Our church had the great honor to host memorial services for Sergeant Nicholas A. Casey this past weekend. Sergeant Casey is a 2004 graduate of Timken High School, and has served his country faithfully. Here is an article from the Associated press:

By 10th grade, Nicholas A. Casey was starting to listen to service recruiters. Because of a lack of jobs in the area, Casey started to see the military as a way of life.

“That’s what he wanted to do,” said his father, Samuel. “He didn’t never give up on nothing that he started.”

Casey, 22, of Canton, Ohio, died Oct. 28 in Baghlan province, Afghanistan, of wounds from a suicide bomb attack. He was assigned to Fort Bragg, N.C.

In high school, he played baseball and football. His son was no more than an average athlete, Samuel Casey said, but he played the games the best he could.

“When he was young, he was always in his own little world,” his father said. “He was a happy kid. We had a broken marriage, but whether he was at his mother’s or father’s, he was happy.”

He also is survived by his wife, Rachelle, and two sons, Nicholas II, 3, and Curtis, 2.

His grandmother, Audrey Wendling, said the boys dressed up as soldiers for Halloween.

“It was the cutest thing, and we were so proud of the two boys,” she said. “Their father was their hero, and he died a hero.

“Nick will always be their hero. Nothing can ever change that.”

Canton Baptist Temple send their deepest heart-felt sympathy to his family. We will be praying for his family during this difficult time.

We received word that protesters from Westboro “Baptist Church” in Topeka, Kansas will be protesting the funeral service. Fred Phelps is the “Pastor” of this “church.”

Westboro Baptist is a nutty little church in Topeka, Kansas, the same place that spawned the Pentecostal movement in 1901 when Agnes Ozman began to speak and write in strange unscriptural mutterings and scratchings at Charles Parham’s Bible School. Westboro Baptist is pastored by Fred Phelps, who rejoices when American soldiers die in Iraq and claims that God hates homosexuals. The church’s prayer meetings are ridiculous, too. They pray for more tornadoes and hurricanes. Bring on the judgment, God! Instead of going into all the world and preaching the gospel to every creature like Jesus commanded, Westboro Baptist Church members picket military funerals carrying signs saying “Thank God for Maimed Soldiers” and “Fags die, God laughs” and other such stupidity.

The church is extreme predestinarian, believing that God has predestinated a few to be saved and the rest to be damned. They are not preaching the gospel that Jesus Christ preached: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved” (John 3:16).

They are not warning sinners to turn from their sin and believe in Christ and be saved, because they don’t believe the non-elect can do this. They are simply pronouncing judgment. It is their duty, they believe, to let it be known that God hates you and that you’re going to hell. They are right about the fact that America is a wicked nation and they are right that God hates sin, but they are wrong about God’s heart and they are wrong about the message that we are to proclaim today. God is holy and just and will certainly punish sin, but His heart is a heart of love toward fallen sinners and He wants to save them. “For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:3-4). “Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live” (Ezek. 33:11). Mr. Phelps, who is so self-deceived that he believes he is 100% correct, is just as confused as the “prophet” Charles Parham was when he started a Bible School in Topeka in 1900 and proclaimed that God always heals the believer’s sickness and disease and that tongues-speaking is for today. Parham’s disciple, William Seymour, pastored the famous Azusa Street Mission in Los Angeles.

Canton Baptist Temple (a real Baptist church) condemns the actions of Westboro and Fred Phelps. CBT is not affiliated in any way with Westboro and in fact considers them to be neither Baptist nor a Church. In order to be Baptist, one must be born again by repenting of the fact that they are a sinner and receiving Jesus Christ as their Saviour. This is the only way to heaven. When a person receives Christ, He changes them from the inside –out through the power of the Holy Spirit. Clearly the actions of those at Westboro prove that there is no change, therefore they probably are not saved and cannot be Baptist.

Westboro is not a church either. A church by definition is a “called out assembly of believers.” I don’t know what Westboro believes, but it is not the God of the Bible. Therefore, they are not a church either.

I wish that Westboro would have enough intestinal fortitude to remove Baptist and Church from their name. Other Baptists have removed their Baptist label because of organizations like Westboro. I refuse to allow them to hi-jack the Baptist name for their evil purposes.

May they see the error of their ways. Let this be a lesson to us all – when you depart from Scripture – you too could become as mean-spirited and off track as these people. God help us all!