What does YOUR God Require of you?
This is the question that the Westboro Baptist Church (a "fundamentalist, anti-gay church" -- whatever that means -- in the Tampa, FL area) feels that Bon Jovi should be answering for their fans.
A protest is also scheduled at the St. Pete Times Forum's Bon Jovi concert on April 17. "These old fools have had access to millions all over the world for nearly 3 decades, but they have not one time told any of them what God requires of them," the church Web site says, referring to Bon Jovi.Uh, what?
OK, look, here's my personal deal.
I'm Catholic. That means I rely on my Pope/bible/priest to give me GUIDANCE as to what God expects of me. Free will means I can make up my own mind as to what I believe God wants and act accordingly. Or disregard it completely. I don't actually believe that my priest/Pope has a red-phone-hotline to the Big Guy, or that they can even PRETEND to know what God really wants us to do. All they can do is guide. And they guide by words.
There's an old saying that "actions speak louder than words".
Let's take a look at what the principals of Bon Jovi have done in recent years.
The Tico Torres Children's Foundation. This was founded to help kids fight hunger, disease, homelessness, neglect, abuse, and illness. (taken from the website). Tico provided the initial funding for the Foundation, and solicits donations for all sorts of causes, including help for Haiti. The yearly golf tourney raises large amounts of money for the foundation, and Tico lends his name/celebrity to the causes his foundation supports.
Only Make Believe. This organization believes that a child's imagination is a valuable part of the healing process, and creates and performs interactive theatre for children in hospitals and care facilities in the NY/NJ area. David is a big supporter of this cause. Kids again.
Richie made it his personal goal to bring Kelly Mahon (a girl from his hometown of Woodbridge, NJ) home from the hospital after suffering from a brain tumor. He helped the family get funding (through fundraising and personal donations) to renovate their home. That's just one of the things he's done.
And I don't think there's a person on the planet that doesn't know at least one thing that has been accomplished through Jon's Soul Foundation, and Jon's involvement with Habitat for Humanity. Hell, Jon even tips big.
I don't know, WBC, I think you're way off on this one. Bon Jovi does not need to stand up on their stage, embrace the mic and say, "Hey people, here's what God expects of you." I'm not even sure people would listen. I think they show us by their actions.
The full article is here if you want to read it.
~ Hath
Oh, and for the record, God does not talk directly to me; but, I'm pretty sure, that no matter who your God is, all he/she wants is for people to play nice, help each other out, and for nobody to get hurt.
Edit 9:30pm EST April 8. I made an incorrect assumption that the WBC was from the Tampa area. It never truly occurred to me that people would travel THAT far out of their way to protest a concert. Seems a little crazy to me. Thanks for setting me straight, my devoted.
7 comments:
They just want attention. Many people would do very well to live their lives like the guys in Bon Jovi. Their God could only be pleased if they did.
an even bigger question here is this: what has this church done in fulfilling the "what does God want requirement?" All they have managed to do is spread hate and discord by protesting and the sad part is all in the name of God.
Maybe they are disgruntled to the fact of "Bullet"'s lyric "and how can someone take a life in the name of God and say it's right?"
This is such a piece of shit... I'm a believer, but hell, this is a stupid propaganda, nothing more. They have no better things to do so they started insulting Bon Jovi???
For Christ's sake... I have nothing to say... it's just unfair and I hope people won't give a damn about that statement.
I think this church does things like this purely for attention. Seems as if they are always on the scene protesting something.
What I don't understand is why pick on Bon Jovi. There is so many bands out there why them, like you said if they did any homework on the band they would know all of them do wonderful things for a lot of people. This church should practice what they preach!!!
Sometimes I think churches stray from the original meaning of church and what it was intended for. IMO, church is meant to be a haven for sinners to contemplate the direction of their lives, not a platform for some holier-than-thou religious zealot forcing his noise on the masses' ears. I think some of them should follow the "Be still and know that I am God" idea.
Peace!
Lyric
a "fundamentalist, anti-gay church" -- whatever that means -- in the Tampa, FL area
They're not from the Tampa area they're from Kansas, we may have a lot of bad "churches" and "church leaders" here in Tampa but the fringe lunatics from WBC are not from Tampa, but they like to have their protests here because of MacDill and the large gay population here.
I can't decide now if I want to go to the concert wearing a Hey God! Love's the Only Rule shirt or WBC Gives Religion, Humanity, Free Speech and Love a Bad Name
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