Personal Blog of Dr. Doug Varnado

Thousands lined the streets of Nashville this week as a brave soldier was eulogized.  Sgt. Kevin Balduf was killed last month in Afghanistan and will be buried at Arlington Cemetery in a few days.  Yet my first thoughts of Kevin are not of a decorated combat veteran.  I instead recall his teenage smile and energy.  Friday nights were spent sitting in the stands as he and my son Nick played the same position for the High School football team.

Among the huge contingent of support were also a small handful of protestors exercising their freedom of speech.  They displayed signs filled with hateful slogans and extreme expressions of bigotry.  I’m thankful that I live in such an amazing country that allows free speech for every person, and in the case of Westboro Baptist Church, no matter how vile, venomous and bigoted it may be.  Earlier that day, this same group picketed in front of the Nashville Islamic Center as well as the Gordon Jewish Community Center.  I hope and pray that those who abhorred the presence of this group of protestors would also feel equally strong against the bigotry displayed that day toward Muslims, Jews, homosexuals or anyone else who was not a Westboro follower.

I can’t even begin to fathom how those who profess faith in Jesus Christ could display such arrogant, hateful and blatant bigotry.  As a Christ follower, I don’t even have a grid to plug that into.  It defies logic and mutilates the heart of the gospel. 

I wonder though when the prophet Micah wrote, “And what does the LORD require of you?  To do justice, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8), how and where do we draw that line?  Because unfortunately, more often than not, that line gets drawn.   

Doug Varnado

~ by Doug Varnado on June 17, 2011.

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