So if you haven’t heard by now, actor Heath Ledger from The Patriot, 10 Things I Hate About You, Brokeback Mountain, etc. sadly passed away yesterday. While listening to the details of what happened, it was brought up that a church has said they are going to “picket” and “protest” his funeral. Why are they doing this you might ask? Because he portrayed a gay character in the Brokeback Mountain movie.

Seriously? This just makes me so sad. First of all, this man’s family, friends, and especially his daughter are deeply and tragically affected by it. And you are going to try to take away from this by protesting at a time like this?

Secondly, this is why the majority of people know more about what Christians are against than what they are for. This church is going to spend their time, energy, money, efforts into ruining this guy’s funeral to prove that they are against homosexuality? Even if these people don’t end up following through with their protest, it has still been publicized enough, that many people in the country have heard about it. And what if this is their only exposure to what Christianity is all about? Sad. What I, as a Christian, am worrying about is doing everything I can to make sure that people know the real message of Jesus. And that is not anti-homosexual, rule throwing, hypocritical. It is a message of hope, grace, forgiveness, and compassion.

I am so glad that we are doing a series at Lifepoint starting next week called Shattered. You will just have to come to see what it is all about, but I am excited that we are going to learn about shattering the stereotype many people have of the Christian faith, not adding fuel to it’s fire.