{"id":6978,"date":"2010-12-07T08:29:38","date_gmt":"2010-12-07T14:29:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/?p=6978"},"modified":"2010-12-07T08:41:14","modified_gmt":"2010-12-07T14:41:14","slug":"how-do-we-respond-to-fred-phelps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/how-do-we-respond-to-fred-phelps\/","title":{"rendered":"How do we respond to Fred Phelps?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Fred
Fred Phelps | Via Wikipedia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Over the last few days I’ve been watching Fall From Grace<\/a>, a documentary released in 2005 that tells the story of Pastor Fred Phelps and his church Westboro Baptist. <\/p>\n

Whether you recognize the name or not, I’m sure you’ve all seen\/heard about their “ministry.”<\/p>\n

The Westboro Baptist faithful have been picketing events (including military funerals) across the U.S. for the past 15-20 years with signs that read, “God Hates Fags,” “Thank God for IEDs,” “Thank God for Dead Soldiers,” “Fags Die God Laughs” and more.
\n
\nThe documentary is a really interesting look into the mind of Phelps and his church (predominately his family) as well as a look at some of those directly affected by their picketing — including the wife of a fallen soldier.<\/p>\n

At the time of the documentary, only two of Phelps’ 13 children were estranged from the family. And now, according to Wikipedia, 4 of his children are estranged. (It would be interesting to hear the stories of the other two children now.) All the rest are active in the small church and the picketing the church does across the country.<\/p>\n

What strikes me most about Phelps and his family is their firm belief that they have been chosen by God to be a “voice crying out in the wilderness” to America today. <\/p>\n

Even in an interview with Phelps’ daughter, Shirley Phelps-Roper<\/a>, (the group’s attorney) on the Nick and Josh Podcast, she seemed very certain that their family had been called to be modern day prophets — think Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea and others who did dramatic things to grab the attention of people and spread the message of God.<\/p>\n

However, while the prophets of the Old Testament did cry out for the need for repentance, there is always an underlying theme of the coming redemption through Jesus. I don’t get that same feeling from the Phelps clan.<\/p>\n

They also have the mindset that because they’ve been called by God to do what they do — anyone who opposes them is simply validating their ministry even more.<\/p>\n

All this to say — I’m curious. <\/p>\n

How do we respond to Fred Phelps?<\/h3>\n

As human beings?<\/p>\n

As Americans?<\/p>\n

As Followers of the Way? <\/p>\n

As Insurgents of Love?<\/p>\n

And does our response differ depending on which category\/label we fall under?<\/p>\n

It’s easy to say, “Well just ignore them and they’ll go away.” But I don’t think that’s worked (or will work) — and I’m not sure it’s the best approach either.<\/p>\n

We can also simply dismiss them as extremists — but I don’t see that as a solid answer either.<\/p>\n

The one thing I keep coming back to is our call to love them and show them the love that they’re obviously missing in their own lives (something Phelps’ estranged children hinted at in their interviews).<\/p>\n

Rather than trashing them on our blogs, yelling back at them, or judging them with the hate they have for so many others — we’ve been called to love. <\/p>\n

I’m not sure what loving them would look like exactly — but I feel like that’s our calling.<\/p>\n

And to bring it home to a more personal level…<\/strong><\/p>\n

How do we respond to the “Fred Phelps” in our own sphere’s of influence? Perhaps a neighbor, a co-worker or a family member.<\/p>\n

How do we respond in love to those who are so caught up in external conformity to a moral code that they forget to be internally transformed by love?<\/p>\n

How do we give grace to those who may deserve it the least?<\/p>\n

I’d love your input. Let’s see if we can come up with some real discussion\/practical ideas here in the comments below.<\/p>\n

Ready, set, GO!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over the last few days I’ve been watching Fall From Grace, a documentary released in 2005 that tells the story of Pastor Fred Phelps and his church Westboro Baptist. Whether you recognize the name or not, I’m sure you’ve all seen\/heard about their “ministry.” The Westboro Baptist faithful have been picketing events (including military funerals) … Continue reading How do we respond to Fred Phelps?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[18],"tags":[3931,3932,659,498,1599,3933],"class_list":["post-6978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faith","tag-fall-from-grace","tag-fred-phelps","tag-grace","tag-love","tag-love-wins","tag-westboro-baptist-church"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pEnSo-1Oy","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6978\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}