Topeka and Zealots
This weekend we were in Topeka cleaning out the entire lifetime's worth of trinkets held by a family member now resigned to living in a nursing home.
We went through boxes and boxes of newspaper clippings, torn out recipes, expired prescriptions, costume jewelry, mismatched gloves. My heart was so heavy during this time. I shuddered to think about someone later going through my life - casually throwing out the artifacts that were precious to me, scrutinizing the value of tiny trinkets that I had tucked carefully into little boxes, their worth questionable - but nonetheless sentimentally important.
It was truly heartwrenching.
When I got home, weary from heavy labor moving 1960s furniture (wow furniture was heavier then than it is now), I thought I would relax a bit and read the news.
Apparently Fred Phelps, the psychotic zealot from westboro baptist "church " (and yes, I use that term very loosely - refusing even to acknowledge it as a proper noun), a person who has routinely advised his congregation that they should beat their wives and children, that AIDS was a plague caused when Truman Capote had an orgy with African tribesmen, passed it to JFK and Robert Fitzgerald by playing football with them, and they - during a menage a trois - passed it to Marilyn Monroe - and then the CIA was forced to assasinate all three of them to stop the spread of the disease. I mean doesn't this man sound like he's just a few cards short of a deck?!?!? Anyway, he has his zombies, er parishoners protesting at the funerals of National Guard members killed in the line of duty in Iraq. While these Guardsmen and women were being laid to rest, and their families were grieving openly alongside their caskets - the members of Phelp's church were screaming that they deserved to die... that G-d hates them and they are burning in hell.
What frightens me most about this situation is not that this one man is deranged. It's pitiful, and I honestly believe the man should be treated for mental illness. If it is not in fact mental illness that has spawned his unspeakable actions, I am confident that there will come a time where he is forced to answer for the atrocities that he has committed cloaked in the veil of false religion. What scares me is that he is merely a spokesman for a much larger population of people who utilize their "faith" to extol a community of hatred and bigotry. People who have traded in blind acceptance of their leadership in exchange for what they feel will be redemption and reward in the afterlife. People who point to scriptural references as validation for their hate, picking and chosing book and chapter based on their personal agenda, neglecting the very tenents of a religion supposed to be based on forgiveness, respect, and humbleness. Overlooking the verses of tolerance, carefully glossing over the admonitions that do not meet their personal goals.
I am not an overtly religious person, but I still consider myself a deeply spiritual person. I do not put my unyielding faith in the literal interpretation of a text that was written, and revised a number of times over hundreds of years - largely from oral history by human beings who by their very nature are fallible. Perhaps this is why Phelps and his progeny of hatemongerers disturb me most. They claim that they are in G-d's favor, they mock religion and place themselves in a position to cast judgment - including eternal damnation - on anyone whose beliefs deviate (even slightly) from their interpretation of Truth. I shudder to think that any person would be able to make such a judgment.
Living in America's heartland for the last month, I have seen a number of people profess that we will win in Iraq, because we are the chosen people - we are in God's favor. They say we should be on a spiritual journey to decimate Islam. We have our own holy war, and to fight, and die for it means you will be rewarded in the afterlife. I ask you, how is this rhetoric any different than the beliefs and propoganda of terrorists? Is it because we claim to act under the favor of our G-d that we are immediately absolved of any ethical or moral consequences?
Sigh. I'm not sure where this rambling is going other than to say that I don't profess to know all the answers. I think any human being who does is to be feared. And I pray every night for G-d to protect me from those people who are professing to be his followers.
We went through boxes and boxes of newspaper clippings, torn out recipes, expired prescriptions, costume jewelry, mismatched gloves. My heart was so heavy during this time. I shuddered to think about someone later going through my life - casually throwing out the artifacts that were precious to me, scrutinizing the value of tiny trinkets that I had tucked carefully into little boxes, their worth questionable - but nonetheless sentimentally important.
It was truly heartwrenching.
When I got home, weary from heavy labor moving 1960s furniture (wow furniture was heavier then than it is now), I thought I would relax a bit and read the news.
Apparently Fred Phelps, the psychotic zealot from westboro baptist "church " (and yes, I use that term very loosely - refusing even to acknowledge it as a proper noun), a person who has routinely advised his congregation that they should beat their wives and children, that AIDS was a plague caused when Truman Capote had an orgy with African tribesmen, passed it to JFK and Robert Fitzgerald by playing football with them, and they - during a menage a trois - passed it to Marilyn Monroe - and then the CIA was forced to assasinate all three of them to stop the spread of the disease. I mean doesn't this man sound like he's just a few cards short of a deck?!?!? Anyway, he has his zombies, er parishoners protesting at the funerals of National Guard members killed in the line of duty in Iraq. While these Guardsmen and women were being laid to rest, and their families were grieving openly alongside their caskets - the members of Phelp's church were screaming that they deserved to die... that G-d hates them and they are burning in hell.
What frightens me most about this situation is not that this one man is deranged. It's pitiful, and I honestly believe the man should be treated for mental illness. If it is not in fact mental illness that has spawned his unspeakable actions, I am confident that there will come a time where he is forced to answer for the atrocities that he has committed cloaked in the veil of false religion. What scares me is that he is merely a spokesman for a much larger population of people who utilize their "faith" to extol a community of hatred and bigotry. People who have traded in blind acceptance of their leadership in exchange for what they feel will be redemption and reward in the afterlife. People who point to scriptural references as validation for their hate, picking and chosing book and chapter based on their personal agenda, neglecting the very tenents of a religion supposed to be based on forgiveness, respect, and humbleness. Overlooking the verses of tolerance, carefully glossing over the admonitions that do not meet their personal goals.
I am not an overtly religious person, but I still consider myself a deeply spiritual person. I do not put my unyielding faith in the literal interpretation of a text that was written, and revised a number of times over hundreds of years - largely from oral history by human beings who by their very nature are fallible. Perhaps this is why Phelps and his progeny of hatemongerers disturb me most. They claim that they are in G-d's favor, they mock religion and place themselves in a position to cast judgment - including eternal damnation - on anyone whose beliefs deviate (even slightly) from their interpretation of Truth. I shudder to think that any person would be able to make such a judgment.
Living in America's heartland for the last month, I have seen a number of people profess that we will win in Iraq, because we are the chosen people - we are in God's favor. They say we should be on a spiritual journey to decimate Islam. We have our own holy war, and to fight, and die for it means you will be rewarded in the afterlife. I ask you, how is this rhetoric any different than the beliefs and propoganda of terrorists? Is it because we claim to act under the favor of our G-d that we are immediately absolved of any ethical or moral consequences?
Sigh. I'm not sure where this rambling is going other than to say that I don't profess to know all the answers. I think any human being who does is to be feared. And I pray every night for G-d to protect me from those people who are professing to be his followers.
posted by April at 11:43 AM
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