Why the Media Needs the Westboro Baptist Cult in Its "Argument" against the Real Church

They carry to rallies those big signs that use offensive names for homosexuals. They protest funerals of fallen soldiers who died defending this country (even though it is a good creational act for a soldier to do). They're pretty much made up of a single family. And they are a cult.

If you notice, I called them a "cult," because I don't identify them as a legitimate church; but what is the media's fascination with these people? Why are they so front and center when it comes to the homosexual debate? Do you want to know why? Because the media needs to present them as the "other side." It doesn't have the vast majority of the church to use as an example of extreme hatred, because frankly, the vast majority of the church that makes up the true "other side" isn't hateful toward homosexuals. They tend to love them, as they do most sinners, and want to see them acknowledge the truth that would restore them to God.

But that doesn't work for the narrative the media wants to present as the church's position. It needs this fundamentalist cult to say to all people, "See this group? That's what you are if you oppose homosexuality." Of course, these people wouldn't want to be within ten feet of a homosexual without cursing at them, whereas 99.99% of the rest of the church would welcome anyone to come hang out with them.

I used to work with an almost completely homosexual staff at a hotel when I went to Trinity. I invited two to my wedding and they came. Did anyone yell slurs at them? Nope. Did anyone mistreat them or make them feel like they were worse than anyone else? Nope. Did I not want them there? I invited them in the hope that they would come, didn't I? And it wasn't to make a statement. I genuinely cared for them and knew the gospel would be presented at my wedding (even though they had heard it from us before), and I wanted them to hear it again.

What I would submit to you is this: that there is so little of the hatred that the media wants to present as representative of the Christian Church toward homosexuals that it has to focus in on the extremely few who are hateful in order to maintain that narrative. In fact, it seems that some homosexuals and homosexual groups need to fabricate hatred in order to present the other side as hateful, simply because there are so few genuinely hateful attacks they can emphasize. Case in point, this recent alleged attack that was well reported throughout the media: http://news.yahoo.com/police-ex-neb-hoops-star-faked-anti-gay-222739372--spt.html

Now, I'm not saying there aren't truly hateful people in the world, and that there are not genuine cases where people hurt someone precisely because they are homosexual; but that is true if people have big noses, wear Kmart jeans (at least it was in my day), or are overweight. Bullies are cruel because they want to be cruel. Their views of particular behaviors and characteristics have little to do with it. It has more to do with the fact that they are thugs looking for victims of any sort.

My point is that the reason why you have these fabrications or elevations of these tiny cults in the first place is because the larger body of those who oppose the thinking that homosexuality is morally acceptable actually care about people, regardless of their sin. If anything, this type of presentation that marginalizes such a massive amount of people has a greater chance of creating animosity between the two groups far more than there ever was before. An example of this might be the whole Chic-Fil-A mess, where the media got people so up in arms over a pretty mild statement reflecting the view held by Christians for the past 2,000 years, that it, no doubt, incited violence. http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57493780/cops-lgbt-volunteer-shoots-conservative-groups-guard/

Here's the thing I want to say to the media: If you can't allow a calm discussion of the issues, but need to break the eighth commandment in order to "win," then maybe your position isn't really that strong. Maybe you're trying to win by force of power that drowns out the voice of all those who would oppose it? Maybe you want violence, because logical argument would expose too many flaws in your worldview? In any case, you do nothing but make it painfully obvious that the vast majority of the church, who opposes the legitimazation of homosexuality, is too loving and logical to allow them to represent their own position. You need the Westboro cult that doesn't represent anything close to Christianity to fill in as representatives in order to meet the requirements of a fabricated narrative that tells homosexuals that the reason why the Church opposes their sin is because it hates them.

So it's a race then. We who speak truth with love as our motivation must beat you to the punch. The sheer amount of our numbers ought to give us the upperhand, as we seek to display our love for homosexuals in calling them to be restored to God through Christ. We'll use the gospel of Christ that calls men to repentance, logical argumentation, and love to make our case. We'll see you at the finish line, and unlike you, we won't have to cheat to win.