Westboro Baptist & Religion in General

     This morning I was looking at my normal websites to catch up on all the news from overnight.  Something bad happened and I wondered what the Westboro Baptist Church people have been up to in the last week or so. Ever since the shootings in Arizona, it seems like the people from that Church have been in the news, and what seemed like every channel on the tv, more than the people who were actually in the shooting itself. Which is exactly what those people want, all the publicity they can get. The phrase popped in my head "any press is good press", and I'm sure as long as they have a camera around them they are happy.
     They say they are spreading the "word of God" and "doing his work", but I really have to question God's motives here. I don't think that God really wants them to pick on a dead 9 year-old little girl. On their website they have pictures of their pickets that they do at funerals, in Washington D.C., college campuses, and this past week at the Sundance film festival. According to their website, they have done almost 50,000 pickets. FIFTY THOUSAND PICKETS? And to make matters worse, the very large majority of these pickets have been at deceased soldiers funerals. They say that God smited them for fighting for a "fag nation". They hate everyone no matter what race, religion, sexual orientation, everyone must die. It pains me to see people like that in this world that harbor SO much hate for other people just like them.
     There are around 70 or 75 people in this church, that a man named Fred Phelps started. Most every single member of the church is either a direct descendent of him (child or grandchild) or a cousin or nephew or niece. I saw something on their website that really irked me. I saw small children around probably 3 or 4 all the way up to in their teens holding up signs like "God hates fags" and "thank God for dead or crippled soldiers". How do these people sleep at night?
     I wouldn't call myself a Christian or a Muslim or Buddhist, or any kind of spiritual religion follower. I like to think that I have a mind of my own and with that mind I have been given free will. In no way, shape or form am I saying that someone who is a Christian or whatever religion they might be is wrong or stupid in any way. The same way I have free will to not have total faith in something, they have the free will to have that faith. I have VERY VERY dear friends of mine that go to church every chance they get, and I would never think different of them for that fact. Just because we have different views on this world doesn't mean we can't get along like civilized people. In my small, tight knit community I just kinda keep my mouth shut about my views, not because I'm scared of the conversation that would ensue, but because my business that I am in I deal solely on the public and we have very small close minded people around here, that if I said "I don't believe the same you do", I more than likely would lose their business. And if I lose their business, they would more than likely tell everyone they knew about it and I would lose all of their business too, then I don't have a business anymore.
     I'm sorry if I've been jumping around on things, this is my first blog entry. I'll get the hang of it.




Brad Rega