It’s a pretty striking image.

A 6-year-old girl, dressed in a pink overcoat with a furry white hood, standing next to her mother.

She’s holds signs that say “UR going to hell” and “Repent or perish,” while her mom holds signs that call Judy Shepard a “fag pimp.”

A 6-year-old, learning to hate, all in the name of Christianity.

The little girl’s grandfather, Fred Phelps, brought his family to Iowa yesterday to protest the recently announced state scholarships for gay high school students.

Phelps and his crew have received national attention for their rallies at gay weddings, funerals, marches — you name it. His Web site, www.godhatesfags.com, promotes the message that homosexuals are evil and condemned to hell, and, well, God hates them.

Christians and non-Christians alike have been trying for centuries to reconcile their interpretations of where homosexuality falls in God’s universe. Is it a mortal sin, unforgivable and irreversible? Is it one of many sins that both Christians and non-Christians commit everyday, forgivable and able to be repented from? Or is it a natural phenomenon, part of God’s master plan?

That decision of what to believe is between you and God.

And that decision should not be influenced by ill-timed messages of God’s hate.

Phelps says his message of hate instead of a message of love is accurate and necessary. But someone whom Phelps purports to follow thought differently.

Jesus Christ, whom Christians are supposed to emulate, took an entirely different tack to non-believers and sinners.

Jesus said that he came into the world not to judge it, but to save it (John12:47).

Jesus sat down with sinners, lovingly sharing with them the message of God’s eternal forgiveness (John 4:7-26) and defending them to the Pharisees (John 8:1-9). He told an adulteress not that God hated her, but that she should go and sin no more (John 8:11).

And in speaking to his followers during the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus clearly said that judging others is not what the Christian is supposed to do.

“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” (Matthew 7:1-5)

Fred Phelps of course has the right to say anything he wants, about homosexuals or anyone else. But his misplaced condemnation of those around him has given Christians everywhere a bad name, and it can’t have done much for bringing people to God.

According to Jesus, hate for others is not a Christian value. Not from a pastor in a Baptist church, and not from his 6-year-old granddaughter.

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Iowa State Daily Editorial Board: Sara Ziegler, Greg Jerrett, Kate Kompas, Carrie Tett and David Roepke.