500 Words on the Westboro Baptist Church

The United States Supreme Court has agreed to hear arguments in a case against Rev. Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church. Phelps, of “God Hates Fags” fame, tours the country protesting at funerals (American service members and victims of hate crimes) , media events (the Oscars and the opening of a Chick-Fil-A), and days ending in “y”. Frequently, his church and his family members – mostly one in the same – speak for him.

The case headed to the Supreme Court is a “First Amendment” case based on the Maryland verdict against the church that was later reversed by the Court of Appeals. A Maryland jury awarded the family of a soldier killed in Iraq $10 million after the “Poster Patrol” of Rev. Phelps picketed outside of the funeral.

For more than 20 years, the Westboro Baptist Church has been a visible presence proclaiming God’s wrath against America because of its “wholehearted” acceptance of homosexuality. Phelps started showing up to the funerals of those who died of AIDS, declaring God’s harshest verdict for homosexuality. Wherever violence against gay men and women resulted in death, you could be sure that Phelps or his church would show up. After September 11^th, the Westboro Baptist Church turned some of their hatred towards America at large. They argue that God is punishing this country and its honorable service members because of our permissive culture. He’s sees Pat Robertson’s crazy and raises! But did you know this about the Westboro Baptist Church:

Fred Phelps rose out of the Civil Rights Movement? Before being disbarred in 1979, Fred Phelps was a prominent and successful Civil Rights attorney. He claims to have brought down Jim Crow in Kansas and that his outspoken defense of racial minorities earned him a lot of enemies in Topeka. In the 80s, Phelps was honored by the local NAACP. Before a voluntary disbarment from Federal courts in 1989, he even sued President Reagan claiming that sending a United States ambassador to the Vatican was a violation of the constitutional separation of church and state.

At least 11 of Phelps’ adult children are lawyers still running his old firm? Since most of Westboro’s “followers” are Phelps family members living in a compound in Topeka, the majority of the church’s funds come from nuisance lawsuits filed by the Phelps’.

As much fun as it is to make fun of fundie, oppressive religion, it’s important to note that the Westboro Baptist Church is not affiliated with any Baptist convention or association and many Baptist leaders have aggressively disassociated themselves with Westboro. It’s not much of a church since both the Anti-Defamation League and Southern Poverty Law Center have declared it a hate group.

England said “go home”? In 2009, the British government officially banned Fred Phelps and his daughter/spokeswoman Shirley Phelps Roper from Great Britain. The government position was endorsed by several conservative Christian groups in the country.

Say what? As recently as 1998, Phelps has run for Governor of Kansas… in the Democratic Party primary.

500 Words on the NFL News II

It’s Wednesday, which means football! I’ve suffered through NFL.com’s screen to screen coverage of the 2010 Scouting Combine, at which apparently nothing happened. I can’t stand media-gadfly Tim Tebow and the combine seemed to be the Tebow Show. What’s a fan to do …when he doesn’t have cable during the Olympics and can’t stand ice dancing anyway? And, yes Chelsea Handler, ice dancing is gay!

We don’t need your stickin’ cap! The NFL is in its last year of its labor agreement and like all labor agreements, negotiations aren’t going well. The fun part of the union-management debate is that if a deal isn’t struck by Friday there will be no salary cap. That’s good news for fans of Drew Brees (yay!) and Peyton Manning that want to see their high-paid superstars stick around without taking up too much room. With no cap, expensive players like Reggie Bush get to stay, too, while the team still develops younger players. The downside is the financial pressure other teams will face trying to compete. Normally, the Saints – a small market team – would not benefit from a lifted cap. Thank God (again!) for that Super Bowl ring!

Fun little side trivia: According to the league, and disputed by the players association, 75% of all NFL revenue goes to the players.

Know when to hold ‘em. Every Saints fan wants to know: will Darren Sharper be in black and gold come fall? The 34 year-old Sharper came to the Saints last year and had a stellar season while the Saints did too. But in the NFL, he’s older and this year a free agent. While the uncapped season bodes well for moneyed teams, it puts the pressure on the Saints. In a list of the top 50 free agents, Sharper is number 6. New Orleans front-office could’ve used their tag to hold on to him for 2010 but chose not to. This week we should find out how negotiations play out with Sharper. I’m also holding out for sentimental favorite Scott Fujita, a great linebacker, smarty-pants with a Masters, and outspoken supporter of gay rights. Fingers crossed!

For he’s a Jolly Good Fellow! March is when the retirements should flow, too. We know Kurt Warner is passing the reigns to Matt Leinart. He’s the only one we know about. Everyone likes to speculate about Favre, but he’s teased us before. Who will free up some room for all those young players boring the pants off me at the Combine?

He shoots, he scores! As a rule of thumb, I’ve avoided sports where that phrase is used. Frankly, I don’t have the attention span (or the bladder) for sports where points can come out of nowhere. But this off-season, I’m auditioning replacements sports. Hockey had a good shot this past weekend, but a Gold-Medal Olympic game against Canada might have been a stacked deck. I’m open to suggestions and invitations.

There’s only 190 days until the season opener in the Louisiana Superdome. Are you ready?

500 Words on How to Kill the Gays

I've held back my comments on Uganda's "Kill the Gays" bill for some time. The following 500 words explain why, and my frustration dealing with this important issue.

If your country wants to make homosexuality punishable death, there’s an easy way to avoid public scrutiny: convert to Islam.

The liberal media – to which I hope I belong – have been making a lot of noise over the past few months about a new law proposed in Uganda. The proposed law would make homosexuality and homosexual acts punishable by death. Under the proposal friends, family and others who know a homosexual can face jail time as well. There’s been talk of muting the proposed law a little by replacing death with life imprisonment, although I can’t imagine that’s much better in a Ugandan jail.

The proposed law in Uganda is outrageous, but it’s not novel. In fact, I’ve overused “proposed” so that you realize that this is not yet the law of Uganda. Meanwhile, 7 countries have already prescribed death for homosexuals: Iran, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Sudan, Mauritania, and regions of Somalia and Nigeria. (In Nigeria, the northern Muslim region treats homosexuality as punishable by death, while the southern, Christian-majority region only calls for life imprisonment.)

While the criminalization of gays and lesbians is obscene, the pass that the Muslim world has gotten in this debate is as offensive. According to ILGA, a worldwide network of more than 700 GLBT organizations, you will find 72 countries that call for serious imprisonment (more than 10 years) of homosexuals. The list sweeps through the developing world and are made up of Christian, Muslim, Hindu (yes, India is still on the list!), and tribal countries. But of all the countries surveyed for their report – more than 150 – only 7 allow for executions and all 7 are Muslim.

What makes Uganda different?

More than 80% of Uganda is Christian, with nearly half of all Christians subscribing to the Roman Catholic Church. Some think they’ve found ties to Christian Fundamentalist networks in the United States and the main sponsor of the “Kill the Gays” bill, David Bahati. I’ve read that the motivation for the proposed law is the rising prominence of gays throughout Africa and a fear – a phobia, of sorts – of a rising gay subculture. There is no doubt that gays are gaining more visibility on the continent, which has some of the most oppressive anti-gay laws already on the books. I imagine that would strike fear in the hearts of fundamentalist of any ilk.

But as the Uganda story gets more and more ink, I am frustrated in chats with like-minded liberal friends who seem ignorant to the laws already in the books in the Muslim world. I’m sure I’ll be called anti-Muslim by some, but I think the only explanation of the intense focus on Uganda is a lovely mix of anti-semitic/pro-Islam bias and true racism. In my experience, because of the perceived bias and oppression of Palestinians by the Israelis, the rest of the Muslim world often gets a “Treat Women and Minorities like Crap” Card.

Yes, this law in Uganda should be stopped. But don’t think the oppression will cease.