Last weekend, Carolyn saw on her Facebook news feed that one of her friends was involved in an "anti-protest protest" against the Westboro Baptist Church. She asked me, "What's the Westboro Baptist Church?" That began an entire morning of looking up Google images and YouTube videos for all the things that Westboro Baptist is involved with.

Yup, this the church that you see in the news a lot. They protest at soldier funerals, Billy Graham conventions, Comic-Con, and pretty much anywhere there's a crowd. You can read their wikipedia entry, but in short, they really hate everyone. It's amusing to say the least to watch people try to interview the church members, because in many cases, you see reporters trying to be amicable and peaceful in speaking to the church members, but they're met with hostility and condescension. In one video that I watched, the church member is trying to compare their theology to other mainstream Baptist churches saying that WBC teaches "Doctrines of grace". When probed further as to what that entails, she answers, "Well, you know what TULIP stands for, right?" To which the reporter says no, and asks her to explain what that is. Her response, "Well... it's uh... doctrines of grace! That's exactly what it is."

Now, I'm certain that no one I know is involved in a church like this, or perverts the Word of God to justify hating other people who are different from them. But many of us may answer similarly when asked about what our convictions or beliefs are. The Apostle Peter says, "Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have". Its for this reason that we should not only know what we believe, but WHY we believe it. Far too often I find myself very adamant about something, but when asked deeper about it I realize that I really don't know why I think that way. In these situations I realize that either I need to tone down my feelings, OR I need to read up more on the topic. If I don't, then I end up looking foolish, and no one likes to look foolish. Well, almost no one.