What's It Take . Me

Westboro Baptist Church Founder Fred Phelps Dead at 84

Yes, you heard it right, Fred Phelps has passed away.  Is it cause to celebrate?  The answer to that question is a little complicated and depending on your view of an afterlife, that in and of itself is another ball of wax [1].  In short, the quick answer would be no, it’s not cause to celebrate.  This man was obviously hugely conflicted by a war within that simply spilled out onto the landscape of human rights.  Unfortunately, a lot of that spillage came to represent a very heated idea that labeled both gay and straight people as the antichrist with little regard for the value of human life as unique and precious.

His role has come to characterize a lot of those who’ve come to see themselves as the saviors of humanity.  Instead of offering an olive branch of understanding, which Jesus often did for sinners according to the bible, they took their limited knowledge to instill a rage that is anything but the Christian value of loving thy neighbor.  Until this last weekend, I knew very little about the founder of the WBC movement.  All I really ever recognized was a group of sadly misdirected people who set themselves up as the judge, jury and executioners of humanity.  As the founder of Chick-Fil-A has come to see, Christians are in dire conflict to Christian ideals when they arrogantly set themselves up to know better than a God that created us all.

As Mahatma Gandhi said so well, anger and intolerance are the enemies of correct understanding.  I would further add that, “to allow yourself to become angered in return for anger is to become the very thing you detest.” Furthermore I would ask, “If I celebrate my enemies’ demise without enlightenment, have I become like my enemy full of bitterness and betrayal without regard?” I for one celebrate Fred Phelps passing, not as a victory for any cause, but more so that he’s finally found peace from a terrible war that raged within.  Yes, the war wages on through the many he inspired by his internal struggle, each one a new manifestation of the same battle.

Sometimes negative news does come out, but it is often exaggerated and manipulated to spread scandal. Journalists sometimes risk becoming ill from coprophilia [2] and thus fomenting coprophagia: which is a sin that taints all men and women, that is, the tendency to focus on the negative rather than the positive aspects.

Obama expands sanctions against Russia

In an effort to put pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin, U.S. President Barrack Obama has issued further sanctions against Russian in an effort to achieve a more diplomatic outcome with regards to Crimea’s Russian takeover.

The U.S. list announced Thursday cut into a wider group of people, including those thought to have a hand on the Russian president’s own finances, and the “crony bank” where many of the inner circle, according to the administration, does business. read more…