protestthese guys came to BU today. (WARNING...only click on the link if you are prepared to be outraged and have your heart broken simultaneously).
anyway, they are about as wacky as you can get. i believe that the best way to deal with these kinds of people is to completely ignore them. also, i want sojourn (and the church in general) to be known for what it is for not for what it is against. so, i did not want to go to this protest.
but at the same time i think it was important that i was there. sojourn students were there. it felt important, especially at these early stages of our involvement on campus at BU, to say "we are not that."
nonetheless it was a weird experience. we stood and watched these guys set up and then walked out. probably 150-200 students were there to greet them with signs (i stood next to a kid for a while who had a sign that said: "God loves Jon Stewart"), and then we left to have hot chocolate and eat cookies in front of marsh chapel.
what did we accomplish? probably nothing. these people will still picket and do really, really stupid things in the name of God (interesting that in their stuff they rarely mention Jesus). and most of the protest-protesters will still think that Christians are hateful and anti-gay.
i have very mixed feelings about the whole event. the protest was supposed to begin at 3:30. at 3:30 all of us "protesting" the protest got real quiet, like a show was about to start. then a nondescript van rolled up, and an 8 year old boy got out and held up an absurdly hateful sign. no one on our side of the street knew what to do. do you laugh or cry? most of us just stood there with our mouths hanging open. other people got out of the van and started doing their thing and we began our walk out.
totally bizarre. the only thing i am left with is that despite my mixed feelings i think it was good to be there. and i think i have to cling to MLKJ's quote in the picture at the bottom: "darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that."
1 comment:
If it sets your mind at ease, I think most people understand that Fred Phelps does not represent mainstream Christianity. People are smarter than that, and he really is an isolated voice. I looked around the internet and couldn't find a reliable number of how many people are part of his "church," but I don't think it's many.
Maybe the best thing you could say to Fred Phelps isn't "you're wrong" or "we don't like you" but "you don't matter." Nobody's listening.
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