{{___ I don't understand such hate
{{___ [from linked article:] Church: God Punishing GIs Over Gays By BETH RUCKER, Associated Press Writer [/] Sun Aug 28,10:16 AM ET
{{___ SMYRNA, Tenn. - Members of a church say God is punishing American soldiers for defending a country that harbors gays, and they brought their anti-gay message to the funerals Saturday of two Tennessee soldiers killed in Iraq. […]}}
Take an even strain. The event appears to be extreme and isolated.
Several things should be noted:
One. The nature of the protesters.
The Rev. Fred Phelps, founder of Westboro Baptist in Kansas, contends that American soldiers are being killed in Iraq as vengeance from God for protecting a country that harbors gays. The church, which is not affiliated with a larger denomination, is made up mostly of Phelps' children, grandchildren and in-laws.
There are many "one man's [extended] family" local independent churches. When the patriarch goes a bit off the rails, perhaps because of senile dementia and lack of collegial guidance, odd things happen.
Two. Misapplication of scripture.
To the uninstructed or unwary Romans 1 and Genesis 19 give a much bigger place to homosexual behavior in the causes and effects of iniquity than the context demonstrates.
Three. Preaching about far away sins.
Homosexuals make a good target, since congregations do not generally include admitted homosexuals.
The horrific damage in lives and property in 1861-1865 was due in part to Northern preaching about the horrors of Southern slavery, and Southern preaching about the offense of Northern abolitionists, particularly John Brown, minding other people's business.
The then biggest denomination split over slavery fifteen years before the war. Other denominations followed, and the preaching about the iniquities of those living in other states intensified. And the political parties split, and the Nation, and then there was our most costly war.
Four. The anti-war fruitcake.
What a splendiferous assortment of fruits and nuts (and, now, anti-fruits)! The Hollywood crowd, the crypto-Marxists in their variegated disguises, the neo-Nazi white-supremacist anti-Semites, the prophets citing the example of Sodom, etc.
They differ most magnificently in their diagnoses of, and prescriptions for, the ills of our Nation.
I am reminded of a Fourth of July fireworks display back in the days when Communism, Fascism, and Nazism were rising in Europe:
Americanism Is Our Only Ism
