"Following up on his 2007 documentary, The Most Hated Family in America, Louis Theroux returns to Topeka, Kansas, for a week-long visit with the Westboro Baptist Church."
Watching this documentary made me feel a vast array of emotions, sadness, anger, fear, amongst others. I can't quite explain my feelings in a written format, so I'm attempting to write a blog with a lot of inspiration, but lacking in being able to explain what I'm seeing and hearing.
This family preach that God hates sin...and the sinner. They don't only preach this at church, but they picket events in which to proclaim their belief with huge signs reading 'God Hates Fags', and 'Thank God for Cancer'. This is simply not Biblical.
In one of the most famous verses in the Bible, it reads,
'For God so loved that world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.' - John 3:16
and
'But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.' - Romans 5:8
God loves us...but he hates sin...and rightly so. He created the universe and everything in it, and man rejected God. This rejection is inbuilt within everyone, and we are all sinners. However, God's infinite love for us saw him send Jesus, his son, to Earth to die for us. Jesus, the sinless one, the only perfect man, died. Taking our sins and putting an end to them. Taking our punishment on the cross, and being the one atoning sacrifice for us. This is AMAZING news. Not only this, Jesus rose again three days later - no man can do that...only God can do that. This is AMAZING news. Through Jesus' blood, our relationship with God is restored. We can come to Him, whatever we've done in the past...whether it be a little white lie, a lustful thought, murder, pride, theft, greed...etc etc. We can ask for forgiveness, and come to Him who saved us from death. We can ask Him to turn our lives around, that we would want to turn away from sin and live for Him. This is the gospel. Isn't it BRILLIANT?!
Now I wonder why this family are proclaiming that God hates specific people. This shows that they consider their own sin nothing compared to the other sinners who practice homosexuality. Why are they comparing themselves with others? None of us are perfect, and 'all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God' (Romans 3:23). We should be comparing ourselves to Jesus, and striving to be more like Him, not comparing ourselves with others to make ourselves feel better. Instead of picketing funerals of soldiers, burning flags and calling Obama the anti-Christ...evangelising with the family of the fallen soldiers, with homosexuals, with anyone...this gospel is for everyone. This is GOOD NEWS. We can't do anything to achieve salvation, as we are sinners, but thankfully God is merciful and gracious and has given us a way in which we can be saved - so let's proclaim that!
This family, this church, preach a false gospel. They are leading people into a religion built into hate...pure hate against others. This family has a daughter who decided to leave the church as she wanted a boyfriend [which is wrong apparently, as having a boyfriend obviously means having premarital sex, according to them - therefore I have no idea how you go from being single to married in their minds, but anyway...] and her church kicked her out, her family kicked her out of their home, no longer talk to her, have removed all her pictures from their home, and were thankful when she left. Her best friend was asked whether she was sad to see her go, she said "She wasn't my friend" I'm sorry - I would try and explain my thoughts on this further, but I could cry. Family and friends are a beautiful gift from God, to encourage us, to support us, to help us grow, and their false gospel shatters it...and makes family and friendship absolutely nothing.
Louis Theroux doesn't believe the Bible, and he makes it clear in this programme. He tells this family that what they say is offensive, and this family laugh. It's so sad that this guy has an opportunity to hear the gospel, and all he sees is hatred against everyone. They believe that natural disasters happen as it is judgment from God, that those who denounce their church die [a Muslim man denounced the church, and a week later his wife died] as judgment from God. They say that Hell is a scary thing - yes, it is - but they don't know that they are driving people even further away from God.
Louis interviewed this girl 4 years ago who was adamant she would stay at the church. When he came back to do this next programme, she had left the church and explained that after long tensions with the church, she felt a strong urge that she had to get out of the church. She is scared that she's going to Hell for what she did whilst in the church...I pray that she meets someone soon who is able to tell her the true gospel of grace and despite what she has done, Jesus has saved her. The church are not allowed to make personal interaction with people not in the church...how is evangelism possible this way? It's not.
The more and more of the programme I watch, the more and more saddened I am in how lost these people are. This guy spoke to one girl who came over, and there was no reference to Jesus, only how her parents raised her from the devil and that her parents hated her. This programme has made me angry, and I have judged these people, and I just pray that God works in their hearts to the real truth. The gospel of love, not hate. The gospel of Jesus, not religion. Please pray for these people.
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