Thou Dost Protest Too Much And Methinks You're All A-holes

I have never made my aversion to organized religion a secret.

I have tried it.  It's not for me. 

I'm much too much of a free thinker who could not survive the tunnel visioned constraints imposed by the church in which I was raised.  Rather, I choose to continue my relationship with God as the one-on-one affair I believe it should be.  I don't feel my life is lacking in the least.  In fact, in some ways I believe it is fuller because I am open to people from all walks of life, all faiths, all cultures - not limiting myself only to those who "go to my particular church".

That being said, I have also never made it a secret that I completely support those for whom church fills a void, provides a comfort, engenders a sense of community.  If that is a true source of happiness, and the person respects that not everyone is on their same bandwagon, I think that's great. 

But when the boundaries are crossed, when a person condescends to tell me I am wrong and they are right, when people use God or the Bible to justify hate, ignorance, or prejudice, I draw the line.

Case in point: the deceitful abduction and subsequent emotional rape of my youngest child last weekend at the hands of her soccer coach.  So convinced of his "grace" and "duty to save", he lied to my husband and I about taking my child to a movie with his daughter, then took her to his church where she was plied with candy and raffle tickets to win a bike, then tried to force her to "go up with people who have not let Jesus in their hearts yet".  The adventure was rounded out by her repeatedly being told by something called "Captain Kelly" that because she doesn't go to church every Sunday, she will never go to the "sacred place".

As far as I'm concerned there is only one place where both her soccer coach and Captain Kelly need to go...

The insecurity - and I truly believe that's what's at the heart of so many of these Bible banging people - is on display daily.  Eager to be told what to do, what to think, how to live, they abdicate all freedom of thought, all ability to make a decision, all ownership of their true emotions - willing to follow in lemming-like procession as someone slips the ring through their noses and leads them forth.

But with massive insecurity typically comes massive ignorance, and exceedingly bad choices and behaviors.

(I pause here to stress that I do not paint all church-going people with a single brush. I am not talking about the good hearted, kind, loving, charitable folk who practice their faith and are content to allow others to practice theirs. But let's be honest - there are plenty of extremists out there who sully the Christian image for the rest. And as Eve found out - one bad apple in the wrong fangs...)

Meet today's winners of the My Religion Allows Me To Be An Asshole award -the congregants of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas.

If you have not heard of them by name, perhaps you know them by their actions.  These are the misguided (I'm being kind here and in light of what just happened with my daughter, I expect kudos for restraint) souls who have made it their mission to protest at the funerals of soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan

Originally their protests sprung up when they determined that the deceased soldier had been gay, in their minds giving them the right to shout "Fag" at the top of their lungs at the grieving families and friends.

God must be so proud.

But you know what?  To ask them, they would tell you God is very proud of them.  That they are doing his work.

I'm sorry, but we must believe in very different Gods. 

My God doesn't advocate violence, derision, bigotry, infliction of pain, hatred.  My God put us all here and he takes us all back when it's our time.  Then we each have a student-teacher conference with the Head Professor, and based on the content of our hearts, the way we treated our fellow human beings, the good we tried to do with our lives, the choices we made, we find out if we graduate to the head of the class or get a dunce cap and ticket to permanent detention with Professor Beelzebub.

Given the planned activities of the Westboro gang, I would say detention is going to fill up quickly.

You see, Huntsville, Alabama (and honestly, any parent, anywhere) is still reeling from the tragic bus crash earlier this week which took the lives of four students.  The community is rallying around the families of the dead, celebrating the lives of those who were taken, and giving thanks that more of the children did not perish in the horrific accident.

Yet somehow, the emotional Yetis of Westboro, have warpedly tied their God Hates Fags campaign (think I'm kidding about the name?  This is their website: www.godhatesfags.com ) to these innocent high school students. 

In a flyer distributed to its members, and on their hate-based website, they have decided to picket at the funerals.  This is taken directly from their flyer which may be viewed in its entirety at: http://www.godhatesfags.com/fliers/nov2006/20061121_huntsvill-alabama-school-bus.pdf 

WBC to picket the funerals of school children killed in Huntsville, Alabamac, when their school bus from Lee High School plunged 30 feet off a highway overpass - in religious protest and warning: "God is not mocked!" Gal. 6:7. God Hates Fags! & Fag-Enablers! Ergo, God hates Alabama and America because they have gone the way of ancient Sodom and have become The Land of the Sodomite Damned.

I see. So God tossed the school bus off the overpass because he's mad at us? I'd say he picked the wrong bus. Anyone have the Greyhound info for the caravan from Topeka to Huntsville?

Seriously, how in the hell they draw a corollary between a tragic school bus crash and bashing homosexuals is beyond me.

But then most organized religion is beyond me.  That's why I don't participate.  Any religion that demands I hate a group of people, shun them, or condemn them to death just doesn't exactly scream "God-like" to me.

And quite frankly, given the frequent closet cleaning going on in their own ranks these days, I find their actions not only heinous, but hypocritical.

Prime example? Ted Haggert, the very vocal gay basher and top evangelical minister, was found to not only be a meth user, but to have a longstanding, monthly, paid relationship with a gay male prostitute.

That his congregants, in predictable, blind, lemming-like fashion wept and blamed the devil is laughable to me.  "The devil is tempting him!" they shouted.

No.  The devil wasn't tempting him.  His dick was tempting him. 

You see, God gave us something when He created us, that is every bit as important as the air in our lungs.  He gave us Free Will.  (Ted obviously misunderstood that to be Free Willy.)

And free will, not the devil, is at work when anyone is at any type of personal crossroads, whether it is a simple one like "would I like the chicken or the fish tonight?" or one more far reaching like, "hmmmm, should I puff some meth and get slicked up with my secret buddy, or should I go home and read my kids a bedtime story?"

Blaming the devil for everything you don't like in the world is just wrong.  At some point, people have to take ownership of their actions.  They need to make the right choices, not continue to make the wrong ones hoping they just never get caught with their pants down.

But bad choices are what the Westboro folks have down cold.  The mere thought that they have any right to show up at any funeral and disrupt what is already an unbearable proceeding is the sin.

I realize we have freedom of speech in this country - I believe in and am thankful for the right.

I just don't believe in freedom of stupidity.

But these folks are much like the man who took my baby to be preached at behind my back and then took her to Hooters for lunch.  They are misguided, arrogant, smug, and hypocritical.

And I bet they already have their post-protest lunch reservations made.  Wings and ass, anyone?

Comments

I find it horibble that anyone can consider theirselves a christian and be filled with such hate. The WBC has upset me to the point of disguist. On their website they say that America is going to hell and that this is fag nation. If they believe in this so strongly, why do they remain here? Our veterans fought in wars to protect our freedoms and made our lives what it is today. Why should this group of hatred be able to make such a wonderful blessing a shame to society? And also, to target young inocent children as a point of their hatred. There are some crazy people in this world, but I fell that the people of WBC top the cake.

[Hollye]

I am well aware and familiar with the WBC group. They have ventured into my great state of Oklahoma on numerous occasions to 'protest' a fallen hero's funeral. After a few of these, with little recourse for the families as the WBC group is protected under the first amendment, a local biker group got involved. They positioned themselves, hogs and all, between the WBC group and the funeral and rev'd their bikes during the entire ceremony, drowning out the hateful words of the WBC. Although the bikers are breaking the local sound ordinances, the neighbors and local police don't seem to mind the noise of loving bikers over hateful 'church-goers'. Hopefully a local 'Bama biker group will step up and lovingly protest the protesters.