A Good Man - In The Worst Sense Of The Word

I don’t really like entertainment news.  I try to avoid it.  But if you live in this country and read a newspaper or walk by the tabloids in the grocery stores you know that Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes are getting divorced.  I guess I feel sorry for them, but I’m not even sure if they are real people. 

So, like most adults in America I know that Sylvester Stallone’s son died this week.  Sort of mysterious.  Again, I don’t know the guy or his first wife (Sage Stallone’s mom), but I feel sorry for them.  How hard would that be?  For anyone?  I can’t imagine losing one of my boys.  The pain would be excruciating.  It’s not the way it’s supposed to work.  The parents are supposed to die first. 

Then I find out that the Westboro Baptist Church is planning on picketing his funeral.  You know Westboro Baptist Church (go ahead, check them out at godhatesfags.com).  They are the Christian hate group who busy themselves (and get much needed attention) by picketing the funerals of servicemen and women as well as gay murder victims and people who have died of AIDS.  From Wikipedia: The group came into the national spotlight in 1998, when it was featured on CNN for picketing the funeral of Matthew Shepard, a young man from Wyoming who was beaten to death by two men because of his homosexuality.[28] Since then, the church has attracted attention for many more actual and planned funeral pickets.[29][30][31][32][33][34]

In July 2005, the Westboro Baptist Church declared its intention to picket the memorial service of Carrie French in Boise, Idaho. French, 19, was killed on June 5 in Kirkuk, Iraq, where she served as an ammunition specialist with the 116th Brigade Combat Team's 145th Support Battalion. Phelps Sr. said, "Our attitude toward what's happening with the war is the Lord is punishing this evil nation for abandoning all moral imperatives that are worth a dime."[35]

In 2006, Westboro picketed with banners saying "God hates fags" and "Thank God for dead soldiers" at the Westminster, Maryland, funeral of Matthew Snyder, a U.S. Marine who was also killed in Iraq.[36] Ruling on a subsequent lawsuit filed by Snyder's father, Albert Snyder, the U.S. Supreme Court decided 8–1 that Westboro's actions constituted protected free speech.[37]

 

Check out their

Sister Sites:

         GodHatesIslam.com - God hates all false religious systems. That includes Islam.

         GodHatesTheMedia.com - The worldwide media is in place for WBC to preach through. What they mean for evil God means for good.

         SignMovies.com - Brief, fascinating videos that offer Bible-based expositions of the message of WBC.

         GodHatesTheWorld.com - Country-by-country explanation of why God hates the world.

         JewsKilledJesus.com - What the Bible teaches about the final fate of the nation of Israel for murdering the Messiah.

         BeastObama.com - A Scriptural look at the rising beast and how he is going to usher in the destruction of the world.

         PriestsRapeBoys.com - The Catholic Church: the largest, most well-funded and organized pedophile machine in history.

         blogs.SpareNot.com - Chronicles the worldwide street preaching ministry of Westboro Baptist Church!

                  AmericaIsDoomed.com - Builds the airtight case that america is not only cursed of God, but that this curse is irreversible.

These are the people who have the numbers.  The REAL numbers.  They know exactly how many soldiers that GOD killed in Afghanistan.  They know exactly how many gallons of oil GOD poured in the Gulf of Mexico.  They know how many people God spared in the flood (8 – Noah and his peeps, right?) and how many God killed in the flood (16,000,000,000 – that’s sixteen billion.  I know, I know, there are less than 8 billion now and this is the largest number ever to inhabit the earth.  But these people know the real truth!).  If you go to their homepage you can even find out exactly how many “people whom God has cast into hell since you loaded this page.”  And it's a lot, friends.

These people mean business.  So on July 13, Margie Phelps, the daughter of Westboro Baptist Church “leader” Fred Phelps, tweeted her followers (over 5,600) urging them to picket Stallones’s funeral.  And you know what?  There will more than likely be plenty of fools who do just as they are told.  Because the more anguish they can cause, the more pain they can inflict, the more attention they can get – the more righteous they are.  In their own eyes. 

"When a parent loses a child there is no greater pain," Sylvester Stallone said in a statement released to TMZ. "Therefore I am imploring people to respect my talented son's memory and feel compassion for his loving mother Sasha."  This is reason enough for these nutjobs to picket.  Think of the splash.  Think of the eyes turned toward them.  Think of the “teaching” they can do about Christianity!  What an excellent opportunity. 

Of course, these idiots are the enemies of Christianity.  They are the epitome of what many non-Christians think about us.  In interviews with hundreds of young people, authors Gabe Lyons and David Kinnaman, “discovered that nearly half of unchurched young Americans hold a bad impression of evangelical believers. They are especially bothered by, among other things, evangelicals' conservative political activism, hypocrisy, anti-homosexuality, and judgmentalism.”  That is the Westboro Baptist Church in a nutshell. 

All organized religions have image problems.  It’s too bad.  Religion can cause powerful, positive changes.  At it’s best, religion can bring about social justice, an immense feeling of fellowship, comfort to the needy and sick, logic and intelligence to political problems.  And at its worst… You have WBC. 

My old friend Marty wrote in a response to one of my posts, “When people ask me my religion, I say I’m reality based.”  We should all be so. 

If you know me you know that David Wilcox is one of my favorite singer/songwriters.  He is a master.  One of my favorite newish songs is called Good Man.  It reminds us of the pain religion can cause.  Because there will always be a good man, in the worst sense of the word.  Do yourself a favor and click on the link below to hear him sing it.  

Good Man

Let me apologize in advance

For the way my friend behaves

He'll pick a fight and take a holy stance

He's so proud that he's so saved

I hope you don't judge Jesus

By the things my friend will say

He holds a bible like a dagger

And he twists it just that way

He just loves conversation - like a cat loves a bird

I guess he's always been a good man - in the worst sense of the word

The good knights went out to save the day

In the age of the crusades

A sharp sword on a tortured soul

They were sure the point was made

Any tool can be a weapon

If it's used with that intent

The devil's great at quoting scripture

And confusing what it meant

So all the evils done for Jesus - it is a history so absurd

But there will always be a good man - in the worst sense of the word

They 'jacked a plane to make a sneak attack

They were trained to die in flames

Their last words were to God above

Just to praise His holy name

For all the terror and destruction

They felt no sense of shame

You gotta wonder why religion

Can make people so insane

But their devotion was unquestioned - follow straight and never swerve

The devil always needs a good man - in the worst sense