Being the Christian sabbath, it's not inappropriate to relay words of inspiration. The first entry this Sunday is the op-ed in the Alaska newspaper Frontiersman by none other than Sarah Palin's minister Ron Hammon, pastor for the Independent Baptist Church of Wasilla. The reverend argues in two-pages of rather dubious theology that the Anti-Christ will be a homosexual. I was taught at divinity school the anti-Christ was Nero--but that would spoil all the fun. The op-ed produced 80 pages of e-mail comments (I know because I couldn't stop the printer). Many noted with glee the op-ed was printed alongside an ad for a gay-dating service; others like the Rastafarian argued that God had more problems to worry about than homosexual acts; and representatives from Alaska's Russian Orthodox Community weighed in with the point that nothing in the cornerstone of Christian faith mentions homosexuality. Others claimed that Sodom was destroyed by methane gas fires near a lake. A gay soldier asked "Why should I defend your ass when you're as bad as the Taliban?" The hundreds of posted commentaries were a wonderful testimony to people's basic decency, common sense and good humor.
Today, Dr. George Tiller, a Wichita doctor who was one of the few doctors in the nation to perform late-term abortions, was assassinated at his church, the Reformed Lutheran Church The church building itself he helped to finance and build. He had long been a lightening rod for anti-abortion activists. They regularly protested outside his clinic and his church. His clinic was bombed in 1986; he was shot in both arms in 1993 and last month his clinic was sabotaged again by the right-wing Army of God. He was subject to many citizen initiatives to prosecute him. In March, he was acquitted on all charges that he performed late-term abortions that violated state law. Anti-abortionists tried to hold up the appointment of Kansas governor Kathleen Sibelius to be the Secretary of Health and Human Services because of her attendance at a fund-raiser where Tiller was present (I don't know whether he organized it.) Operation Rescue and other anti-abortion groups were very fast off the dime to denounce the shooter but bloggers on the Free Republic wholeheartedly approved the "vigilante justice". The assassin is very likely a anti-abortion activist, whose capture will focus attention once again on domestic terrorism.
Also, out of Kansas, is Fred Phelps of the ersatz Westboro Baptist Church, which is not affiliated with any Baptist churches and is predominantly made up of family members. The Westboro Baptist Church has been notorious for picketing funerals of casualties from tragic accidents like the February Buffalo plane crash, saying the deaths are a sign of a just God. They demonstrated at President Obama's inauguration carrying signs calling him "the anti-Christ". (I guess that didn't clear this with Rev. Hamman.) Phelps and his family have been sued for flag desecration and protests against the funerals of slain soldiers where they held signs "Thank God for Dead Soldiers" and "Thank God for IEDs", while members yelled epithets at grieving families.
They have a particular thing about gays. They showed up at Matthew Shepard's funeral with signs saying "No Fags in heaven" and "God hates Fags". The Church claims to have staged over 22,000 such protests around the country since 1991. They were banned as a hate group by the United Kingdom because they were traveling to England to protest the staging of a play about the killing of Matthew Shepard.
Now they have moved on toward protests against Jews and synagogues, saying Jews and particularly rabbis enable gays. They picketed the Israeli consulate in Boston in March 2009, protesting Israel's tolerance of gays. While the group has made anti-semitic remarks over the years, it's new focus on anti-semitic actions is enough to have alarmed the Anti-Defamation League. In April they began a campaign against Israeli consulates and organizations and have vowed these will be new targets for the future.
"Bless you, wherever you are"--John Lennon
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