"This one goes to 11!" -Nigel Tufnel
“If it’s too loud, you’re too old.”
Many people are up in arms over the Supreme Court’s decision regarding the Westboro Baptist Church’s “demonstrations” near military funerals. The Court ruled that their practice of standing across the street from a funeral and holding up offensive signs is a First Amendment, free speech, protected right. While I think what that “church” does is offensive and obscene, I agree with the Court’s decision.
I get nervous when anyone’s First Amendment rights are threatened. Once we start doing that we are just a heartbeat away from limiting the church’s free-expression of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As one who believes that part of the church’s role is to be a prophetic voice, we should value the right of even those who offend us to say what they will so that we can continue to speak as well.
Rather than limiting free speech, there is another, more effective, means of combatting these other voices who claim to represent our church and, more importantly, God as we know him through Jesus Christ.
More than 10 years ago I attended a seminar by Walt Mueller from the Center for Parent/Youth Understanding (http://www.cpyu.org). Across the years I have found one of his teaching points to be very useful. Many parents stereotypically ask their kids to “turn it down.” It usually refers to their music or the television, but it could also apply to dress, language, gaming, internet usage, and so much more. Trying to get them to “turn it down” is an ineffective strategy that creates confrontation between parent and child. A better strategy, Mueller argued, is to turn up our volume – the volume of what we want our kids to hear.
I think the same is true in this situation. We should be far less concerned with “turning down” the voice of the Westboro Baptist’s of our world, who exist in far more subtle expressions as well, that we should with turning “up to 11″ the message of Jesus. Jesus’ message is one of love, forgiveness, inclusion, reconciliation and resurrection. The problem is not the voices of people who distort the gospel so much as it the silence of those of us in the mainstream church who have chosen to be too quiet for far too long.
Rather than protesting the protesters, let’s turn up the Gospel message that “God so LOVED the WORLD that he gave his only Son, so that EVERYONE who believes in him [follows him, lives in the way he calls us to live] may not perish but may have eternal life [right now]. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him” (John 3:16-17 NRSV, emphasis and commentary added).
Turn it up!
