When Fred Phelps preaches "God Hates Fags," he's got a point. Phelps' legitimate point is missed by the Southern Baptists who condemn Phelps and the conservative religionists who frequent the comment boxes on GetReligion. It's also missed when gays do the usual round of ignoring Phelps as a wacko nutjob, or seeing him as typical of many right-wing religionists. He's far from typical, and it's because he's got a point.
That point is that if you take the Bible literally, there's a lot of hate it in. And there's a lot of teaching of hate against homosexuals. And yes, there are even passages that suggest that God will smite people that he hates. A Westboro Baptist Church spokesperson quoted the scripture of Malachi 1, "saith the LORD: yet I loved Jacob, and I hated Esau." And then she said, "You are in this life either Jacob or Esau. There is no third category. If you are Esau (and the great mass of mankind is) God hates you and you are going to hell!"
Why is this interesting? Why is it important? Well, for starters, it is just a helluva lot more honest about what the Bible actually says than most Jews and Christians want to admit. God hates, says so in the Bible. He hates and smites his enemies, says so in the Bible. Bashes their babies heads on rocks, too. Demands the death by stoning of men who sleep with men as they do with women. Phelps is, in this really twisted sense of being a Truth Teller, willing to speak a harsh (if very partial) truth that the mainstream religionists and the progressive secularists don't want to hear. Sure there's a lot more in the Bible... a lot of messages that counter the hate... a vision of a God of Love... a vision of an accepting, affirming deity... but those images and ideas about God are just part of the Bible, not the whole text.
I'm not writing this post because I want to kiss butt with the fundies from Topeka. I think this is an important point to make because so many people today read the Bible selectively without realizing it, then point to Scripture as if it were really the infallible Word of God when it is nothing of the sort. How many mainstream conservatives rely on the Bible as a source of moral authority on issues like homosexuality when they aren't willing to advocate the stoning death of gays? I think they should put their ethics where their Bible is, and advocate what the Bible says. But they don't, and they won't. They lie to themselves about what the Bible says--they lie to themselves about the hate and evil it contains--they lie to themselves about the God they say they believe in--and then they turn on poor Truth Tellers like Fred Phelps and say that he's got the Bible wrong. Phelps doesn't have the Bible all that wrong; he's got a part of the Bible right that they don't want to look at, an ugly and twisted part, because they might have to face their own prejudices and question even the existence of God.
It sickens me, frankly, to see the Southern Baptists and other Christians "distance themselves" from Phelps and his clan without confronting the hate in their own traditions. It's easier for them to recite old canards like hate the sin and lover the sinner rather than deeply question the ugly roots of their religion. The Bible doesn't tell people to hate the sin and love the sinner; the Bible says, in more than one place, as the Westboro Baptists correctly say, that God hates the sinner. God sends most human beings to burn in hell for an eternity, and he probably enjoys watching them suffer (the sick bastard). That's a message that we should hear more of, not less. The more we hear about the obviously demented hate manifesting throughout the Bible, the more we can let go of sick ways of thinking and relating to the Bible as a source of flawless moral wisdom that have infested our culture.
The hate in the Bible in general and the anti-gay hate specifically is not a reflection of any Truth, Beauty, or Goodness anywhere in existence. It is a lie, the voice of human cruelty and evil masquerading as the voice of God. It is our duty as human beings--and my duty as an integral Christian--to wrestle with our sacred texts and to separate the voice of human hate from the voice of a God worth believing in.
Cross-posted to Rising Up
Very good points. Thanks for articulating it so clearly.
Also, um...I think I have your old blog address. Super weird!
Posted by: Christine | October 28, 2005 at 11:52 PM
To clarify, I don't agree with all of what you say about the Bible or God, but I definitely agree with your thoughts about Fred Phelps and folks who say he doesn't represent their God without looking at what their Bible really says (at least in parts).
I'm clarifying because I have a lot of friends whose Christian faith is nothing like that of Fred Phelps or the Southern Baptists you're speaking of. I don't want to see them all painted with the same broad brush.
In fact, many of my good friends consider themselves to be both gay and evangelical Christians...
Posted by: Christine | October 29, 2005 at 12:02 AM
Great stuff.
I have to say that I'm not "sickened" by the SBA distancing themselves from Phelps. I am perplexed, but also relieved. After all, maybe it will progress to them recognising aspects of what you've written here.
Truth be told, I prefer their hypocrisy to Phelps' truth-telling!
Posted by: graham | October 29, 2005 at 05:11 AM
There is a lot of hate in the Bible. But to focus on it ignores the fundamental messages of the Bible. The Hebrew Bible/Old Testament contains many messages of God smiting and hating the enemies of his chosen people. This is part of the special call that the Bible shows that the ancient Hebrews had. They were tasked to create a just society. When they were succeeding, they prospered, and when they were falling short, they suffered. Its a message of soceital justice and not ignoring the oppressed. Compare the Law of the ancient Hebrews to laws from the time period in the ancient Near East. They're very similar, but the Hebrew equivalents do provide more protection for the accused, for the weak, and for those likely to be taken advantage of.
As for God hating gays in the Bible, I can hardly let that pass without mentioning that the Bible does not have to be read in an anti-gay way. When the intricacies of the cultural setting of the Bible, plus translation issues, are brought forth, its hard to see the Bible as anti-gay. Rather, one sees latent Victorian morals projecting themselves into how we translate and read the Bible. For more on this, check out http://www.soulforce.org/article/685
Posted by: JOhn G | October 30, 2005 at 08:48 AM
Actually, Joe, you contradict yourself, much as the Bible does, if taken literally. Your rationalist assessment of the Bible's "hate" passages are merely the flipside of the coin of Biblical Fundamentlaism, and you have proven that in spades. No sacrd lore in the world is meant to be taken literally, and that is really the point. The intellectual dishonesty involved with Evangelicals who try to use the Bible as a weapon to condemn homosexuality, yet say Phelps goes too far, is a delusion of wanting to have it both ways -- read the Bible literally in some areas and not in others; proof-texting. Either the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures are meant to be symbols and stories to reveal a complete narrative and deeper truths, or they are meant to be taken word-for-word in a prima facie way. Those of us in the "high" Churches or the gay-outreach denominations who reject the fundamentalist reading of Scripture, or the intellectual dishonesty of some Evangelicals, are not being less truthful and honest than Phelps. We are saying that he is not seeing the forest for the trees, and neither are you.
Posted by: Luke Adams | October 31, 2005 at 02:38 PM
Your thoughts are ridiculous! God doesn't hat anybody. If you knew anything about a religion, then you would at least know that!!!
Posted by: You Suck | November 20, 2005 at 03:21 PM
John G: "When the intricacies of the cultural setting of the Bible, plus translation issues, are brought forth, its hard to see the Bible as anti-gay." I'm glad you provided a link to a Soulforce article. I think that's a valuable additional perspective. And I also think that it's a limited perspective, a sort of whitewashing of the ugliness in the Bible to suit modern political agendas. I would much rather have a Bible that is ugly and whole, warts and all, rather than a "God is all Love and Light and bunny rabbits" sort of Bible that could have been produced by the Disney corporation.
Luke Adams: I didn't offer a "rationalist's" assessment of the hate passages in the Bible. Maybe a realist's, though. I do not get how that makes me inconsistent, though it may possibly make you incoherent. You apparently prefer some sort of nominalism (the Bible means absolutely nothing intrinsically apart from what Authority X tells me it does). Do you really believe that no homosexually-oriented persons were stoned to death in ancient Israel... that the death penalty for sodomites was never used... or that such practices were not evil... or do you believe they are only stories and myth, and not to be taken literally? I have no problem with your belonging to a "high Church" that in its wisdom has decided to ignore some Bible passages about hate and believe others.
You Suck: Oh yeah! Oh yeah! Well your mama sucks too. LOL.
Posted by: Joe Perez | November 20, 2005 at 04:24 PM
Hello all I have some great news for all gay and everyone who wants to learn the truth! http://www.truluck.com is a great example, explaining how it dosen't even say in the bible that it's against christianity to be gay as most may think. That's just one website about it, which explains in thorough detail about it, and was written by a preacher. :) Blessings to you all
Posted by: Robert | January 18, 2006 at 06:43 PM
The true Christian message is "hate the sin, love the sinner". Fred Phelps characterizes Christian denominations which adopt this mantra as "fag churches". The SBC is right to distance themselves, because his doctrine is at variance with the Christian position (espoused by Jesus Himself) that the only sin which cannot be forgive is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. Disagree with the Christian position that homsexuality is a sin all you want, but it's irrelevant to Fred because he declares it a sin which can't be forgiven, which is biblical hooey.
Posted by: Stewart | December 21, 2006 at 09:05 AM
Thanks Steart for the True Christian Message Announced by Jesus Himself
Posted by: joe perez | December 21, 2006 at 11:21 AM