Handle Phelps’ passing with care
Last Wednesday, the world sang, “Ding dong the witch is dead” in response to the passing of Fred Phelps. For those who aren’t aware, Fred Phelps was the founder and head of the Westboro Baptist Church, the hate group infamous for picketing the funerals of gays and soldiers with signs that read, “God Hates Fags.”
The “church” itself has ended up in the news more times than I’d like to remember. As a result of Phelps’s death, there have been many LGBT people — lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender — who have been considering picketing his funeral in an act of revenge for all of the past occurrences with the Westboro Baptist Church.
As much as I would like to see the tables turn, I really don’t think it would be a good idea. It would just be adding fuel to the never-ending fire between LGBT people and WBC people. It’s not going to be worth it in the long run.
There might be a second’s worth of satisfaction, but in the end it won’t satiate hunger for justice.
If one really wants the “church” to suffer, just ignore them. They follow the same mentality as that of an internet troll: they feed on people’s negativity and can’t get enough of it. If you just ignore them, they would probably just fizzle out and not bother anyone anymore.
However, there have been some creative counter-protests as of late. One of the most recent examples I can think of happened last Friday at a Lorde concert in Kansas City, Missouri. Westboro Baptist Church was picketing the event while there was a group of people across the street holding up a banner that read “Sorry for you loss.” I guess if you want to kill something, what better way to do it than with kindness?
Aside from the Westboro Baptist Church, hate groups in general all follow the same agenda. They feed on the negativity that they spread and in turn receive.
It may be hard to love your enemy in this day and age, but it can be done. As an LGBT supporter, I hate having to hear about how gay people are apparently one giant sin and will go burn in Hell for all eternity. Sorry, but that’s not the case.
I know a lot of LGBT people who are probably nicer people than me. Just because someone loves someone else of the same sex doesn’t mean they are defective. Homosexual patterns arise in nearly every species on the face of the Earth. If anything, it’s probably more normal than a lot of the sadistic kinks that heterosexual people never talk about.
In the passing of Fred Phelps, let us remember that hate begets hate, violence begets violence. Don’t continue the vicious cycle that the world has presented us by desecrating the funeral of a man who was probably one of the worst people to live.
Instead, learn to let it go. Besides, if you really want to stick it to the Westboro Baptist Church, just go to a Lorde concert.