My immediate reaction to hearing about the death of Fred Phelps, the leader of Westboro Baptist Church, was mainly thoughts I would probably have to confess for if I were Catholic. A lot of people have had the same reaction. Good. Good riddance. The world is a better place without him. I hope he rots in hell. I would be lying if I didn't admit I hadn't felt all of these. But here is something I want us all to think about.
As a Christian, I never, EVER want someone to go to hell. Everyone of us deserves hell, admittedly some seem to more than others, but we all deserve to go. It pains me to think of someone having to spend eternity without Christ. I understand why people hope this man rots. I really do. But we need to think about the bigger picture and remember that the ONLY one who determines who goes to hell is God himself. Let's leave it up to Him. Although I wish I could have seen the looks on Mr. Phelps face when God smacked him upside his head with the good book and yelled at him for doing all this in God's name.
Allow me to get straight to my point about all this. The only reason we should thank this jerk is because he gave EVERYONE someone to despise. It doesn't matter if you're a Christian, an atheist, gay, straight, black, white, brown, military, or pacifist. Everyone saw this man for who he was- a no good so-and-so who used the name of God to do whatever he wanted to do. This man brought us all together. He gave everyone of us a reason to stand together and publicly shame this man for the things he did. How many other times can Christians and atheists stand hand in hand and agree? How many times can we say we can stand in support of someone we may not necessarily agree with and say, "I'm putting our differences aside in support of you."
Perhaps, after the death of this man, it would do us all some good to remember how we felt about each other while he was still alive. Remember that other people might disagree or hold different beliefs, but what matters most is being supportive of one another. Let's all be the anti-Phelps. Everyday we live in love and understanding is a day that this man turns over in his grave.
"Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God."
~1 John 4:7
