The Phelps band and the dark side of religion

As noted in a previous post, the United States Supreme Court recently supported the right of the Westboro Baptist Church to harass grieving parents of sons and daughters who died in combat.

Making a mockery of the First Amendment, the Court’s decision legitimized the anti-gay hate speech spouted by Marjie J. Phelps and her father, Fred Phelps, leader and counsel for the Westboro Baptist Church.

The Phelps band is notorious for violating the privacy of suffering military families by parading around funeral sites with their brightly colored signs thanking God for dead soldiers and declaring that God hates fags.

Ignoring the fact that psychologists agree that a percentage of the population is born gay and are therefore God’s creations, Ms. Phelps and company continually project their own violent nature onto divinity. Quoted in the Huffington Post, Ms. Phelps said:

"Let me tell you what this church does: Shut up all that talk about infliction of emotional distress," Phelps said, in response to the claim by Albert Snyder, father of slain marine Matthew Snyder, which had provided the impetus for the lawsuit. "When you're standing there with your young child's body bits and pieces in a coffin, you've been dealt some emotional distress by the Lord your God."

 The Phelps band are not the first to accuse God of unspeakable crimes against humanity and all of nature – in the Abrahamic traditions the practice goes back to antiquity. One Sunday last April, I dropped in at a local Islamic Center for a monthly Muslim-Christian dialog. The topic for discussion that afternoon was “Sacrifice.”

From the Christian side came numerous Older Testament references to animal sacrifices, which the presenters indicated would eventually culminate in the crucifixion of Jesus as the Lamb of God to redeem humanity from the curse of original sin.

A Muslim presenter told stories of martyrdom in his tradition featuring the brutal deaths of a male slave and of a woman who refused to deny Mohammed’s message. According to the narrator, the woman’s accusers tied her legs to two camels that pulled her body apart.

Another Muslim contributed a tale of human sacrifice in which a man abandoned his wife and infant to die alone in the desert in obedience to what he believed was God’s will.

The following Monday morning, still overdosed by the previous afternoon’s exposure to violence in religion, I found no respite in the daily news.

The Associated Press reported: “A senior Iranian cleric says women who wear revealing clothing and behave promiscuously are to blame for earthquakes.” (Men were given no responsibility for controlling their sexual impulses.)

The article noted that Iran is a nation prone to earthquakes.

So, I thought, along with Pat Robertson, a Christian, who blamed God for the recent devastation of Haiti, the Islamic cleric, Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi, also charges divinity with periodic mass murder to keep humankind in line, not to mention the collateral damage to other species.

The statements of Robertson and Sedighi confirm yet again that a literal understanding of horrific stories in ancient scripture continues to influence the judgment of religious leaders and laity.

A quick sampling of the charges against God in the Bible includes the following heinous crimes against humanity: mass murder (Gen. 6-9); infanticide (Ex. 12:12); and torture - consider the fires of hell where the unsaved are reportedly condemned for eternity (Rev. 20: 9-15).

It bears repeating: how we human beings understand ourselves in relationship to God informs how we understand ourselves in all of our relationships: to ourselves, to one another, and to the natural world.

It follows that the Phelps band, in its zealous hatred of gays and anyone else who might differ from them in one respect or another, would project onto God their desire to destroy those whom they’ve chosen to marginalize.

Some of us, taking our cues from the teachings of the non-violent Jesus, Gandhi, Thich Nhat Hanh and other widely respected religious leaders agree that in making decisions, both large and small, a loving God eschews violence and instead, invites us toward the path most beneficial for all of life.

Where does that leave the Phelps band? The religious leaders noted in the above paragraph urge us to cultivate compassion even for those who spew hatred toward others.  In the process, we are called to provide a buffer zone between Westboro Baptist and its targets. Hopefully, we can influence this misguided congregation and other haters to give up their perverted notions of religion and move toward fulfilling our covenant to love others as God first loved us.

A Torturous Discussion

In my last post yesterday, I commented on recent rituals of the religious right loudly proclaiming their preferred presidential candidates: Sen. Brownback endorsed John McCain, and Pat Robertson proudly announced his support of Rudy Giuliani (watch Robertson and Giuliani on YouTube from this site).

After reflecting in my post on the apparent fragmentation of evangelical Christians, the GOP’s key block of voters, I raised a question popular among this group, “What would Jesus do?” and left it there.

My thoughts later drifted back to childhood Sunday school lessons when we were taught that Jesus’ kingdom was not of this world; he wasn’t interested in political power. But as I recall, Jesus had a lot to say about loving our neighbor, including the foreigner in our midst, famously illustrated in the story about the good Samaritan. In that light it’s a little jarring to read the Fox News summary of Roberts’ reasons for supporting Giuliani:

Robertson on Wednesday said Giuliani is the best candidate to handle the War on Terror. He said Giuliani understands the need for a conservative judiciary, and that he is a "true fiscal conservative" who is tough on crime.

"The overriding issue before the American people, is the defense of our population against the bloodlust of Islamic terrorists," Robertson told the National Press Club audience. "Our world faces deadly peril...and we need a leader with a bold vision who is not afraid to tackle the challenges ahead."

Robertson said Giuliani is "a proven leader who is not afraid of what lies ahead and who will cast a hopeful vision for all Americans ... It is my hope and prayer that he will lead the Republican Party to victory in November of 2008."

In today’s Los Angeles Times, Rosa Brooks reminds us that Giuliani’s “hopeful vision for all Americans” includes his boast to use torture whenever it suits America’s needs:

Giuliani's main selling point with GOP stalwarts is his toughness on terrorism, symbolized by his "gloves-off" approach to interrogations. In the campaign's first GOP presidential debate, Giuliani told a cheering crowd that if the U.S. captured a suspect believed to be planning a terrorist attack, "I would tell the people who had to do the interrogation to use every method they can think of." Pressed on whether that would include waterboarding, Giuliani repeated, "Every method they could think of, and I would support them in doing that." More recently, Giuliani claimed that whether or not waterboarding is torture "depends on who does it."

I make no claims to being a traditionally defined Christian, but as a peace-loving, theistic Unitarian-Universalist, I respect the social justice teachings of Jesus, and I’m appalled that a segment of our society, led by the likes of Pat Robertson, continues to distort his teachings and exploit gullible followers to promote cruelty and inhumane treatment of other human beings in our own country and throughout the world.