H8RS B H8N
The death of Fred Phelps – the leader of the Westboro Baptist Church – shouldn’t really rate much of a mention. A small family-based religious cult in the heartland of America loses its founding father and spiritual leader…this would rarely rate a mention all the way over here in Australia.
However…this Westboro we’re talking about here.
This is a community that calls it’s website www.godhatesfags.com
This is a religion that actively promotes hatred, bigotry, racism and affirmative action against anyone who lives life differently to them. Even if you are a Christian, heterosexual, and right wing (but object to any of their doctrine – maybe you like Metallica, or Green Day, or Nickelback) then you too will be subject to their vitriolic hatred and abuse.
In one way, their self-promotion and marketing has been exceptional. They’ve use extremism loosely wrapped in religious doctrine, xenophobia and fundamentalism to tap into the deep-seated fears of the ignorant and uneducated. There was another organisation that did that. The Nazis.
And we all know how that turned out.
Some of their hatred and insanity is not entirely unreasonable – although maybe their turn of phrase and methods are. For example, their claim that “God h8s filthy raping priests and the enablers”. Maybe God does – if, indeed, such a being exists. I’m sure that society “h8s” them – and we don’t need to quote scripture to back up this feeling.
This maybe where their Achilles heel rests – on scripture. The debate rages that Bible is not what religious fundamentalists (lift Westboro) think it is. It could be any of the following:
A series of stories, anecdotes and tales of morality that try to teach us how to live a good life, or
The ramblings of a series of nutcase fundamentalists who are hell-bent on indoctrination, suppression and domination, or
An historical word-for-word documentation of the past.
I’m sure Westboro believe it is the latter – and anyone who doesn’t believe that way is evil.
If the Bible is “proof” that God exists and everything in it is truth, then maybe the “Magic Faraway Tree” by Enid Blyton is proof that Moonface exists. Maybe “The Cat in the Hat” is real? So too “The Queen of Hearts”, “Humpty Dumpty” and “Cheshire Cat”?
What a wonderful world that would be.
With Fred dead, will they simply disintegrate into nothing as a result of in-fighting, power struggles and lack of firm leadership? Will they have the funeral of their pastor picketed by heavy metal bands, the gay community, those from Jewish, Arabic, or African backgrounds, and anyone else who dares to offer an opinion or objection to their hatred and bigotry?
How will they feel if men openly kiss other men whilst the casket of their leader is driven by?
Will they feel offended if a Jewish family sing a song whilst a nearby Lesbian couple hold hands?
Will they hear anything under the din of Slayer, or Metallica, or Cradle of Filth thrash out their tunes?
Or, simply, will anyone even care?
Maybe the most appropriate protest would be no protest at all, no publicity and no media.
