. I am very disturbed by their actions. But if I'm going to quote the meaning of love from the Bible then I must remember that I need to love everyone, including the members of this group and pray that they may someday see that what they are doing is wrong.
I had a funny idea recently. What if we could assemble a group a people to go around and protest protesters. We could carry signs like the one I designed above and ones that say "Protesting solves nothing!" of course the signs would have to be handmade along with poor spelling, poor grammar, and awkward letter spacing. I think it would be a fun social experiment.
I'm going to bring this one to a close but I just wanted to say that I believe there are some things worth taking a stand for, but it's going to take much more than a stick and some posterboard.
No comments:
Post a Comment