Goodbye and Good Riddance

Fred Phelps

If the news stories are accurate, then the infamous Rev. Fred Phelps is about to find out whether he was a true Christian or not.

And barring any last minute deathbed confessions, the Rev. Phelps will discover that he wasn't. And he probably never was.

Who is Fred Phelps? He was the pastor of the highly controversial-confrontational Westboro Baptist Church that's located in Topeka, Kansas. Phelps is reportedly dying from an undisclosed ailment and when his clock finally expires, very few people are going to shed any tears after he's gone. 

That's because Phelps is a hater and an arch-racist who masqueraded for nearly 60 years as a Christian minister. Who does Phelps hate? Nearly anybody and everybody who isn't like him and his weird flock. 

Phelps and his group have become famous for crashing the funerals of American soldiers who died while on military duty in such venues as Afghanistan and Iraq. The reverend and his crew draw attention to themselves by waving obnoxious placards that attribute the soldiers deaths to God's judgment on America for her embrace of homosexuality.   

Phelps and his church are an abomination that blasphemes the name of Jesus Christ and tarnishes the good reputation of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) that Westboro doesn't even belong to.

Nevertheless, the Westboro Baptist Church is the proverbial gift that keeps on giving for America's Christophobes who promote Westboro as a typical fundamental Christian church. For America's Christian haters, Westboro is like Christmas 365 days a year. 

Rather, Westboro should be shunned and condemned by all true Christians as a cult that's worthy of nothing but contempt. 

On Westboro's website, (I refuse to print its web address) the hate spews forth like a tsunami of elephant diarrhea. You can find the hate on just about any group and anyone you choose--Jews, Catholic priests, Muslims, Hollywood, Barack Obama, American soldiers and of course, homosexuals. 

Nearly 2,000 years ago, the apostle John wrote this concerning true and phony Christians: "For this is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another.  Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous.  Do not be surprised, my brothers and sisters,  if the world hates you. We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love each other. Anyone who does not love remains in death.  Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him." (1 John 3:11-15)

Surely, Rev. Phelps is familiar with that scripture. Maybe he'll remember that and repent before he takes his final breath.