Bug-Man’s Blog

Here’s a story which has just run regarding Heath Ledger.

This story is regarding the intentions of the American Baptist church of Westboro to rally and picket at Heath Ledger’s funeral. Why, you may ask? What did Heath Ledger do to directly offend this church? Well, nothing. Not directly anyway. Heath played a the character of a gay cowboy in the film Brokeback Mountain. No, Heath Ledger is not gay himself; he just portrayed the character of a gay cowboy in a movie, and for this, according to the Westboro Baptist Church, he deserves to be picketed with hate propaganda.

Here is an excerpt from the flyer that the Westboro church has issued regarding the picket:

“Yes. WBC will picket this pervert’s funeral, in religious protest and warning: “Be not deceived; God is not mocked.” Gal. 6:7. Heath Ledger thought it was great fun defying God Al mighty and His plain word; to wit: God Hates Fags! & Fag-Enablers! Ergo, God hates the sordid, tacky, buckets of slime seasoned with vomit known as ‘Brokeback Mountain’ – and He hates all persons having anything whatsoever to do with it.”

Now that’s certainly preaching the word of God, isn’t it. Where in the Bible does it say that “God hates fags and fag-enablers”? Doesn’t the Bible teach that God loves all of his children, regardless of creed or culture? Regardless of whether or not they are a believer? Didn’t God create all children in his own image? Don’t we, as sinners, get a chance to repent our sins and be forgiven if that is what we so choose (and believe?) Hasn’t homosexuality been around for thousands of years?

This church completely full of narrow-mindedness and vitriol. Here are some pictures to explain.

“Fags Die. God Laughs.” What kind of message is this preaching? One of acceptance and love or one of hate and bigotry? Aren’t there churches out there (ridiculous as it may seem) who are there to HELP people be saved from their sins, including homosexuality?

This particular church is run by Fred Phelps, as pictured in the last picture. I just wonder how what goes through the minds of him and his followers and how they can be the source of so much hate in the world. I wonder, if the entire Earth took on their view, what would happen to us?

During 2005, a Swedish pastor was convicted for 30 days for preaching anti-homosexual propaganda. This is not legal in Sweden as their law allows for a high tolerance and equal rights, and after a number of complaints the law jailed him. Phelps and the church took this very personally and began to target hate propaganda towards Sweden.

The church made a number of hostile statements regarding Sweden, specifically targeting Sweden’s homosexual-friendly politics and gay rights, naming the royal family as proprietors of incest and bestiality, and went on to mock the victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, a disaster which killed thousands.

I listened to some of Phelps’ 2005 Sweden sermon, and from that sermon, only a few setences in, he says:
“Thank God for Tsunami! And thank God that 2000 dead Swedes are fertilizing the ground over there! And we pose the question; how many of those 2000 do you suppose were fags and dykes!?”

Phelps goes on to abominate Swedish people simply because he’s angry that a fellow “gospel preacher” was jailed. According to Phelps all nine million Swedes are perverts, including the infants and the sucklings.

It seems that this Church, and perhaps others, can’t recognise the difference between the law and their own religion. The law is designed to protect and serve. It is not allowed to pass judgement on people’s lifestyle, it is only allowed to prevent people from performing acts that are deemed harmful to society. I can not see how the private act of a homosexual relationship between two men can be seen as harmful to society in a legal sense. I can see how it can be harmful in a religious sense, where religion promotes strong family values and male/female copulation, but still, this is contained within the religion, and other similar religions.

So what is a religion? Isn’t it a person or person’s beliefs? Aren’t we supposed to be tolerant of all religions? I’m tolerant of people who believe in God and believe in male/female family relationships; without straight couples and families the world wouldn’t survive, but humans are not going to die off simply because a portion of the population is homosexual. Life goes on!

Surely these people shouldn’t worry about how other people are living their lives and carry on living their own lives according to the Bible? If they did that, they wouldn’t waste so much of their lives preaching anti-gay and hate propaganda all over the place. I am not religious, but I believe that these people’s crime against their fellow humans is far worse than than a homosexual in the eyes of God. I find it quite ironic that they believe they are doing good for the world by preaching such hate.