Hello,<\/p>\n
Why aren’t more churches protesting sin as the Westboro Baptist Church does?<\/p>\n\t
First, you find no command or example that God’s people are expected to lead protests. We teach that sin is wrong. We teach why sin is wrong. But marching around funerals and other places does not accomplish any teaching. “But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. For some men, straying from these things, have turned aside to fruitless discussion, wanting to be teachers of the Law, even though they do not understand either what they are saying or the matters about which they make confident assertions. But we know that the Law is good, if one uses it lawfully<\/em>” (I Timothy 1:5-8).<\/p>\n The goal of Christianity is to rescue people from their sins. Marching around with signs at the funeral of someone suspected of sinning doesn’t help the person. Nor will it convince other people that God’s way is right.<\/p>\n Jude tells us that different approaches are needed with different people. “And have mercy on some, who are doubting; save others, snatching them out of the fire; and on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh<\/em>” (Jude 22-23). When people are wanting to do right but are struggling with their faith, they need mercy and guidance. When some are weak and struggle to stay out of sin, they need a friend to pull them away. And others who wallow in sin still need mercy. Though we reject the sin itself, the person is to be shown mercy when they leave the sin. From what I’ve seen the Westboro Church has no concept of what mercy is.<\/p>\n Finally, their behavior violates God’s command to be dignified. “In all things show yourself to be an example of good deeds, with purity in doctrine, dignified, sound in speech which is beyond reproach, so that the opponent will be put to shame, having nothing bad to say about us<\/em>” (Titus 2:7-8).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: Hello, Why aren’t more churches protesting sin as the Westboro Baptist Church does? Answer: First, you find no command or example that God’s people are expected to lead protests. We teach that sin is wrong. We teach why sin is wrong. But marching around funerals and other places does not accomplish any teaching. “But…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[179],"class_list":["post-43121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-sin"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3161,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-dont-muslim-believing-governments-allow-their-people-to-break-islamic-law\/","url_meta":{"origin":43121,"position":0},"title":"Why don’t Muslim believing governments allow their people to break Islamic law?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 31, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Why won't Muslim governments who won't let their people do anything \"un-Islamic\" just back off, let the people do what they want, and if \"Allah\" wants anyone punished for it, let him do it for himself? 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I know factually that God\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":51422,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-did-the-perfect-god-give-an-imperfect-law\/","url_meta":{"origin":43121,"position":3},"title":"Why did the perfect God give an imperfect law?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 18, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Why did God give men an imperfect law as stated in Hebrews, that is, the Old Law, when God is all perfect? 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