The Global Conversation

Tag: Westboro Baptist Church

  • Where is the love?

    If, as Conversations with God says, “love is all there is,” why is our planet experiencing so much “hate”?

    This question came up for me as I stared at a map of the United States created by the Southern Poverty Law Center which calculated the number of active “hate groups” existing in this country, state by  state, in the year 2013.  I also noticed, as I perused the map, that Florida, the state within which I currently reside, is documented as having the second-highest number of actual chartered groups of people who use “hate” as their platform.  The state in which my son lives, California, is number one.  You can view their map here.

    According to the Southern Poverty Law Center’s website, they have used the definition of “groups who have beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristics” as the basis upon which to collect their statistics and generate their map.

    Typically, at least for me, when envisioning what has been labeled a “hate group,” there are certain sects of people that jump quickly to the forefront:  Ku Klux Klan, Westboro Baptist Church, white/black supremacy and anti-LGBT organizations.  Yes, these are the obvious ones, the ones we see in the news, the ones who we quickly identify as members of our community who have publicly announced their intolerance and separatist belief systems to the world.

    But how far-reaching are the tentacles of the ideologies that support and innervate these factions?  How deep do they flow into our own personal relationships?  How are they impacting the thoughts and perspectives of the people who we find ourselves interacting with on a day-to-day basis?  And what exactly constitutes “hate”?  Do the recent racist comments of Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling fall into such a category?  Do Aaron and Melissa Klein, owners of a bakery in Oregon, Sweet Cakes by Melissa, who refused to make a wedding cake for a lesbian couple based upon their Christian beliefs fall into such a category?  Do the people who post humiliating and derogatory pictures of overweight people and children in Wal-Mart on Facebook even fall into such a category?

    Conversations with God tells us that even the most egregious behaviors and actions are always rooted in love, that each and every choice we make, as distorted as it may be, is an outgrowth and expression of love.  Even a child on the playground might take a ball or a toy away from one classmate with the intention of sharing it with his/her best friend.  A single mother whose bank account has a negative balance may steal food from the local grocery store in order to feed her children for the day.  And, yes, even in the taking of another life, underneath the violence and conflict, somewhere deep beneath what is readily visible, exists a complex, albeit convoluted, experience of love.

    Perhaps “hate” is a strong word.  Maybe the use of it rubs up against you in a coarse and uncomfortable way or it feels unnatural or in opposition to who believe yourself to be.  If so, the next time you encounter someone, or even yourself, engaging in a behavior or using language that might have previously fallen under the umbrella of “hate,” what might happen if you ask yourself the question that began this whole conversation we are having here:  Where is the love?

    Yes, truly, where is it?

    (Lisa McCormack is a Feature Editor at The Global Conversation and lives in Orlando, Florida.  To connect with Lisa, please e-mail her at Lisa@TheGlobalConversation.com.)

  • Does God hate Fred Phelps?

    Fred Phelps is dying.

    Who is Fred Phelps?  He is the founder of the highly controversial Westboro Baptist Church, a man who is known for protesting high-profile funerals with signs that read “God Hates Fags.”  The church is widely known for its extreme positions against gay marriage and offensive demonstrations interrupting the funerals of dead servicemen.  And as you read these words, he is reported to be lying on his deathbed at a hospice center in Kansas.

    And I am wondering how the world feels about his imminent passing.  Okay, on the surface, perhaps that seems a tad bit obvious.  It does not require a stretched imagination to think that many people will not be too entirely sad or disappointed to no longer see him physically be a part of our society, given the number of individuals he placed himself at odds with for one reason or another.  But I am also wondering if there is anyone anywhere who will be able to celebrate his passing not because of his discriminatory and intolerant behaviors here on earth and they will simply being glad to see him go, but because his soul, too, carried gifts and opportunities and remembrances for us all to experience.

    How can intolerance be a gift?  How does discrimination provide opportunity?  What remembrances could possibly be had under the guise of hatred?

    Fair questions.

    It is one thing to say we believe something.  It is another thing entirely to implement those beliefs into a way of living, to actually incorporate them into the day-to-day choices and actions and events of our lives.

    I may claim to believe that we are all one.  But am I able to live from that place of believing in the most challenging situations and am I able to apply that way of thinking in the most difficult relationships I find myself involved with?

    I may claim to believe in a God who does not judge.  But am I able to afford that same understanding to ALL human beings, even those whose lives create pain and hardship for so many others?

    I may declare myself as someone who loves unconditionally.  But am I truly capable of removing the conditions from my loving someone who, from outward appearances, is virtually unlovable?

    Just as the little angel in The Little Soul and the Sun agreed to do, perhaps Fred Phelps chose to experience this lifetime as someone who would stand in darkness so that others may stand in the light.

    So I am wondering how you feel about the Soul called Fred Phelps as the moment where he takes his last breath on earth draws closer and closer with each passing minute.  What are your thoughts about what his life meant to you and to our world?   Will you be celebrating that moment for one particular reason or another?

    (Lisa McCormack is a Feature Editor at The Global Conversation and lives in Orlando, Florida.  To connect with Lisa, please e-mail her at Lisa@TheGlobalConversation.com.)