Sean Penn drove past this on Oscar night:
It seems to me that the best way to put the lie to what they think Sean Penn said would be to completely and totally condemn the Westboro Baptist Church. Further, to actively campaign against their message of hate, especially as it relates to gay people.
It's a very easy thing to get righteously indignant when you feel you've been slighted. It's a much harder thing, but immeasurably more powerful, to defend the targets of violent hate.
The trick is that the rest of us have to believe you love gay people more then a political agenda. That you find hatred more offensive then gay marriage. That you are more willing to fight against hatred then to feel insulted.
Anything less simply suggests that maybe Sean Penn had a point.
3 comments:
I didn't hear Sean Penn's bit, so I can't comment on that.
But the picture is just... well... kinda insane. Almost laughable. Almost as if they were joking, but almost funny because they aren't. And yet, gut wrenchingly serious at the same time.
[sigh] People with these kids of posters don't really "get" Jesus. They seem to read a few passages in their Bibles that they really like--the ones that let them make strong claims about stuff and judge others--and miss out on the major points of the Good News Jesus preached.
And there's something eerie about two young ladies giving us a big grin while holding "God Hates America" and "God is your enemy" signs. That's just weird.
...and the "Heath in hell" one really confuses me; more accurately, it makes me feel like they are really confused.
Ugh. What a way to start a Tuesday [wry smile].
Well, I hope your day is going better than the picture posted above, Dawn.
~Luke
Good post, Dawn. I did hear Sean Penn's acceptance speech, and saw his movie too, reviewed it as Lapping Up Milk. Favorite Daughter and I knew and loved (and lost too young) a wonderfully magnetic gay man generous of spirit like Harvey Milk. . .
But you say more than that too, I think, and rightly so. Check this out for example (I started to quote the best bit for your blog, but the whole darned thing is on point.)
What we're seeing now isn't only about one church hating and fearing gay people. It's about ideological conservatives (church-going or not) focusing all their energy on hating and fearing -- well, just about everything and everybody including even other church-going Christians not quite like them! Funny that people so actively biased against "homogeneous" relationships and culture, seem to prize complete homogeneity for themselves . . .
I don't know of anybody, Christian or not, who really buys this Fred Phelps stuff. These are the same people who like to protest military funerals and funerals of AIDS victims and yell about how they're in hell. Sick.
I know the church group has shown up in our town, once to protest Maya Angelou speaking and once to protest a church trying to help gay people turn their lives around. Oh, and the Neo-Nazis AND gay protesters came to that event, which was lots of fun for the people putting the event on to keep those two groups apart. :]
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