God Hates Fags

I had originally planned on avoiding the whole topic of the Arizona shootings. I wrote a blog last year about “The Politics of Hatred”, and didn’t really feel like rehashing the same things again. (Granted, I could probably write about it every week for a year, and not run out of things to say on that topic). But then I read about the Westboro Baptist Church, and their plans to protest at the funeral of 9-year old Christina Greene, the young girl killed in the shootings, as well as implying that she’ll be going to Hell. Well, how could I resist blogging about it now? Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) is most famously known for having the wonderfully colorful slogan “God Hates Fags”, which is their web address as well. They’ve been spouting vitriol and hatred around the country for years.

I got an email from a friend of mine a few weeks ago. She’s very much anti-organized religion, and feels as though it is responsible for where the world is today. I respectfully disagreed, saying that while I think that religion as a whole shaped much of the world prior to the start of the 20th century, through a combination of exploration/expansion (much of which was spurred by religious conviction) and pre-20th century wars (many of which were brought about by religion), overall, I think religion has lost much of its influence over world affairs. I argued that its influence has been largely muted by a combination of Nationalism, the rise of corporate power, the globalization of the economy, the rise in communication via technology, and the widening of economic disparity between the upper 1% of the wealth in the world and the decline of the middle class.

For 95-99% of the people involved in “organized” religion, this loss of influence means absolutely nothing. They still go to church, and have their own dialogue with whatever God or gods they choose to worship. The problem lies in that small percentage of people who are the ones who had power and influence, and have now lost much of it. They have compensated for the loss of influence by becoming more extreme in their message. The problem is that these whack-jobs have become the “voice” of their respective religions. Most Muslim people are extremely kind, and despise the violence that has been purported to be representative of their religion as a whole by the extremists that have carried out that violence. Most Muslims are appalled by the actions of those extremists. Just as most Christians are appalled by the actions of the WBC. The problem is that extremism makes for good media coverage, and thereby throws fuel on the fire.

The extremists from every religion in the world are not the people that should be determining policy, but they seem to be more and more. The same problem is presented in politics. We are, as a country, very centrist. For the most part, people want to pull together, not apart. Left and right, we are not that far apart on the issues. I’m about as Left as one can get. I make Bill Maher look conservative. But I know that I’m an outlier, not one of the masses. The masses all fall pretty close to the center line, just a little bit to the left or the right, depending on economics/upbringing/location. But even though a VAST majority of the people fall within that center range, they aren’t the ones setting policy. More and more, it has become who can yell the loudest. Who can force the other party into some compromising position, rather than getting there through actual compromise. What’s mine is mine, and yours is mine. I’m sorry, but compromise does not mean abandoning my position in favor of yours.

So we’re stuck with extremists spouting off their positions. We’re stuck with Sarah Palin putting up a gun-sight target on Gabrielle Giffords, and some whack job taking it literally, and killing a 9-year old girl in the process. And then the REAL whack jobs saying that it’s a sign from God and that the little girl is going to Hell, and they need to protest her funeral to get the point across. And people wonder why I no longer want to have kids. Why would I want to bring a child into a world that has gone this mad?

I only hope that at some point in my life, we will see a shift away from hatred. Because right now, it is only getting worse. I don’t believe in your God, WBC, because if there IS a God out there somewhere, and he is the type of God that hates fags and sends 9-year old girls to Hell, then I’d rather BE in Hell.