Westboro Baptist vs. the KKK

The Westboro Baptist Church protesters are so offensive even the Ku Klux Klan doesn’t like them.

According the The Atlantic Wire, members of Virginia Klan branch Knights of the Southern Cross were so disgusted that the Rev. Fred Phelps’ followers planned to protest a fallen soldier’s funeral at Arlington National Cemetery they showed up to counter-protest.

“That's fine. They have no moral authority on anything. People like them say it’s white power ... white supremacy. The Bible doesn’t say anywhere that it's an abomination to be born of a certain gender or race,” Phelps’ daughter, Abigail Phelps, told CNN.

A Klan spokesman on site noted that Westboro is wrong to protest the funerals of soldiers because it is the very fact that brave Americans have died that they even have the right to make such offensive gestures as holding up signs reading “God Hates Fags” while families are grieving. (The “church” says the U.S. is losing soldiers in war because of American society’s acceptance of homosexuality.)

Of course, a lot of those who have given their lives for our freedom of speech were black – or Jewish – or Catholic. Or many other things the “Christian” Knights of the Ku Klux Klan see as inferior to themselves, so there’s little else I agree with them about than that the Westboro bunch are morons.

The Westboro people do have every right to protest, but this so-called Christian organization – which is actually predominantly members of Phelps’ own family – has failed to follow the Scripture telling us to “rejoice with those who rejoice” and to “weep with those who weep” (Romans 12:15). Regardless of Westboro’s theology, they should be weeping with family members who have lost a loved one if they want to be more scriptural than the Klan.

They could protest a gay pride event if they feel God is calling them to speak out publicly against same-sex relationships. Regardless of whether you agree with Phelps, it seems like that would at least make some semblance of sense. Even then the offensive “God Hates Fags” signs would be out of place. In the first place, the Bible never uses slurs against homosexuals. Second, it never says God hates them.

There are certain actions the Bible says God hates. For instance, he says, “I hate divorce,” in Malachi 2:16. Phelps’ and family have made up at least a few signs that say “God Hates Divorce.” But the name of their website is not GodHatesDivorce.com, it’s GodHatesFags.com. And they refuse to use any word other than “fag” – evhen the neutral and biblical “homosexual.”

But using slurs and inaccuracies get them attention, as do protests at sites that have nothing to do with homosexuality. And they have to do what they can to get attention. God is on their side, but must be too weak to get attention for himself. Either that, or he refuses to associate himself with them.

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Photo: Some rights reserved by k763