Friday, March 21, 2014

Fred Phelps

Fred Phelps was a terrorist.  He targeted innocent people and didn’t care who he inflicted harm upon.  The fact that he based his actions on religion neither mitigates nor magnifies it; whatever message he had was lost in the delivery.

As a Quaker I’m lead to believe that every life has worth.  In the case of Fred Phelps, his life was a cautionary tale that hatred can consume and torture the one who generates it as well as the intended target.  Since I don’t believe in a heaven or a hell, I can only hope that when the Light went out in his life, it moved on to someone who can use it for good, for love, and for caring.

4 barks and woofs on “Fred Phelps

  1. I’ve often wondered what a psychological evaluation of him would have revealed. He certainly gave many clues as to how mentally tortured he was. Hopefully, the family will cease and desist spreading the craziness.

  2. I read somewhere that his daughter is just as nuts as he was, so they may not be going away. Plus I believe they kept their hate going by the law suits they could file when decent people tried to stop their manure.

  3. Bobby, you exercised considerably more restraint than I did. When I heard of Phelps’s death, I quite literally said, before I even thought about it, “May he rot in hell.”

    Like you, I don’t believe in an afterlife, so it was only an expression. But if I were a believer, I’m not sure my first thoughts would have been any different. Phelps’s notion of “referred hatred” was about as disgusting as I can imagine… hate me if you want, but don’t ruin someone else’s funeral for your hatred of me. All philosophical mitigation aside, the world lost very little of any worth when Phelps passed.

Comments are closed.