Ladies, gentlemen, sentient animals with access to wifi and computers, Fred Phelps is dead at age 84. Now before anyone starts belting out Ding Dong the Witch is Dead or lacing their tap shoes to dance on his grave, listen to me. Phelps is far from a perfect man, in fact he may be one of the most hate-filled individuals who ever lived, but is celebrating his death justified? That would make us worse than him or his church, if not just as bad.
Now if anyone has no idea about who Fred Phelps is, he was the founder of the Westboro Baptist Church, one of the most infamous and hated groups not just in the USA, but all over the world thanks to their warped views on Christianity, including twisted song parodies which have messages contrary to what most Christians believe (Including myself). However, many forget that, even though Phelps had a raging hate-boner against the LGBT community, he was a supporter of the NAACP during the civil rights movement of the 60s and was an acclaimed lawyer, despite being thrown in prison a few times.
Before anyone gets the wrong idea, I am not defending the man on his homophobia, or his gnarled Christian values, but rather giving some perspective on the situation. Believe me, the WBC struck a nerve with me when they protested Ronnie James Dio's funeral, let alone the hundreds of military funerals they marched outside the chapel and cemetery. So you'd think I'd be the one donning the biggest pair of cleats to stomp on his grave, but no, because if you think about it, that'd be hypocritical. Hatred on hatred only makes the situation worse. You don't throw gasoline on a fire to put it out, do you?
Instead, why not just wish the family luck on getting past their grief? Maybe even pray if you happen to be religious? I know not everyone who reads this has a faith or is Christian, but love knows no religion. Being a decent person isn't exclusive to one faith, even though all of them encourage it. Two wrongs don't make a right, and vengeance is a dish best served cold. Who knows, maybe this experience will help the Phelps family turn over a new leaf and renounce their old hate-cultish ways, preaching about God's love instead of his wrath. Of course, that's a pipe dream, but I do hope that this message will get out. Love thy neighbors, love thy enemies, and let's not stir the pot and make their grieving worse.
Love makes the world go round, folks, so let's make that globe turn!
This is a good message. You have a point there. Anyone with the nerve to celebrate his death will only add more fuel to the already raging fire. Right about now some people are probably getting ready to pour hate down on WBC, in the hopes that their voice will be doused out. Let me assure you that WBC is a flame and hate is a deadly gas, but love is water. Instead of making the blazing flame an atomic explosion we should turn our efforts to undoing the damage that has been done by spreading love in all directions. There are more Christians who believe in love, we all just need to speak up!
ReplyDeleteExactly my point! I wrote something similar to this on Facebook, and much to my surprise I got quite a positive reception. Like I said, I expected everyone to put on their tap shoes and cleats and do a chorus line on Phelps grave, but nope, and that makes me happy.
DeleteWell my uncle wanted to, I swear I'm the only one in my house who knows what will happen if you fight fire with fire, nothing but a massive explosion! But knowing that there are at least a few other people who think this way helps me restore my faith in the modern Christian.
ReplyDeleteAmen to that. I don't consider myself to be perfect, but I do wish more people saw the way we did. Phelps was a hateful man with a venomous heart, but he's still a person like you or me, and we're not perfect, and to protest his funeral would be hypocritical to the highest degree.
ReplyDeleteAgreed! That's NOT where we need to focus our energy! Because of WBC people are convinced that all Christians are hateful, they had good intentions (to literally scare the Hell out of everyone in order to get them to turn) but they did more harm than help and we need to focus on undoing that.
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