Hopefully your answer is NONE!
Most of you will remember the fake protest by staged by Electronic Arts at last year’s E3 ]in order to heap a bit of hype on their Dante’s Inferno game – but this one seems to be for real. If nothing else, the group claiming responsibility for the protest is real. A news item crossed our desks this morning from Kotaku.com via Gamepoltics. It seems that the Westboro Baptist church will be protesting at the upcoming Comic-Con in San Diego. For those not in the know, this is not a small collection of kids from down the block pawing through comic books. This is the place where companies like Marvel Studios introduce the cast for the upcoming Avengers movie. So the protest may or may not be real. Still, let me introduce you to the sign currently circulating around the internet that purports to be a member of said church protesting nerds….
Let me state that being a nun, a gamer, and someone who writes about the videogame industry that I still have a hard time following the labyrinthine path of twisted logic that could somehow apply Romans 9:13 to a nerd. Further, let’s be a bit more specific. What sort of nerds are we talking about here? The Steven Jobs sort that started out in his garage and now owns a sizeable chunk of the U.S. economy? Perhaps we are talking about the proverbial teenager that is bound to his computer by virtual chains linking him to a myriad of mmos? Or are they claiming that God hates the genius types depicted on The Big Bang Theory or real life genius Stephen W. Hawking . Perhaps there is simply something about pocket protectors that just pisses God off.
Whatever the reason for the delusional the protest, and the twisted application of logic, let me introduce you to those who are reportedly planning the protest…
The hate mongers of the Westboro Baptist Church
…The hate mongers of the Westboro Baptist Church.
These are the same individuals who are wont to make the rounds of military funerals with signs reading “Thank God for dead soldiers” and “God hates fags. Now I could point out that the individual sporting the sign quoting Romans 9:13 has somehow managed to find a meaning the biblical passage that has somehow eluded scholars since St. Paul first penned the words some 2,000 years ago – in fact I believe I just did. Beyond that, however, I will provide you with a bit of ammunition from the same source that you can shout, scream or casually mention to protesters should you attend the comic con, and the reports turn out to be real. Look them right in the eye and say…
How many Canadians can I own?
Then refer them to Leviticus 25: 44-46.
The answer will then be a puzzled look or the instance that God hates Abraham Lincoln as well for signing the Emancipation Proclamation in the first place. If the response is the first, simply use the resulting moments during which the protestor deals with his or her bewilderment to make a quick getaway. If the second…well at least you have proven the protestor is a Looney (as if it weren’t patently obvious in the first place).
I have to ask where is Westboro Baptist and if it is a toxic waste dump because I cannot comprehend the concentrated levels of hate and stupidity coming from there(No offense is meant to the actual residents of Westboro). Someone needs to go past there and confiscate their torches, pitchforks, and heavy stones before they start up witch trials.
After looking it up, maybe they just need to get out of Kansas more(without bringing any signs), being stuck that far in the middle of nowhere cannot be good for your health. People need to be able to make their own judgments of others based on their own observations, rather than being spoon-fed raw malice.
Perhaps it is because that I too am a veteran that sets my teeth on edge whenever the members of this small group manage to wangle their way into the news. It could be that this is simply someone like EA’s marketing department taking a more realistic bent on fake advertising. As you can see from the link in the Washington Post their activities managed to work their way all the way up to the Supreme Court.
Either way, some of the most fun people I know are nerd…including my co-host who is also my mother superior. As for Romans 9:13 the author gives us both the real reason for the verse and at the same time the reason they don’t live in a toxic waste dump in Romans 9:15: God takes mercy and who he choses.
Thanks for the input – its always good to know there are people out there.
And I should mention that Darren Love, who graciously asked Fran and I to be on the next episode of Shut Up We’re Talking answered the question in the title of the article on the show…
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I heard about this story last week and am still frustrated by it. As a Christian, and a gamer, churches that support this behavior in it’s members embarrass me. The bible teaches tolerance and loving your neighbor as yourself. Jesus surrounded himself with people of all walks of life and loved them for who they were. While everyone has their right to an opinion, especially when it comes to religion and theology, there is never a real excuse for this type of hatred. Churches ask themselves every year why memberships are down and people are pushing away from the Christian faith. Easy answer: it’s because of groups like this making God look like an evil dictator instead of a loving Father.
No human has the authority to tell anyone with any certainty who’s going to heaven or hell, that judgement is for God, and God alone. Sorry for getting “preachy” on the blog, but I feel its something that needs to be said on this topic. Especially since the media only seems to portay Christianity from the view of these types of hatemongers.
Well JMO don’t worry about getting preachy, and even if you do I know there is at least one preacher who reads the blog. Some of the nicest people I know are nerds.
Julie