The Next Generation: 'Westboro is to Christianity What the Tsarnaev Brothers are to Islam'

Like all of you, I sat and watched with a heavy heart the events of April 15 at the Boston Marathon.

We all saw innocent men, women and children pay the price for a form of religion that knows nothing of grace or love...only death. We saw and were proud of our men and women of the police force handle the situation with great courage and fortitude.

We watched with awe as the first responders rushed head long into the unknown to save lives. It was humanity at it's worst met with humanity at it's best.

This past Monday the funeral for Krystle Campbell was held in Boston. She was one of the innocents caught in the hatred. As her family, friends and city wept, another group stood outside with their signs and words of hatred. WestBoro Baptist "church" got little coverage this go around but they were there none the less.

I put church in quotations because they do not speak for my faith in any sense of the word. They are nothing more than a hate group and almost no different than the Tsarnaev brothers who sent that city into lockdown.

And when I see WBBC someplace I get a mixed feeling of revulsion and pity. They make me sick and yet I feel so sorry that they feel they must live out their faith and lives in such hatred for anyone other then them.

And I know that 99.9% of other Christians would agree to that. WBBC is not part of our faith and should not be considered to be by anyone. So it was with great surprise that I began seeing many friends post pretty cruel sayings, pictures, and posts about Muslims.

The general feeling of these posts were that all people of the Islamist faith are of the same nature as these bombers. And while I would not agree theologically with my Muslim friends, those posts and statements and pictures angered me. How could some of my Christian friends, who all feel the same about WBBC, turn around and apply the same flawed logic to the Muslim faith?

I would agree that almost every instance of terrorist activity has been born out of radical Islam. But let's not forget history in this discussion. Christianity has it's own dark side where we were the ones doing the terrorizing. Convert or die was how we lived out Jesus' call. I did not perpetrate any of those crimes and I believe that we should not condemn other Muslims for the actions of the minority.

Just this past week another terrorist plot was thwarted in Toronto. It was well publicized that they were planning on blowing up a commuter train that would come into the US. I found it very interesting though how this plot began to unwind.

Read this quote from the Huffington Post: Muhammad Robert Heft, a Muslim community leader in Ontario, told the Toronto Sun that the imam of a local Muslim community helped foil the terror plot by alerting authorities. "At the end of the day, it's not how you dress, it's how you think," he said. "In our community we may look a little different, but in our hearts we love Canada. It's our country. It's our tribe. We want safety for all Canadians regardless of their religion."

My guess is that this sentiment speaks for the vast majority of all Muslims and not just the voice we hear during another bombing or attack. Dr. Martin Lurther King Jr. once said, "We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools."

He was obviously talking about race relations during the civil rights movement. But I can't help but feel that it does and can apply to us today. Couldn't we as people come together to help silence these idiot few? Couldn't we as humans put aside our differences to work towards a better end? We may not agree on everything but most people want to live long, peaceful, happy lives. How can this not be possible?

I for one refuse to settle for how it is and instead will strive for the "ought to be." I will not succumb to my base nature of judging all on the actions fo the few.

And I bet that if we all would start doing that things could change. I end with a verse from the Apostle Paul's letter to the church in Rome, "If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone." Blessings