The Compassionate Curmudgeon: The king of hate is dead; long live the hate
Fred Phelps, 84 year old leader, though church members say the church follows no man, only Jesus Christ, of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas, died this week. Normally I wouldn’t give the man or the church a minute of my time; they do, after all and quite publicly, state that “God hates fags.” The downfall of America, the U.S.A., if indeed we have fallen down, is the sole responsibility of our gay population and those who tolerate them.
According to Wikipedia, the Westboro Baptist Church has around 40 members. Phelps and his wife have 13 children, 54 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. It wouldn’t be a stretch to think that most of the 40 members are family, though several of the children have been estranged from Phelps for years.
Neither is it a stretch to think that hate begats hate; it’s an oft-stated and widely accepted axiom. Parents and family, for the most part, teach us what to hate: hate because of race, sexual orientation and or because someone has too much or too little money. It is certainly a family affair for Westboro/Phelps followers when they protest military funerals with kids from ages 5 and up carrying signs that say “God loves dead soldiers.” Perhaps the parents couch the protests in phrases of love-that because we love the United States and want the best for our nation and our God, we must get our country back on the path of real love and true righteousness.
Pfffft! They can couch it any way they want but it is hate. And this is where the future of those kids and their kids gets scary. Hate doesn’t dissipate, it hangs in a noxious pall around those who live it and hate is ugly, it is never about love or teaching your children how to love. Do 5 year old children understand hate? Yes, they do and they can absorb it, carry it viscerally and pass it along. What a 5 year old might not understand is who or what they are supposed to hate. Then, is it possible that the vicious hate a child is taught against one group becomes a random, unfocused hate that knows no bounds? I think so. Sometimes hate is just hate; there is no redeeming value.
So, although the king of hate may be dead, he has promulgated a culture that feeds only on hate and with 54 grandchildren shot full of it from an early age, I see no hope that they will ever love anything, especially themselves. Who would do that to a child?
Yours in hope and cynicism,
The Compassionate Curmudgeon
http://www.wacotrib.com/blogs/compassionate_curmudgeon/the-king-of-hate-is-dead-long-live-the-hate/article_a4b7559f-007d-549e-835a-58dc4540491e.html (Waco Tribune)
