Divine Revenge

Islamophobes would have you believe such a headline as the one above would issue from the hearts and minds of Muslims, but today’s news highlights that is not the case. Phony wars bring out the worse in a society; the realization that lives are being sacrificed and lost for anything less than a noble cause sometimes brings on a certain blood lust that is difficult to satisfy. Fringe elements pop up and take center stage for their 15 minutes of fame only to be moved out by someone or something more sinister and diabolical or stupid and dangerous.

So this news about a group of Christians who are celebrating the death of an Army specialist because war casualties are divine revenge for America tolerating gays and lesbians should come as no surprise in an America consumed with death, destruction and the war on terror. It didn’t help that Army specialist that she was pregnant when she was killed, not on a distant battlefield, but rather the one on/in the homefront. Ironies are all over the place with this story. Westboro Baptist Church proclaims God Hates the US military, contrary to the claims of others that the US military is on a mission to stamp out evil, or words to that effect, uttered by the President. (One of the ironies then is that the most proselytizing Army in America’s history is viewed by some as antithetical to Christian morality?) But according to Westboro, God hates everything about America including California.

It’s no doubt this is a fringe group of Christians, but they speak what other more main stream Christians probably feel. I know I’m using the term “mainstream” loosely. Many of America’s finest Christian leaders have said things that are in close proximity to what appears on Westboro’s website. Fortunately, there are no cries from anyone calling for Christiandom to reject the obscene theology of this group of heretics, like there are whenever something is done by people calling themselves “Muslims” or done in the name of “Islam”. When such atrocities are done with an Islamic favor, no amount of denial or denouncement done by any number of Muslims is enough to satisfy the racism that paints Islam with the broad brush of the actions of just a very few. So that’s the other irony I take from this news story. Somehow, people are reasonable enough to understand Westboro is a house of cards, a church of kooks, and the best way to deal with them is to laugh at them, or ignore them, and move on as a society, not getting obsessed with them. I have had my laugh at them; take a look at their website and you will too, I hope.