A righteous hatred…(aka Defending those who cannot defend themselves… RIP Heath Ledger 1979-2008)
Those who know me, as well as regular readers of my blog, will know by now that when I get a bug up my ass about something, I’ll unload with both barrels.
I rarely hold back.
It typically stems from being unable to understand the mentality of others, or some frustration that I’m experiencing. I typically don’t direct my hatred and anger at specific people or organisations… it’s just giving too much of myself to those I care less about than the kind of material your dog leaves behind when you take it for a walk.
So, why am I getting so wound up? Well, it’s because of narrow minded, short sighted, redneck, self serving, egotistical attention whores like the Westboro Baptist Church.
Now, before we get started, I’ll restate for the record, my stance on religion.
Religion and faith are your own damned business. Like your other personal parts and pieces, learn to keep them to yourself. I have my beliefs when it comes to matters of faith… they’re none of your business, I don’t push them on anyone else, and the second you try to push yours onto me… you are the fly, caught in my web… and I will not hold back.
But, for those of you who can respect others and let them believe differently, we’re cool. I’ll even sit and listen and debate openly on an academic and intellectual level, so long as everything is treated with respect and nobody tries to amass a new group of converts.
For those of you who feel the need for every conversation on that topic to be turned into a recruiting drive… go back to your congregation for the mass debate that you’re really having.
So… now that we’ve set that basic platform… I can say without hesitation two things.
1. The Westboro Baptist Church is a pitiful hypocritical organisation, destined to inbreed it’s way into banjo playing Deliverance style oblivion; and
2. The only thing I hate more than them at this point in time is myself for not being able to hold back from giving this despicable group any attention…
BUT… I’ve got a good mad happening here… a real burning sense of a righteous hatred….
Because I f**king HATE the Westboro Baptist Church (WBC).
All this stemmed from reading an article in the news yesterday about how WBC are planning to pickett the funeral of Heath Ledger because he is seen as a homosexual enabler for playing the role of a gay cowboy in Brokeback Mountain.
IT’S A FUCKING MOVIE, YOU IGNORANT TOSSERS!
What’s next for this lot? Plans to picket Lassie’s funeral because he sniffed another male dog’s ass? Gonna protest in front of a rainforest because some species of frogs inside can change gender? Why not picket Stevie Wonder because he can’t ’see the light’?
Sadly, their ignorance and activities are not only limited to vilifying homosexuals or those associated with or seen as sympathisers. They’ve picketted the funerals of American soldiers killed in recent conflicts.
Now, I don’t necessarily agree with the choice made by the American government to go and ‘liberate’ and ‘democratise’ Iraq… Afghanistan, I could understand, after all the Taliban were openly supporting Al Qaeda, etc, etc. But Iraq was about nothing more than resources… painted to look like something other than the personal and political agenda of the current administration.
However, soldiers don’t get to pick and choose where they go and who they fight. For many enlisted men in the US Army, National Service represents the only viable option for a future that doesn’t involve either poverty or crime. It’s not like these guys have many choices laid out in front of them.
So, when one of them is killed in the line of duty, on foreign soil, having not seen friends or family for up to months… well, a little of us all dies then.
And this is without saying anything about the death of innocence for the young men and women, and children, living over there, having their who world turned on its side by seeing bloodshed and who knows what atrocities.
But it certainly doesn’t justify the abhorrent actions of WBC members at the funerals of these returned servicemen. Their families are grieving and suffering enough already without the indignity of having to deal with this inbred, ignorant trash. To their credit, many of the states have pass laws preventing protesting within 500 feet (150 metres) of a funeral.
Which leads me to the next problem with this lot… the legal side of things. Their little crusades seem to be primarily funded by the financial settlements of lawsuits they throw around, usually when they can show some breach of a constitutional right. Legally adroit, they may be, it further shows how there is justice… and there is the law. It’s almost as bad as the over-litigious Scientology cult… but at least Scientologists have done some good in this world through organisations like Narconon.
It’s little wonder that Westboro Baptist Church is listed as a hate group in the USA. It’s a wonderfully twisted irony that the same country that has the Anti Defamation League also constitutionally protects these people in their right to express their hateful and hypocritical messages.
Why can’t they just leave people the f**k alone??? I’ve met some unfortunately misguided fundamentalists in my time, but these crackpots are more than a few fries short of a Happy Meal.
The one ray of sunshine in all this is the fact that WBC forbid their members to marry outside of the congregation… which means that all that anyone need do, is wait, and eventually they’ll disappear.
In the meantime… the question remains: how do you fight an organisation that thrives on the attention and backs it up with litigation?
My answer seems to be already out there… Sun Tzu’s The Art of War states it plainly…
“Seizing the enemy without fighting is the most skillful”
joanne said,
February 3, 2008 at 3:20 pm
Okay, I must say first of all that I am a follower of Jesus Christ, and I say this so you are aware of my mindset when approaching this topic.
Having said that, I agree with so much you have said here. My stomach sank when I saw the news with images of this “Christian” Organization arrogantly waving signs with words like “faggot” and ” God hates homosexuals”. I wanted to scream through the television and tell them all that God, my God, Jesus Christ, hates Hatred. In fact He calls it MURDER. I wanted to go stand in the middle of all them and tell them that God HATES gossip and slanderers and liars… that is scriptural… it is fact that a ‘proud look’ is an abomination to God… and that He is talking about church going “religious” people when He says “Proffessing to be wise, they became fools”. It was “religous” people that Christ scolded… that is right, it was in temple that He turned over tables… and it was to “religous” people He spoke when He used terms like ” you brood of vipers”.
I can only hope that the “world” can see through these people and know that they have nothing in common with God and they certainly don’t speak for Him or His Actions, thoughts, or feelings. That there interpretaion of Christianity is built on a religous pride and doctrine and has nothing to do with the Truth. Christ wasn’t political and He never picked up a pickett sign… although I am sure that even in that day their was ample opportunity!
I hate that it really seems that the only “chistians” that ever get media attention are the ones that aren’t really Christians at all, they have no idea Who Christ really is and they are truly only self promoting, spiritually void church go-ers.
It is the same mindset and type of people that have made it increasingly difficult for real Christians to be taken seriously.
I hurt for Heath Ledger’s family, I’m embarassed for the people who are so caught up in their own lies that they can’t even see the permanent wounds that are being left by their self righteous actions, and I’m grieved that this is what the world has come to recognize as “christian”. What a terrible waste of time…. what a shame.
chaosmerchant said,
February 4, 2008 at 1:25 pm
Sadly, Joanne, it seems to many sane people that the ones getting the media attention are the vocal minority… the extremists and fundamentalists…no matter what religion or faith they may subscribe to.
A part of the problem is ‘indoctrination’… the focussing on some particular point, often taken out of context, and building an entire belief around THAT point, at the expense and ignorance of the true meaning behind the entire message.
The other part of the problem, and this is the part that I think is more likey the root cause of the problem in the first place, is that these attention seekers will use ANY vehicle to get themselves into the media spotlight. The more controversial the cause, the more bizarre the message, the more likely you are to see them whoring themselves out to the media.
And it doesn’t matter who they hurt in the process.
Look at Tom Cruise and the Scientologists taking aim at psychologists and their prescribing of pharmaceuticals to aid in treating mental illness. Tom aimed both barrels at Brooke Shields for her use of antidepressants to deal with post-partum depression. And where are Tom’s credentials on matters of medical science?
I think you find them on a cardboard roll, hanging next to the toilet.
I guess we just take comfort in knowing that the WBC is the exception to the rule when it comes to Christians.
joanne said,
February 4, 2008 at 2:27 pm
Very good point, however, I can’t help but wonder what it is they are seeking by throwing themselves into these fruitless rampages? Are they looking for 5 minutes of “fame”? Trying to impress God? Seeking negative attention so they can cry “woe is me” when they are criticized?… Or even worse, do they really believe what they are saying and are they doing this because they actually think it will make an eternal difference? That would be the saddest case in my opinion… the emptiest state of all, living out religious “indoctrination”, without any real knowledge of the Truth.
Touching on one last point, I would like to say that the fact that they are not allowed to marry outside of the church is frightening to say the least! I’m sickened to think of what goes on in these types of churches and what type of man is leading these people into complete ignorance! Could this be another Jim Jones?
chaosmerchant said,
February 4, 2008 at 11:21 pm
I think if I could ever imagine or worse, understand, the motivations of people like that, I’d be wholly prepared for the men in white coats, the jacket with the long arms and pretty buckles and for my friends and family to begin stapling pillows to my walls.
And yes, it’s a disturbing thought, what may be happening within a closed group such as this. Another Jim Jones? I dare not contemplate that one, for fear of what my own mind may answer with…
Captain Fist said,
February 27, 2008 at 8:47 pm
Sh*t. I spent 10 minutes typing an insightful and relevent response on this designed to titilate you intellect and tantalise the nether regions of your soul and this P.O.S website timed out and blanked me. I may never write anything relevant again and now everyone has missed it.