Westboro's Fred Phelps is Dead; the Love of Jesus Lives

The Rev. Fred Phelps, the founder of Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas, died last week.  You may know of him for his hate-filled protests at the funerals of U.S. soldiers, claiming their deaths were God’s revenge for America’s tolerance of homosexuality. His animus disgraced the Gospel with his unadulterated message “God hates gays.”

How unlike our Lord Jesus who came to seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10). Are you not troubled when you hear so-called fundamentalist Christians speak hatefully against sinners, and even more venomously against those who struggle with sexual identity? Our culture has given rise to numbers of believers who are engaged in this battle. Yes, God hates sin, but “God demonstrated His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom 5:8). Jesus not only loves the lost, He loves His lost sheep who have gone astray (Luke 15:4).