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So-Called Christians who make me ill

So-Called Christians who make me ill

Last updated on: March 17, 2017 at 8:30 pm by Elizabeth Scalia

So-Called Christians who make me ill 2017-03-17T20:30:07+00:00 Elizabeth Scalia

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John Stephenson has a video up of this Phelps-Roper woman spewing her disgusting “bible-based” rhetoric. Watching just a bare minute of it made tremble, not in fear of the Lord, as this woman might like, but in pure revulsion. I transcribed a little:

“‘Sempre Fi Fags’ means, ‘you are always faithful to the fags…’ not only that but you have sinned away your grace and America is doomed! Why don’t they file a lawsuit against the Lord their God, they are messing with the wrong God…you don’t get to call the Word of God hatred, missy…You’re messing with the wrong God, also…(American soldiers) are being cut off by the same (garbled) God who is cuttin’ off the children of America…God hates fags…You’re proud*! You’re proud of your sins. You can’t do enough sinning. You think ‘gay’ pride,* bimbo*. You have sinned away your day of grace!”*

She quotes Leviticus “Thou shalt not suffer this sin upon them but in anywise rebuke them…that means you warn ’em that their sin is takin’ them to hell an’ if you don’t do that you (garbled) hate (garbled) in your heart.”

Hmmmmm……so this woman stands outside of military funerals and harrasses the mourners because she looooooooves everyone so much in the Lord. She calls down hell upon homosexuals because she looooooooooves them so much in the Lord.

Sometimes I wonder if there are people out there who embrace scripture simply so they can distort it and try to use it to excuse all of their twisted hate and bitterness.

I’m guessing “hate the sin and love the sinner” is not a big motto in this Phelps-Roper household. And I guess she doesn’t give credence to the idea that to “rebuke” or “admonish” does not mean “stand in judgement of…” but rather that we sinners, having tasted the Milk and Honey, are called to bring our fellow sinners to understanding of where we fall short and how we distance ourselves from God, that we may help them know Christ and his mercy and grace.

Nothing I read in scripture tells me that the job of a Christian is to pronounce doom on a nation, use words like “fag” (homosexual is a perfectly useful word for what you want to say, Mrs. Phelps, and I doubt Jesus would call a homosexual a “fag”) and decide in a matter of discourse with another person whether that person is going to heaven or hell. That judgement belongs to God, alone, and it seems to me a grave sin against humility for any human to point their finger and tell another the state of their soul.

What did Paul write in his letter to the Colossians 3:12-17

Because you are God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourself with compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness and patience, forebearing one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you must forgive. And over all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, as you teach and admonish one another in all wisdom, and as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

I know there are some monastic houses where the infection of political correctness has seeped in and made a community decide that their commitment to “peace and justice” has inspired them to omit those sections of the psalms which are “dark” or “vengeful” or “desolate” from their recitations of the Divine Office. I think that’s a mistake. The psalms are a perfect reflection of the human experience and the human condition, and to omit any part of it because it makes you uncomfortable is to push away some truths about just how dark the world, and the humans in it, can be. Contrarily, there seem to be some Christians who cull the starkest, least merciful verses of scripture in order to embrace them to their withered souls in the interest of “justice.”

In both cases, the intentional omission/editing of scripture – or the rabid emphasis on one part of scripture over another – seems to me to smack of imbalance and pride – who is anyone to decide that one verse of scripture is more or less worthy of prayer, meditation and action, than any other verse? Even if their intention is a noble one, the fact remains that a mere human, or a mere community, really has no business deciding what part of God’s word should be left aside because it doesn’t fit the times or the mores. What was it Chesteron said, “the moment you choose anything, you reject everything else…”

Scripture is not meant to be picked over, with some morsels plucked for their sweetness (or their bitterness if your heart is bitter) and others left behind as unappetizing. It is meant to be taken as a whole, for it is as huge as your whole life and it takes that long to begin – just to begin – to digest it.

The woman from Fox News (I don’t watch, and I seem to see two names for her online, Julie Meyers and Julie Bandares) seemed as sickened by this diamond-hard-with-hate-eyed Phelps woman as I was, and she lost control of herself. Perhaps the best response to a woman like this is a soft, “I’ll pray for you,” but it wouldn’t shut her up.

I got a lot of emails from people telling me last week that to respond or react to Ann Coulter gives her the publicity she craves, and that if I could not comprehend the method in her madness, then I should just ignore her and “not criticize a fellow conservative.” (I’ll leave aside for now the issue of how these folks dishing out the advice were the same folk who do nothing but criticize those conservatives who don’t fall in line…that’s for another day.)

Perhaps they are right, that I should merely have ignored Coulter. The same could be said about this woman – to respond to her gives her publicity, makes her known, gives more exposure to her filthy rants. But in both cases (and I am not lumping Coulter in with these Phelps disasters – next to them she is an angel with a halo…) my own conscience will not let me simply “ignore” them and let them stand – unremarked upon – as examples of America, or of Christians, or of Conservatives or of Women. As a woman and a Christian, and an American, I cannot help but respond to the antics of both women and say, “please understand…these women are free to speak their minds, but I believe their pronouncements are abberations…this is uncommon…”

Maybe someday in the grand scheme of things, I will be proved wrong about all of the things I feel so passionately about. I’ll find out that the over-the-top Coulters and the warped Phelpses and the (I think patriotic but too extreme) “ship all those Mexicans back – every one of them” folk were right and I was wrong. Someday I’ll know all of what is right and wrong.

Or perhaps I’ll learn that being “right” was never all that important – that being kind trumped being “right.” Til then I can only go by my own lights and what small wisdom the Holy Spirit finds fit to lay upon me…and by that light, all I can see is that this language of spittle and hate, of mockery and malice…it is not fit for human consumption. It is pure poison.

Meanwhile these Phelps people seem intent on fighting for their right to wound the very souls they say they’re trying to save. In deference to Jeanette’s comment, yes, let’s call them cultists, shall we?

Michelle Malkin has the video and a link to the Patriot Guard Riders. Mudville Gazette links in the Dawn Patrol. Johnopedia links to a warning about making hasty generalizations and lumping all Christians – or all anybodies – together. Probably good for all of us to remember at one point or another. Sigh. Also, check out Newton’s take on all of this and her publican/tax collector musing on law and love.

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