With a Heavy Heart

One of my Social Justice kids yesterday was asking if I'd ever heard of Prussian Blue ... she briefly told me about them; I just checked out their website. Apparently these blonde-haired blue-eyed thirteen year-old twins have been singing and making music since they were nine. Not a big deal, unless you consider their band's description, according to their own web site:

Recently they received international media attention because Prussian Blue is a White Pride band. The songs they the girls sing reflect their White Nationalist beliefs. Today, if you are White, and proud to be White, it is considered Politically Incorrect by the media. The music that Prussian Blue performs is intended for White people. They hope to help fellow Whites come to understand that love for one’s race is a beautiful gift that we should celebrate.

I had seen some of this kind of stuff, primarily from tolerance.org and its "hate group" information. But in terms of actually visiting some of these sites (especially National Vanguard) ..... with the exception of Fred Phelps & Westboro Baptist in Topeka, Kansas, this was my first real exploration.

I have to admit, much of what I was reading wasn't nearly as inflammatory as some of Phelps' stuff, but at the same time, that could be almost worse. At least Phelps is upfront about his beliefs; you know where he stands. But some of these other groups do a really good job of presenting themselves as fine upstanding patriotic family-values kinds of folks — what's wrong with that? We joke at the house sometimes about loaded questions -- you could ask "Do you want to pray at 5:00 AM?" and, when the others say no, you could follow it up with "What, you don't want to pray?" Who doesn't want the best for their kids, families, and nations?

With Westboro Baptist, on the other hand, I can't see the appeal. It is a site filled with such hatred and such venom that even though they don't use four-letter words, I still would not be able to read any of it to my students. Plus, they have a lovely game where you have to keep the kids (represented by a baby bottle) away from the sodomites (represented by a pink swastika). And, it's nice to see that they've broadened their domain names beyond the traditional "God hates fags/america/sweden/canada/everyone else" .... there are now some new improved domains like "Priests Rape Boys" and "Your Pastor Is A Whore" and "God Is The Terrorist."

Ahhh ..... what a way to spread the good news.

Of course, as I Devil's Advocately pointed out a while back .... how does my passing judgment balance out their passing judgment? And how does this fit with the idea that we are to be a prophetic voice to the world, proclaiming the wrongs that we see? {Other related posts of mine about that are here, here, here, and here.}

I guess part of the "proclaiming the wrongs" comes from how we proclaim it. Are we doing it out of love and concern for our neighbor, or out of an "I'm better than you" mentality? In my Brokeback Mountain post, I had something I snipped from a Focus on the Family editor, where he's commenting that a victory won gloatingly is not a victory in Christ.

In looking for Fred Phelps' site (without wanting to use one of the more pointed URLs), I made the mistake of trying fredphelps{dot}com. That took me instead to "Fred Phelps Hater Blog." And, while I am no fan of Fred Phelps .... neither am I a fan of the Fred Phelps Hater Blog. It's no more Christian to be calling him a "bigoted southern cracker" and a "publicity whore" that "spawn[s] offspring." Don't they realize they're doing the exact same thing they're complaining about?

Hatred is NOT the answer, people. Even if you think you're on the "right" side. After all, isn't everyone? I can't imagine there are too many people out there who feel that they themselves are truly promoting the "wrong" agenda. As the seven-year-old daughter of a friend of mine asked when her mom was trying to explain what had happened on 9/11, "But, if they thought they were doing what God wanted them to do, then how can that be wrong?"

Hatred will only breed more hatred.

When will we learn?

Let us not become the evil we deplore.

The site that I still absolutely love .... the one I discovered last fall with my Phelps posts ... comes from the website godhatesfredphelps{dot}com.... and I love the message it displays:

God Hates Fred Phelps

...well, not really. In fact, we don't even hate Fred Phelps, and we certainly don't presume to speak for God at all.

What we do know is that we are gay, straight, bi, Latino, Southern, Asian-Americans, of German ancestry, Boston Irish, forty something, twenty something, Catholic, Atheist, Jewish, heavyset, athletic, legally blind, hearing-impaired, tall, short, masculine, gender-neutral, feminine, transgender, polyamorous, monogamous, married, single, parents, children, professionals, students, singers, dancers, web designers, janitors, teachers, artists, aspiring rock stars, taxpayers, sisters, brothers, neighbors, friends, and lovers, who won't stand for intolerance, hatred, and violence against the people we love.

And I haven't even mentioned all the hatred among nations ....

Will we ever get it?