By this point, I assume that you're not hearing this first from me, but for those unaware, Fred Phelps, the viciously hateful founder of the Westboro Baptist Church is on hospice care and very close to death. If you don't think you've heard of Phelps or his church, let me refresh your memory. The WBC are a group, comprised mostly of Fred's own family who travel across America, protesting the funerals of soldiers, murdered children, and various other high profile people, holding up signs that say things like "God Hates Fags" and "Thank God for Dead Soldiers." Suffice it to say, they do not have very many fans.
You see, Fred Phelps and his "church" believe that things like 9/11, the Iraq War, and school shootings are the United States punishment, sent directly from God, for the U.S. treating homosexuals, and other groups that Phelps considers loathsome, like they're you know, human beings. The WBC thinks that in a civilized society, such people would be put to death in the street.
Like I said, not a lot of fans of the WBC, and now that Fred Phelps is approaching his final days, I and many other people I imagine, find ourselves with confusing feelings. It is tempting to celebrate the death for Fred Phelps, to dance on his grave and sing merry songs at the hour of his passing. It is tempting to cheer, "Ding, dong, the witch is dead!" But is that the thing to do? Would celebrating his passing reduce us to his level? Of course it's wrong to speak ill of the dead, but it's that particular social taboo that Fred Phelps committed his life too, and numerous people suffered for it. So, what is a guy to do?
Let us not mince words or anything, Fred Phelps was a monster. He committed his life to antagonizing people at their loved one's funerals, which doubtlessly tortured many a grieving widow or mother in a way that served to augment their suffering. Beyond that, Phelps was a disbarred lawyer and had fair knowledge of the workings of the law, and used that to his advantage. Anytime that someone would try to take action, legal or otherwise, to end the WBC's protests, they would find themselves on the losing end of a legal dispute that would end in the WBC taking their money and using it to fund more hate campaigns.
What is there not to celebrate at the loss of this man? What reason could there be to mourn instead of cheer?
After wrestling with this for a bit, I decided that there something to mourn here. Certainly not the loss of Fred and his actions, but a life wasted using its energy to hate instead of love.
I believe that every human being has the capacity for love and compassion, and that it's in forsaking that capacity that we inflict suffering of each other. Fred Phelps dedicated his life to hatred, causing suffering wherever he went, and the true tragedy here is that he made it through his entire life ignoring the basic human capacity to care. Somewhere inside of Fred Phelps and every other human being lies the ability to do good by showing compassion, and if Fred had put even a fraction of his energy into that, he could have done some real good for himself and the people around him.
We should not consider the passing for Fred Phelps a chance for celebration, we should consider a rare opportunity to show love and compassion to someone we could basically all consider an enemy. It is a chance to show forgiveness, even toward a monster. It is a chance to show the remaining Fred Phelpses of the world, that our love is stronger than their hate.
So, soon, when Fred Phelps passes away, excommunicated from his church, estranged from his children, and universally loathed by virtually everyone in America, instead of cheering the beginning of a world without him, I will mourn the loss of a life wasted hating.
Jimmy
