All "Seeds of Hate" are local !

Posted on Sun, Jun. 11, 2006 Fort Worth Star Telegram Letter to the Editor

Seeds of hate from Kansas and Saudi Arabia
Star-Telegram

You can certainly count on me as being one among "the rest of the Christian community" who has risen in indignation against the Rev. Fred Phelps, the Kansas minister who stages vitriolic protests at military funerals. (See Tuesday editorial "In need of shunning.")

As a fellow "reverend" and "Baptist," I can't tell you how ashamed I am of this so-called man of God. I find absolutely nothing godly about him, his followers and his ridiculously self-righteous and mean-spirited crusade of hate.

The Scriptures teach us that if Jesus ever showed anger, judgment and condemnation toward anyone, it was usually directed toward the "religious people" of his day -- those who thought they had all the answers, thought they were always absolutely right and loved to play God, judge and jury in other people's lives.

For those of you not in the "Christian community," please forgive us for these kinds of pathetic "Christian leaders" who most definitely do not represent the true love, grace and goodness of our God and our faith.

Pastor Jim Lemons, River Oaks Baptist Church, River Oaks
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Although I was certainly pleased that the Star-Telegram expressed outrage at Fred Phelps' hate-mongering in Tuesday's editorial, I found myself wondering why you singled out him.

As far as I can tell, the only difference between Phelps and more "mainstream" voices of the right (such as Sens. John Cornyn and Bill Frist and evangelists Richard Land and Jerry Falwell) is that Phelps doesn't bother to mouth platitudes about hating the sin but loving the sinner before spewing anti-gay bigotry.

For that matter, I'm not sure I see much difference between the hateful rhetoric of Phelps and the hateful actions of the 76 percent of Texas voters who enshrined second-class citizenship for gays and lesbians in the state constitution in November, or calls in the Star-Telegram to reject recognition of same-sex unions. Let's see to the beam in our own eye before we start worrying about the speck in our neighbor's.

Andrew Sutton, Fort Worth
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Why should we be shocked by the excerpts from Saudi schoolbooks? (See June 4 Weekly Review, "Are Saudis sowing seeds of hate?")

The first-grade text was quoted as saying: "Every religion other than Islam is false. Whoever dies outside of Islam enters hellfire."

Take out Islam, substitute Christianity and we have a statement often heard in this country: Salvation is for only those who accept Christ as their personal savior.

One important difference between Muslims in Saudi Arabia and Christian fundamentalists in the United States is that our kind haven't managed to break down the separation of church and state guaranteed by our Constitution. But they're working on it.

Marjorie Bixler, Fort Worth
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Although the Saudi government promised to stop the teaching of intolerant views in Saudi Arabian schools, it's still being done. Well, duh!

Our so-called friend in the war against terrorism is a hypocritical absolute monarchy with no regard for us whatsoever.

What's worse, for 60 years this country has turned a blind eye to the actions of the Saudi royal family because Saudi Arabia sells us oil, and those oil revenues have funded vitriolic teachers, preachers and terrorist groups for a long, long time now.

Duh!

Mark Metroka, Fort Worth

source: http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/opinion/local2/14787936.htm
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Below is the Editorial the above letter writers were referencing
Posted on Tue, Jun. 06, 2006

In need of shunning Editorials
Star-Telegram
How far does the Rev. Mr. Fred Phelps have to go before the rest of the Christian community rises in indignation against him and the despicable tactics he is using to proclaim his understanding of the gospel?

In case you've been in a coma, the Rev. Mr. Phelps and members of his church -- Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan. -- are the people who are demonstrating at military funerals, mocking those who gather to grieve and telling them that the deaths of their loved ones are God's punishment on America for, among other sins, rampant homosexuality in the United States.

The Associated Press reported over the weekend in a story printed in the Star-Telegram that protesters from the church gathered outside a recent service in Ogden, Iowa, for Sgt. Daniel Sesker (who had been killed by an improvised explosive device -- "IED" in military talk) and held up signs that said, "Thank God for IEDs" and "God Hates Your Tears."

Thanks to Phelps and his followers -- not to anti-war demonstrators -- Congress has passed, and President Bush has signed, a law restricting demonstrations at national cemeteries.

Thirty-one states have debated similar bans, and Texas passed one during the recent special session.

The AP reports that Phelps and his followers have attended about 100 funerals for U.S. troops killed in Iraq. They have said that dead U.S. soldiers are proof of God's wrath.

Have they no shame? Have they no sense of decency, at long last? Have they no sense of the charity taught by the Christ they profess to follow?

But the Rev. Mr. Phelps is unapologetic. That same AP story quoted him this way: "That's one of the luxuries of being 100 percent right, absolutely 100 percent right. If you can read, you would agree with me."

And how different is he from the gunmen who separated out and then killed 21 Shiites on Sunday north of Baghdad simply for the offense of being of a slightly different religious belief?

Aside from the obvious lack of blood on his hands -- not much.

It's not as if the Rev. Mr. Phelps has a hidden agenda. It's right there on his Web site for all to see. Normally, we'd give you the URL here, but not this time. If you want to see it, you'll have to search on his name or the church's name.

Next target: Today -- June 6 -- at Arlington National Cemetery. It's an obvious tie-in with 666, supposedly the mark of the Antichrist.

Kind of makes you wonder just who is the opposite of Christ in this case, doesn't it ?

source: http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/editorial/14751197.htm