The objector is possibly suffering from the same misunderstanding as that which produced another objection, relating to “threats”. We reject the implications and baggage associated with the word “picketing”, without serious qualification, which the Church Repent conference and website have been designed to address and explain.

However, we welcome exhortation from our brothers and sisters in Jesus. Where we are in sin, if we are unaware of it and have been observed to be committing it, we desire to be corrected and shown our error so that we may repent, partake of the wondrous grace of God won by Jesus for us on the Cross, and go and sin no more. We want to be made more like Jesus, and every Christian needs sharpening and accountability from brethren. So yes, if we are in error, come and show us our sin.

If someone feels the need to appear without warning outside any of our churches to “picket”, my answer is: examine yourself well. We have done so. Have you? Would it have been an evil act for Christians in the Third Reich to show up at apathetic so-called Confessing Churches with pictures of piles of dead Jews?

A brief personal history – several of us at the Abolitionist Society of Oklahoma once were members at a church that found itself the victim of a Westboro picket one Sunday morning. Despite the bitter cold that morning, our intention was to engage them and take advantage of the opportunity to share the true Gospel with them and call them to repentance. We actually desire interaction with those who disagree. Should any picketers appear outside one of our churches, it would be the same thing – engagement with the truth of the Scripture in the love of Jesus. We are not afraid to test our views in light of Scripture, testify to the truth where we correctly teach it, and repent of and correct our views where we are in error.