Mark is married to Jo and is a 23 year old youth and schools worker based in South Cave (near Hull). Mark spent 4 years as a youth worker in Peterborough whilst studying for a degree in youth work & ministry with Oasis.
This morning I caught the Jeremy Kyle show and they were showing some clips from past show and the first of these was a clip of a show featuring some members of Westboro Baptist Church (also known as ‘god hates fags’), thankfully members of this church have been banned from the UK (link) however these clips really showed the extent of their extremism.
For those who don’t know Westboro Baptist Church are essentially based on hate…although they claim they’re following God. They claim that God hates homosexuals and that the death of soldiers prove God’s wrath…alongside 9/11 being God’s judgement on America.
On arriving at their website my filter warns me that it is a site classified as ‘violence, hate and racism’ and the filter couldn’t sum them up better. It was obvious on their interview that they are a church (or rather cult) motivated by hate rather than love and somehow they have completely missed everything Jesus came to teach us. Perhaps one of their most shocking activities is the picketing of soldiers funerals in America informing the guests that their loved one is going to hell (or in hell)…now I think war is a waste of time but I’d never take it that far…invading a personal family funeral and not allowing people to have peace and grieve is so unacceptable.
I completely fail to see how a so-called Christ following church can be motivated by such hate, yes I’d agree that God isn’t such a fan of certain aspects of human behaviour but I don’t believe for 5 seconds He hates the person who does things that displease Him. If Jesus had took the approach of this church then how would he have ever got alongside the people He did…He went and got alongside prostitutes and all sorts of other people He didn’t yell at them, He showed them love!
Anyway rant over less hate more love in the church I say!
