The Far Christian Right is being demonized, falsely prosecuted, and culturally “cancelled” everyday for exercising their first amendment rights and speaking certain critical truths. At the same time, some “fringe” groups go too far contradicting divine revelation, the natural law, and common sense in some of their beliefs and activities, in such a way that the Catholic Church traditionally does not do.
Nonetheless, these groups need to be defended, because despite their excesses, they are among a tiny few speaking up for the truth boldly in public. Few would go out on a limb and defend those groups, but I feel compelled to in this post. If Blogger removes my blog for this, so be it.
The first time I heard about Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka I was working for an activist pro-life organization, some staff condemning the extremes of how this group pickets in their community. Since then I’ve dismissed them as crazy fundamentalists, until I took a closer look recently on YouTube about them, thinking more deeply on what they do, and what they represent in the public eye.
First, I will say I reject their condemnation of Catholics, picketing at funerals, and Baptist doctrines on salvation and the nature of the Church. Their founder Fred Phelps has been accused of having anger issues and an inflated ego for which I did see some evidence of in videos featuring him.
That said, it was marginal evidence at best. Nobody is perfect including a pastor. Two children who have left their church/family compound accuse the father of physical abuse, and mental abuse for teaching them how depraved they are in their sin. As to physical violence, they were not specific, so for all we know they’re talking about corporal punishment.
As to psychological abuse, I would agree any false moral teaching that makes the child think they are utterly wicked in their human nature, ie Calvinism, at least in its most extreme form, is harmful but not exactly illegal “psychological abuse” the kind you expose publicly the way the left is doing about this group. Traditional Catholics could be accused of the same by telling their children that grave sexual sins will damn them to hell, which is true, but hardly “psychological abuse” the kind you would present in court.
Interestingly, Phelps was a civil rights lawyer specializing in helping Blacks. 11 of his 13 children themselves would become lawyers. One of them argued before the Supreme Court defending their church and won.
Let’s talk about their habit of picketing and their famous slogans on the signs. Christians should be standing in public with signs preaching the divinely revealed truths they need to hear to save their souls. We are after all called to evangelize in public, including the laity. Done well, this has been an effective method for decades. The most famous of their signs says “God hates fags.” The Bible does say God literally hates different evil groups, of people who promote evil as good. And the left has demonized hypocritically “hate” where hate means an “extreme dislike” as if there are not characteristics in a group that call for that.
Objectively, I have no problem with the word “fag” in so far as said person is proudly and unrepentantly engaging in sodomy, and/or promoting it as legitimate to the public. There is truth in that word. And from what I’ve seen in YT videos of WBC protests, it seems this is how they are using the word. Therefore, objectively it is true that “God hates (ie extremely dislikes) fags (homosexuals publicly obstinate in their lifestyle).” It is debatable how prudent fundamentalists are in this kind of tactic, but what they are saying is true, they have a legal and moral right to say so.
Alongside abortion, sodomy is the main scourge on our nation. Whereas half the country at least nominally opposes abortion, the vast majority believe in tolerating homosexuality, gay civil unions, gay marriage, and gay adoption.
Therefore, WBC is absolutely right God is/will scourge this nation for sodomy. I suppose they focus on that since that is the grave error that America as a whole has accepted. Therefore, the fact that WBC, this tiny little family church in middle America, is calling this and other of the gravest evils out publicly in protest, makes them praiseworthy, despite their excesses.
One excess, in my opinion, is protesting military funerals. Objectively I think it is okay under some circumstances to protest at a military funeral. If I were alive during the celebrated funeral of Stalin, for example, I’d have no problem with protests, protesting Soviet Communism. Or perhaps at the funeral of any Soviet soldier, to protest the unjust government.
Therefore, while I question the prudence of this, SBC has the right motive. The reason is I also believe that most wars and military operations the US military engages in are gravely against biblical principles of just war, and that the US military industrial complex empire across the world is evil totalitarianism. When your nation and military spirals down to that dark level, protesting a military funeral is understandable and proportionate to the evil they are protesting, which besides gay soldiers, and the military allowing gays, is their message. I doubt they are maliciously targeting the family, but finding a method to call attention to the evil when few other methods are effective.
We live in the era of tolerance of grave evil including by the current Catholic hierarchy and most Protestant clergy. This is the era of PC culture and wokism enforcing liberalism and atheistic secularism. So despite their imperfections, I defend WBC in its public testimony to divinely revealed truth.