You don't have to know much about the history of violence by and among religious groups to see that unfortunately it is alive and well at Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas. It's founder and former preacher, Reverend (???) Fred Phelps Sr. died on March 19 at the age of 84.
I read the obituaries. I read several commentaries. Then I went to the website of the Westboro Baptist Church. It's website name: www.godhatesfags.com . You read that correctly. This is a church which dares to call itself Christian.
Mr. Phelps's community has been known by its protests with anti-gay, anti-Semitic placards, often at the funerals of veterans. It was his view, and that of his small Baptist community, that an unforgiving, vengeful God was poised to destroy a nation of sinners. In one interview with Religious News Service, he said, "You're not going to get nowhere with that slop that 'God loves you.' That's a diabolical lie from hell without biblical warrant." Bumper stickers distributed by the church said, "Hate is a Bible Value." A list of biblical verses on the website, "God's Hatred in the Bible," lists 18 verses, but none from the four Gospels, and none quoting Jesus Christ. The community's protests were widely reviled by everyone from the ACLU, gay and lesbian activist groups, mainstream media, and to even -- bizarrely -- the Ku Klux Klan.
I confess that it is so easy to live only in your own community, with its troubles and difficulties, small joys and successes. You don't want to see evil. I remember vaguely seeing Phelps' protests on national network television news. And then there was something else to engage the national media. I never stopped to protest what Westboro's members were doing, or even to consider that these are my brothers and sisters in Christ through baptism. What this community of faith was/is doing is evil.
May God have mercy on Phelps' hating soul.
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