{"id":2436,"date":"2010-01-28T15:18:35","date_gmt":"2010-01-28T23:18:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/?p=2436"},"modified":"2010-01-29T10:09:47","modified_gmt":"2010-01-29T18:09:47","slug":"an-unofficial-response-to-westboro-baptist-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2010\/01\/28\/an-unofficial-response-to-westboro-baptist-church","title":{"rendered":"An Unofficial Response to Westboro Baptist Church"},"content":{"rendered":"

The noto\u00adri\u00adous West\u00adboro Bap\u00adtist Church is hold\u00ading a protest at Stan\u00adford this Fri\u00adday (see a good sum\u00adma\u00adry at Fiat Lux: why here<\/a>, their iden\u00adti\u00adty<\/a>, their beliefs<\/a>, their legal his\u00adto\u00adry<\/a>). In response, the Stan\u00adford com\u00admu\u00adni\u00adty is plan\u00adning a counter-ral\u00adly<\/a> at the same time and place as West\u00adboro\u2019s protest. <\/p>\n

A group of Chris\u00adt\u00adian min\u00adistries signed a joint state\u00adment oppos\u00ading West\u00adboro, but the Stan\u00adford Dai\u00adly has appar\u00adent\u00adly declined to pub\u00adlish it (at least, I can\u2019t find it in the online paper<\/a>). Per\u00adhaps it will appear soon<\/s> (UPDATE: it was pub\u00adlished in the op-ed sec\u00adtion<\/a> the day after I put this post up). But in case it does not, I would like to give my own per\u00adson\u00adal response to them here. The offi\u00adcial state\u00adment was designed to gar\u00adner sup\u00adport from sev\u00ader\u00adal dif\u00adfer\u00adent min\u00adistries, but what fol\u00adlows is lan\u00adguage that no one else but me has signed off on. Con\u00adse\u00adquent\u00adly, it is con\u00adsid\u00ader\u00adably more direct.<\/p>\n

I think West\u00adboro Bap\u00adtist Church is crazy. I also think it is unwise to hold a ral\u00adly oppos\u00ading a group which thrives on con\u00adflict. Atten\u00adtion is the drug they crave. They have become a recur\u00adring nation\u00adal news sto\u00adry mere\u00adly because of their abil\u00adi\u00adty to draw crowds and media.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I refuse to protest them, and I also refuse to ignore them. I am in no way ambiva\u00adlent about their pres\u00adence on cam\u00adpus: what they are doing is wrong. It heaps shame upon Christ and it caus\u00ades peo\u00adple made in God\u2019s image to expe\u00adri\u00adence an alien\u00adat\u00ading anguish. I believe that prayer is the most effec\u00adtive pos\u00adsi\u00adble response to this sit\u00adu\u00ada\u00adtion. I, my min\u00adistry, and sev\u00ader\u00adal oth\u00ader Chris\u00adt\u00adian groups at Stan\u00adford will hold a prayer meet\u00ading while the protest is going on at which we will ask God to con\u00advict West\u00adboro mem\u00adbers of their sin and lead them to repen\u00adtance.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So yeah. That\u2019s what one preach\u00ader thinks about their pres\u00adence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The noto\u00adri\u00adous West\u00adboro Bap\u00adtist Church is hold\u00ading a protest at Stan\u00adford this Fri\u00adday (see a good sum\u00adma\u00adry at Fiat Lux: why here, their iden\u00adti\u00adty, their beliefs, their legal his\u00adto\u00adry). In response, the Stan\u00adford com\u00admu\u00adni\u00adty is plan\u00adning a counter-ral\u00ad\u00adly at the same time and place as West\u00adboro\u2019s protest. A group of Chris\u00adt\u00adian min\u00adistries signed a joint \u2026 Con\u00adtin\u00adue read\u00ading \u201cAn Unof\u00adfi\u00adcial Response to West\u00adboro Bap\u00adtist Church\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stanfordministry-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Ded-Di","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2436"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2436\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2454,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2436\/revisions\/2454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}