protesting the protestors

This is a small portion of the group that hung out on the corner of 124th and Via Linda this afternoon.

It was special, it truly was. Fred Phelp's followers were there, and their hatred was atrocious. It was scary.

In this picture are youth, clergy, and adults from churches all across the valley. If you look really hard, you will see me holding up my "Clergy for G.S.A." sign just to the right of the large rainbow flag. (G.S.A. means Gay Straight Alliance). Fred Phelp's church came all the way from Kansas because this High School in the East Valley has one. Tomorrow they will go to Luke Air Force Base and pray for more soldiers to be killed.

All of our signs talked about God, and God's love. Not exactly radical stuff. That our youth would choose to be present to remind us all how important that love is; and that they would invite adults and clergy to join them made me proud of them. These are the leaders we are cultivating to build us a church - and I have to say, I feel pretty good about that.

Here is a photo of what stood with us on the other corner. It is hateful, and hard to imagine that this is a part of the Body of Christ.