A Bible-based perspective on Fred Phelps

It’s come to my attention that Fred Phelps and his so called ‘Church’ intend to picket Heath Ledger’s funeral. Not because he was gay, but because as an actor he played a gay man once. Where will these people end?

Well I don’t want to speculate on that. But it’s also come to my attention that some people think that Phelps and his ilk speak for all Christians; that they are more Christian than we wishy-washy liberals – that they represent what Christianity is all about.

I thought about how to argue against this perception, and realized that my words don’t amount to much. So here are some Bible verses which sum up my view on the subject as a born again Christian. Because the words are straight out of the Bible, I hope it will be hard for anyone to look at me afterwards and say ‘but that’s not what Christianity is about.’ If Phelps can quote the Bible, so can I 🙂

Proverbs 16:7

“When a man’s ways are pleasing to the Lord, he makes even his enemies live at peace with him.”

Mark 12:28-31

“One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, ‘Of all the commandments, which is the most important?’

‘The most important one,’ answered Jesus, ‘is this:Hear o Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your mind and with all your soul and with all your strength. The second is this: love your neighbour as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.'”

Galatians 5:19-26

The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissentions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.”

1 John 9-11

Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness. Whoever loves his brother lives in the light and there is nothing in him to make him stumble. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded him.

Matthew 7 1-5

Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way as you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

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How this adds up to the obligation to launch hate campaigns against anyone, I don’t know. But to Phelps all I can say is ‘as you sow, so shall you reap.’