In the name of God, they march and condemn and hold signs that say their God hates gays and wants them dead. Soldiers, too, because they come from a country that condones homosexuality. And the people incinerated on 9/11. And the kid who got beaten to death by a bunch of savages in Laramie, Wyo.
The signs the members of Westboro Baptist Church carry when they protest at funerals say:
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“God hates America.”
“You?re going to hell.”
“Thank God for dead soldiers.”
Give thanks this is not your church, and their God is not your God.
They call themselves Christians and guardians of the faith and shepherds of the flock.
Defending themselves in a lawsuit, the leaders of the Topeka, Kan., church likened themselves to Noah getting the people and animals on the ark in time. They say they have come to save America from the wrath of the creator, even as they call it a country beyond redemption.
A federal jury did not buy their argument. It awarded $11 million to Albert Snyder, of York, Pa., the father of a fallen soldier, Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder, who was killed in Iraq. Church members, a jury found, inflicted emotional distress and invaded Albert Snyder?s privacy when they protested outside his son?s Westminster funeral.
The lawyer for the church invoked the names of fire-and-brimstone fundamentalists of old, and did so with much pride.
In this, the season of a savior who embraced outcasts, loved the sinners and despised hypocrisy and self-righteousness, they invoke his name to judge and condemn and proclaim why they?re saved and we?re not.
Give thanks this is not your church. Give thanks this is not your God.
The leader of the church, Fred Phelps, preaches about a God of wrath and rage. Maybe it?s because he had a sad excuse for a father, the first god figure, who beat his child with an ax handle. Maybe it?s because Phelps skips pages and pages of parables when he reads The Word. Maybe he?s just deemed himself perfect enough to cast stones all over America.
Shame on you, Reverend Phelps, for spreading hatred in the name of God, who is Love. Whom do you love beyond your cult of brothers and sisters and cousins? Have you judged and damned everybody else? All who are not like you, all who do not believe just as you do, all who accept others and love the sinner even if they hate the sin?
Maybe we should pray for Fred Phelps and his little church, for the truism reminds us: Hurt people hurt people. And God alone knows how much Phelps and Westboro have hurt grieving families deprived the chance to bury their kin in peace.
Still, we must allow Phelps and Westboro to spew their self-righteous vitriol. For this country they hate guarantees them that right.
And if there?s any blessing in the mockery they have made of sacred days, it is this: It exposes Westboro members for what they are, for what their hearts harbor, and it gives us good reason to give thanks this is not our church, and theirs is not our God.
