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Fred Phelps Is Dead

If you don’t recognize the name, Fred Phelps was the founder and the pastor of the Westboro Baptist Church which is the congregation that was and is vehemently anti-gay and repeatedly protested at the funerals of service men and women blaming their deaths (and a number of other tragedies) on our country’s tolerance and acceptance of those who are gay. As reported in one news source, he believed in and preached the hate and judgment of God, and that any who did not think as he did were going to hell.

On one hand, hearing that he was dying, and today that he had died, I am sad. I am sad for all the people he hurt and the hatred he added to our country and world. And, I am sad his life was so full of anger and condemnation and alienation.
You might say he got what he deserved.
Maybe you are right.
But I am still sad anyone goes through life like that.
But, as a result of his venom and hate, some good did emerge.
Individuals, who otherwise might have been silent, stood up against his hate and countered it with a show of compassion and love. When the Westwood Baptist Church would show up or threaten to show up to protest whether a funeral or an event, hundreds of others would also show up to form a protective, non-violent circle around the person or family. To my way of thinking, that circle rather than the preaching of Fred Phelps embodied what I know and name as God.

I don’t know what happens after one dies.
I don’t know about any of us coming before the judgment seat of God to receive approval or disapproval for the choices we have made or how we have lived, and either be rewarded with heaven or condemned to hell. I know I don’t believe in hell other than the hell we make for ourselves and each other here on earth.
In the end, I believe, love wins.
In the end, I believe, LOVE wins.
Even for someone as full of hate as Fred Phelps.

Confronting Syria

helping others

 

On of the quotes that is written on a file folder that often sits on my desk is by Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi for the British Commonwealth.  It reads:
“We cannot get to heaven by creating hell on earth.”
What is happening in Syria (and other places as well) is hell on earth.
Governments debate possible responses.
Most of which, it seems to me, only adds to the hell we are creating.
Most of us, weary of war and news from the Middle East, just want to turn away.

I can’t do anything about the Syrian civil war and the atrocities being committed by both sides, but rereading Rabbi Sacks quote I realized that I can do something. If we can create hell on earth, we can also create heaven on earth.  And, what I can do is to do my part to help create some small piece of heaven. Somewhere. Somehow. And, to do so with all of the awareness and conviction and intentionality I can muster. To purposefully create heaven in outright defiance of those who are doing their best to create hell.

A glass of water shared with someone who is thirsty may not seem like much in the face of nerve gas and bombs. But it is something. It is facing forward and not just turning away. It is grabbing hold of heaven and refusing to let go.