An Open Letter to Matt Pope

Dear Matt Pope,

Yesterday in Prairie Village, a suburb of Kansas City, a church protested outside of a local high school. They mobilized their people and drove to Kansas City with their signs and their voices to take a stand. What were they protesting? They were protesting you. Members of the Westboro Baptist Church protested outside of Shawnee Mission East High School because you, an openly-gay former student, were elected prom king last year.

As I watched this on the news, I felt sick to my stomach. Not because a local high school had elected a gay student as prom king, but because of the warped response of those who are trying to represent God to the world. The leader of the protesters, Shirley Phelps-Roper, was briefly interviewed by the local news station.

"Those children elected a prom king, queen, thing," Phelps-Roper said. "They showed that they don't have a clue about their duty to obey the standards of God."

I wanted to ask Shirley about her duty to obey the standards of God myself. When did it become a standard of God to verbally attack and abuse those who may be far from him? Those he loves dearly? God has clear, unbreakable standards for us, but how are we supposed to live them out?

Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”
Matthew 22:37-40

Matt, if I had to make a list of ways to show love to someone, shouting down a group of students for nominating their friend as prom king might not be at the top of the list. This is not an excuse, but God doesn't hasn't given us the responsibility of calling out everyone else's sin. We are responsible to deal with our own. God doesn't want us to throw stones at others, but to look at ourselves in the mirror of his word.

I wonder how many of those protesters would still be there shouting about the gay prom king if everyone knew what lie they told their boss to get the day off, what gossip they told about the girl in the other van, the thoughts they had about that kid who really gets on their nerves, what sites are on the history list of their web browser...

Please know this, Matt...God loves you. He loves you with a perfect, selfless love that has no basis in who you are or what you do. He loves you unfailingly because that is just who he is. He wants you to know him. He wants to have a real, tangible relationship with you. He thinks you are awesome and has an incredible plan for your life if you are interested in taking his hand.

I don't know if you'll ever read this, Matt, but if you do, drop me a line. I'll buy you lunch sometime.

Chris