Fred Phelps' clan brings its twisted message to a recent protest.

Phelps has denied Christ's power to change homosexuals.

We are deeply saddened that Fred Phelps (see his website at www.godhatesfags.com) chose to protest Saturday at the East Peoria funeral services of Gunnery Sgt. Terry W. Ball. Phelps is an opportunist who is now using the funeral services of our heroic American soldiers to promote his twisted messages that "God Hates Fags" and "God Hates America."

Sgt. Ball died for his country, in the service of expanding freedom in Iraq. His grieving family did not deserve this nasty distraction. Picketing at funerals takes tackiness to a new level and is well beyond the boundaries of decency.

Fred Phelps' curious message is hardly Christian, and only fuels societal bigotry toward those who espouse genuine Biblical views on social issues like homosexuality and abortion. Of all the potential targets for their protests, they have chosen funeral services where the bereaved are mourning the loss of loved ones. It is hard to conceive of a more inflammatory presentation of a false Gospel than his.

Politically and culturally speaking, Phelps and his protesters serve as a crude caricature of pro-family traditionalists who oppose the normalization of homosexuality. Fred makes an easy target for the media and secularists who are tempted (partly by their own prejudices) to paint any opposition to "gay rights" as hateful. .

From a Scriptural standpoint, Phelps has denied a pivotal, historic Christian truth: that homosexuals, like anyone struggling with sexual sin, can repent and turn from their behavior (lifestyle) with the help of a loving God. By denying the reality of redemptive change as experienced by countless thousands of men and women who once practiced homosexual behavior or identified as "gay"--but have since left that lifestyle--Phelps rejects the Christian ideal that Jesus Christ can set people free from their besetting sin (see 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 below).

By denying change for people caught up in homosexuality, Phelps denies the love and power of Jesus Christ Himself--a cruel message that is as "hateful" toward homosexuals as any of his preposterous signs. (For the record, we consider the "gay" theological construct that says homosexuality is a "gift from God" as similarly cruel in that it turns the Creator's moral law on its head.)

The fact is, there are noisy wackos and Culture War arsonists on both ends of the political spectrum. On the one side is the "Reverend" Fred Phelps and his attorneys flying around the country with their "God Hates Fags" message.

On the other side are left-wing zealots like the Chicago-based Gay Liberation Network who practice their own version of hateful lies. GLN's nuttiness and meanness were recently on display protesting an IFI fundraising event: one man held up a sign falsely accusing GOP gubernatorial candidate Jim Oberweis of predatory acts. It read, "Oberweis Fondled Me." (Click HERE for IFI's story including a photo of the anti-Oberweis placard.)

Perhaps joking about molestation to bash a pro-family group and reducing God to a jingoistic "Fag Hater" fall into the same squalid category of poisonous political extremism. At IFI, we stand against them both, and call for a civil debate in which all sides can be heard without rancor and name-calling.

It's hard, but the God who Phelps claims to represent asks us to love even our enemies.

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Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. (1 Corinthians 6:9-11, NIV)

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