Soapbox Rant - WBC Must Be Stopped; Write Every Day Challenge, Day #46

Alright, it's time for another one of Andrea's Soapbox Rants.  My friends Courtney and Holly suggested that I made this a weekly theme, like Soapbox Sundays.  I agree - but this topic is way too important to wait until Sunday.


But before I get up on my Soapbox, let's have one ray of light in this post - tomorrow I will be seeing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1!!!!!!!  I am SO excited!


Now, down to it.  So I've talked before about Fred Phelps,  Reverend of Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas (see my post The Mantis Connection: Love Conquers Hate: Write Every Day Challenge, Day #8).  He and his followers (i.e., his family) have been protesting events for years.  They spread the messages "God Hates Fags" and "God Hates America."  Their delusional beliefs not only include the idea that homosexuals are going to hell (which I know is still a common belief and is not held only by the members of this church but by many Americans - I have also discussed this in the same post mentioned above), but that all Americans are going to hell.  (And they're American, but I guess they think that they're exempt from this.)  They have protested funerals of homosexuals such as Matthew Shepard (if you don't know about this story, go here:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Shepard.  I know Wikipedia isn't the most reliable source, but this page does give a good overview), and also have been protesting the funerals of straight members of the military, because, as I understand it, the military allows gays to serve, and because the military uses IEDs, and they hate IEDs because someone planted one in their church.


First of all, let me just say, for those of you who haven't read my previous articles, that I am one of the biggest advocates for gay rights that I know.  I don't think that gay people are going to hell.  I don't think that being gay is a choice.  I don't think that gay people are any different from straight people.  I think we are all human, and we are all equal.  I also have a lot of problems with organized religion.  I believe in God, but I don't agree with a lot of what is taught in churches.  That's another story, and I am not trying to force my beliefs on anyone.  But that is what Phelps and his family are trying to do.  They are trying to force their twisted, radical, ignorant views on everyone else.


And now they're targeting my home state.  And even worse than that, they're targeting our children.


So this past Saturday, Westboro Baptist Church picketed at the funeral of Army Sergeant Jason James McCluskey in McAlester, Oklahoma.  However, while there were about six or so protesters, police said that there were over a thousand people there who were against the Westboro Baptist Church.  The church members left, and found that their tires were slashed.  They then found that most people in the town were unwilling to help them.  They ended up having a company tow them to a Wal-Mart outside of town.  (Once again, this is how I understand the story.  For an official report from an Oklahoma news station, go here:  http://www.koco.com/news/25790129/detail.html.)  


But now it's gone even farther.  Phelps and his family now have decided that, in revenge for their slashed van tires, they are going to protest the funerals of Oklahoma children.  Here is a link to this story from the same news station:  http://www.koco.com/news/25833473/detail.html.  


I personally believe highly in the freedom of speech.  I also believe highly in the freedom of religion.  And the members of this church have been protected by those freedoms.  But this is just wrong.  It was wrong when they picketed Matthew Shepard's funeral.  It was wrong when they picketed at my brother's graduation because one of the students (not my brother) who was graduating was an openly gay male who started a Gay-Straight group at the school.  It was wrong when they picketed the funerals of straight military members, simply because the WBC doesn't support the military.  (Oh, and I guess I've found the loophole in my last post - I said that everyone in America supports the troops even if they don't support the war.  These wackos don't.  They don't even support America.)  And it is wrong to protest the funerals of innocent children.  It is wrong to protest funerals, period.


And it was wrong of the people in McAlester to slash their tires.  Violence is never the answer.  I know this was a passive-aggressive form of violence, but it was violence none the less.  As one of Phelps' own children - a child of his who is no longer in contact with the rest of her family, and does not support their beliefs - said in the documentary Fall from Grace, the best thing to do when you see them is to ignore them.  I know this is extremely hard, and I know that I would want to shout lots of things at these people if I saw them.  But as the same child said, these people are pros at this.  They have been doing it for something like 15 years now.  They've heard every retort, every comment that you can think of to say to them.  They know exactly how to respond when you say something to them.  And that's what they want.  They want you to yell at them.  They want you to say something so that they can refute it with their twisted logic.  They want the attention.  So the best thing to do, and the hardest thing to do, is to ignore it.  The media should be ignoring them.  I shouldn't even be writing this post.


But the problem is, that although these people have the freedom of speech, there is something wrong with the fact that we let people purposefully hurt someone else.  No, they are not physically hurting other people.  But they are verbally abusing them.  Their protests at funerals are nothing but the loud, verbal abuse of the people who are being buried, and the people who love them.  I cannot imagine being at a funeral for someone I love, and to look up and see and hear people saying that God hated my friend or family member who has just died, and that that person is going to hell.  No, I'm sorry.  Eff you.  God says not to judge.  He's the one who is going to judge us.  And you can believe that I'm wrong all day.  You can believe that homosexuality is wrong.  It's your right.  But it is wrong for someone to be able to abuse the right to a freedom of speech to throw hateful words at someone who is grieving.  


It all goes back to this bullying epidemic.  Our country is full of bullying.  It's not just in high schools and junior highs.  People bully others simply by saying that someone else is wrong because of their race, their religion, their sexuality, etc.  Look at the recent political elections.  Politicians bullying each other in their television and radio ads, during debates, during interviews.  When has it become so accepted to be so hurtful towards others?  And we allow it, left and right.  It has become the norm.


And that is what these people, these supposed followers of Christ, are doing.  They are bullying, are verbally abusing people that have never done anything to them.  People who simply want to pay their last respects to a loved one.  And they are verbally abusing these people who have died, who often had nothing to do with the things that the WBC members don't agree with.


Something has to be done.  I am tired of these people getting away with this, simply because they have the right to freedom of speech.  Something needs to change.  And by God, if nothing does change, you guys may just see me turn into a politician.  Especially if Sarah Palin runs for and gets elected as President in 2012.  That's a whole different story.  But I can tell you one thing, if things keep going the way they're going, America definitely is going to hell in a hand basket.  But not for the reasons those WBC wackos think.  They're the reason.  Not the other way around.