Is another Reformation needed?

As I sat discussing the matter of legislated morality and the rights of homosexual people to marry I couldn't help noting the fact that so called Christians do more to harm the name of Christ and His Gospel than any outside source that I can think of. While many may think that atheists would be the greatest 'threat' to the Gospel, in actuality they simply disagree with us on the existence of a God, which we (Chrisitans) new would occur. Faith in God is a gift given to believers from God (Ephesians 2:8-9) therefore it should not be a suprising fact that there are those out there who deny His existence. There is nothing that humanity can do to bridge the gap between ourselves and God that sin has created, God comes to us through grace and mercy and we accept His sacrifice on our behalf to enter into a relationship with our Creator. The Apostle Paul says that creation and human conscience speak to the existence of God (Romans 1) in the absence of the Gospel and therefore no one will be able to argue that there was no way for them to acknowledge the existence of God, but at no point should we be suprised that people do not believe as we know clearly from the Bible that there will be many who won't.

Many may point to science as being against God and His Church. That it tries to denouce God and replace the Gospel in the hearts and minds of people. While many may use science to try and explain away the doubts and questions that humanity has concerning our origins, our purpose and our future, science in and of itself simply allows us to explore the wonders and beauty of God's creation. The fact that some people use it as a means of denying God does not make it in and of itself 'evil' or anti-God.

Many people use the ideas of suffering and evil within the world as a means of denying God, but they also want free will and the natural outcome of free will is consequence. The same people who ask 'how could a loving God allow a child to be murdered' and then say that because this does occur in our world that God does not exist would be the same people that would decry the lack of free will (living as automotons who could do nothing of our own will but rather would be puppets controled completely and utterly by the Creator) if they were able. God gave humanity the gift of choice and through that gift (and yes it is a gift) sin occurs. So to decry God when the natural consequence of a wrong choice happens is I think illogical. It is ultimately what we want as consequence is a natural part of choice.

All these things we know, as Christians, through our relationship with God and through His word as contained in the Bible. What must truly make Christ weep is the fact that there are people in the world who try to clothe themselves in his glory and then spread hate and sin. For instance, I would ask anyone to cite chapter and verse from the Bible that says unequivicably that God hates you or me. Yet there are so called ministers who do claim that He does hate people. For instance take the person of Fred Phelps whose vitrioloc rhetoric is a clear example of supposed Christians who do more harm to the Gospel than those outside the Church. Fred Phelps is a hate-filled self-loathing old man who, in my opinion, has never encountered the love of God, because the love of God transforms a person to such an extent that Christ could say 'love your neighbor as yourself' and anticipate it in action. There is no love in Fred Phelps and as God is the epitome of love, I cannot believe that God is in