On Friday 21st March 2014, Australia woke to the news that Reverend Fred Phelps, Sr had passed away. Phelps is the founder of the Westboro Baptist Church (WBC), the well known hate group who like to picket the funerals of celebrities and US soldiers who have died in the line of duty.
In an interview in 2006, Phelps Sr stated:
“Can you preach the Bible without preaching the hatred of God? The answer is absolutely not.”
They seem to ignore a little scripture know as 1 John 3:16, “God is love”. Do they honestly believe they have the support of God? Anyone’s God?
I have watched interviews with members of the sect, and their faces show pure hatred for anything that goes against their belief structure. They go round and round in circles, blowing their hatred trumpets, and not making much sense whatsoever.
These people have been banned from entering the UK and Canada. They picket other churches, preaching words of hate and impending doom. They’ve picketed a Foo Fighters concert. They even said they would picket the funerals of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings. That’s right. They were going to picket the funerals of children.
What I find hilarious as none of their teachings are supported by scripture, clearly ignoring ones that would make what they do wrong. Matthew 7:1 comes to mind, “Do not judge so that you will not be judged”.
I’m going to be completely honest here: I loathe the WBC. I loathe what they stand for. I hate that they feel they have the right to behave the way they do because they believe God has inspired them to. They are teaching a new generation of people to be full of hate. The live and breathe this hatred, and condemn everyone to death based on religion (the holocaust was “God’s punishment for Jews”), location (did you know that Australia is “the land of the sodomite damned”?) and sexual orientation.
Having said all that though, should we rejoice in the death of Phelps Sr? While it’s great he is no longer here to spew forth venom towards the undeserving, he still has his church, most of whom are made of his descendants.
Until the WBC, is fully eradicated like the disease they are, they will continue be a blight on the world. While we all fight so hard for equality for all, we need to show these bullies that we will not stand for their ways.
There are whispers about picketing his funeral, but most people don’t want to stoop to his level. We should do the same.
While we condemn what he did with every fibre of our being, rejoicing in his death would make us just like him. And I sure as hell don’t want to be anything like that man.
What do you think?
