"I take no solace or joy in this man's passing. We will not dance upon his grave, nor stand vigil at his funeral holding "God Hates Freds" signs, tempting as it may be.
He was a tormented soul, who tormented so many. Hate never wins out in the end. It instead goes always to its lonely, dusty end."
-George Takei
Alas, I now feel terrible about +1'ing this thread. Especially after reading Mr. Phelps' wikipedia page and reading about his battles in the Civil Rights struggle, before such things had become fashionable. We judge much but know little (although the miracle of the internet is changing that somewhat).
Fred Phelps, rest in peace. I know well that hateful thoughts and deeds are born from pains and wrongs we have suffered but not recovered from. We all stumble and struggle through our lives in this world; sometimes our stumblings are better recorded than our triumphs (I must wonder, though, how much it matters that we wanted to get on that record for doing stupid things). All of us carry the seeds of both Good and Evil. When we choose every day which seed to water and nurture, it is easy to forget which is which with the limited and filtered views we all have when we're tied up in these highly fallible mortal coils. While I find the practices of funeral disruption and legal terrorism to be entirely repugnant, and I don't understand why you were so hung up about gays, I must confess that I, too, am a sinner - guilty of even greater sins, perhaps, than yours. I simply happen to be fortunate (for now) that they happen to be of the sort that the news media doesn't really care about. I hope that God/the Angels/the Spirit Guides are merciful with you, as I hope they will be merciful with me when my stay on this earth comes to an end, as it will for all of us, for I know I will be judged just as you have been today. Forgive us all, for we know not what we do.
If a mod/admin/The Almighty Kestas would remove my +1 from the OP, I would be in their debt.
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