Making Baptists Everywhere Look Bad

Something deep inside of me wishes that these guys weren't called Baptist:

"A radical Baptist church in Kansas known for picketing the funerals of soldiers who perished in Iraq said it intends to protest Heath Ledger's memorial service with signs claiming the actor died and is in Hell because he played a gay character in Brokeback Mountain."

“Heath Ledger is now in Hell, and has begun serving his eternal sentence there,” the Westboro Baptist announcement says.

“God hates fags,” [said Shirley Phelps-Roper of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas.] “The wrath of God has been revealed before the eyes of this nation with the death of Heath Ledger. … This nation worships the dead almost as much as they worship their filthy sex acts. America is doomed.”

Read the full article here.

Ok, I will be the first to admit, while it is certainly not our place to judge ones salvation, you can get a pretty good idea from their fruits. These people, however, don't claim to have "an idea." They are claiming absolute knowledge of the state of Heath Ledgers, along with thousands of U.S. troops souls.

I firmly believe that we can always take some comfort in the fact that only God knows the state of any ones soul. That is to say that even if someone has never lived their lives in a way that would lead you and I to believe they are soundly saved; We don't know. Perhaps they experienced Spirit led repentance and faith in their dying days, or even dying moments. Perhaps they had repented and put their faith in Jesus at some point, but were rather quite about it, (this scenario seems impossible to me, but who knows?)

The point is that only God knows. It is not, in any way shape or form, Westboro Baptist Church's place to proclaim the state of Heath Ledger's soul. Judging is a difficult topic, and a difficult act. Lets always be careful to make sure that we are not judging things that we have no business judging. Some things should simply be left to God.

Pete the Porno Puppet?

I guess this one has been around for a while, but I heard of him for the first time yesterday:



In case you are wondering, yes this is afiliated with a church group. I'd comment more on the group itself, but my work's firewall won't let me pull up www.xxxchurch.com.

Is this a good idea?

The Presbytery is "Stepping Up"

For nearly 23 years, Lisa Larges has sought to become a Presbyterian minister, but she has twice been formally rejected because of a long-standing ban on gay ordination by the Presbyterian Church USA.

But in what appears to be the first national test of a 2006 policy change by the church, Larges, of San Francisco, has moved a step closer to joining the clergy.

After a debate that lasted deep into the night Tuesday, the San Francisco Presbytery, a regional governing body of the national church, voted 167 to 151 to support Larges' application for ministry, despite opponents' warnings that the action violated the church's constitution and would immediately be appealed.

"I'm in shock," Larges, 44, said Wednesday. "I still feel stunned, honestly, and deeply grateful both to the folks who supported me and to the presbytery for stepping up."

Read the full article here.

Let's consult the bible on this one.

Here is a trustworthy saying: If anyone sets his heart on being an overseer, he desires a noble task. Now the overseer must be above reproach, the husband of but one wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him with proper respect. (If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God's church?) He must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited and fall under the same judgment as the devil. He must also have a good reputation with outsiders, so that he will not fall into disgrace and into the devil's trap.
--1 Timothy 3:1-7 (emphasis added)

So what do you think?

Hmmmmmmm........

I'm not sold...



Thanks Laz for finding this one.

God Told Him to Kill Her (and Cook Her?)

A Texas man is suspected of Killing his Ex-wife and cooking her body parts. He also apparently stabbed her new boyfriend. Thedisturbing part; he claims that God told him to do it.

"Authorities said McCuin's comments in a 911 call that alerted them to the hideous discovery led them to believe he may have intended to eat his girlfriend's remains, but said it is unclear whether McCuin consumed any part of her body."

"When he said God told him to do it, one of the investigators looked at him and just said, 'What did you say?'"

Read the full story here.

Of course, our natural instinct is to say that God did not tell this man to kill, fillet and boil his ex-wife. This was not a revelation from God, given especially to Christopher Lee McCuin. Why then, are people so quick to accept the Mormons revelations from God? The Catholics? The Jehovah's Witnesses? The Pentecostals?