Two Related to Phelps Opt to Quit Westboro

The following article was originally published in the Kansas City Star. On February 8, 2013 it was republished in the Houston Chronicle.

*******************

Two granddaughters of Westboro Baptist Church firebrand Fred Phelps have split with the Topeka, Kan.-based congregation, indicating their views have evolved and they now regret the pain they have caused others. 

Phelps and member of his crazed flock

One of them, 27-year old Megan Phelps-Roper, had been a highly visible member of the church who spoke to media outlets and spread its message via Twitter. 

She and a younger sister, Grace Phelps-Roper, in November left the congregation known for its anti-gay stance and for picketing funerals of fallen soldiers and others. 

"We ripped the BandAid off," Megan wrote in a text Wednesday to the Kansas City Star. 

A statement signed by both sisters and posted on social media Wednesday said the two were trying to figure out their future. 

"We know that we've done and said things that hurt people," the statement said. "Inflicting pain on others wasn't the goal, but it was one of the outcomes. We wish it weren't so and regret that hurt." 

Steve Drain, a spokesman for the church, said in an interview Wednesday that the sisters had rejected the Lord. 

"Those two girls were kind of straddling the idea that they wanted to be of the world but that they would also miss their family, the only thing they ever knew," Drain said. "If they continue with the position that they have, those two girls, yeah, they're going to hell." 

Megan and Grace are among 11 children of Brent and Shirley Roper, who is the daughter of Westboro pastor Fred Phelps. 

Libby Phelps Alvarez, who left Westboro in 2009 after becoming disenchanted with some of its radical beliefs, told the Star on Wednesday that Megan and Grace had been staying at the Lawrence, Kan., home she shares with her husband.

*********************

In a recent blog I stated that while I have always known homosexuality would one day be recognized for what it is, a normal variation of human sexual behavior, even I have been very much surprised at the rate in which change is occurring. In todays Houston Chronicle, there appeared an article noting that the Illinois Senate had passed a bill to allow same sex marriage in Illinois. The bill now proceeds to the Illinois House where it is expected to pass in the chamber controlled by Democrats. Illinois will become the 10th state in which same sex marriage is now guaranteed by law. If my math is right, that means that a full 20% of the 50 states now support same sex marriages or civil unions. That is significant change from just a lustrum ago.

The article reprinted above is also significant for the change in people's hearts and minds concerning homosexuality and same sex marriage. It is easy to read the article and miss the full weight of its importance, especially if one is only tangentially aware of "the reverend" Fred Phelps and his family based cult, Westboro Baptist Church. Megan and Grace are individuals who have been brainwashed to hate homosexuals (and most of the rest of the people of the world) since the day they were born. Their whole lives have have been marked by emotional abuse and threats of eternal Hell should they disobey the rules their grandfather lays down in the name of God. Anyone who has had the experience of going against the will of his or her parents knows what a significant step that is in one's life. Suppose you had been taught all your life that your grandfather spoke for God and to disobey him meant you would live out eternity in a lake of fire!

Phelps is one of the preachers I've talked about before who has no formal education in theology. He simply self-appointed himself as the one true spokesman for God and formed a church to prey on the spiritually ignorant and the emotionally and mentally unstable. While the church attracts a few outsiders, it remains mostly an institution of Phelps' extended family.

To me the fact that Megan and Grace found the courage to leave not only their church, but their family, and in their family's eyes, God Himself, is a very good indicator of the magnitude of change in attitude that is sweeping the country concerning gay men and women.

Megan and Grace have the benefit of being taken in by Libby Phelps Alvarez who left the church in 2009. Mrs. Alvarez seems to have come a long way in shaking off the life-long abuse she endured at the hands of the family, though I'm sure her demons will continue to plague her to some extent. She appeared on the Anderson Cooper show on February 13, 2013 with the family of Sterling Wyatt who died in July, 2012 in Kandahar. Undoubtedly, it took a great deal of courage for Alvarez to come face to face with the Wyatt family, but she did it with grace and obvious contrition. Mrs. Wyatt was gracious to Alvarez though some papers reported otherwise. The video of the Anderson Cooper Show clearly shows Mrs. Wyatt commending Alvarez for her courage in leaving the church. That Alvarez was able to carry this meeting off is a big indication that she is progressing in shaking off the years of brainwashing. Hopefully, she can help Megan and Grace to do the same.

A clip from the Anderson Cooper Show and the meeting of Libby Phelps Alvarez and the Wyatt family was recently posted on the internet. You may see the clip by clicking on the URL at the beginning of this paragraph.

It has been said with friends like his, God doesn't need enemies. I think Westboro Baptist Church and the Fred Phelps family prove this point completely. As a person of faith, I am pleased to see the empire of Fred Phelps begin to crack and move nearer to its ultimate fall. But also as a person of faith, I continue to regret that Phelps and other less malicious though just as spiritually misinformed Christians continue to do great damage to the universal Christian church by being judgmental, unforgiving, self-righteous and narrow minded. Too many Christians see themselves as Saints. None of them are. They are all sinners just like everyone else in the world. As Christians, they are supposed to differ from the other people in the world in recognizing that no one can earn salvation; and therefore, earning it is not required. It is a gift freely given for all people. It is a gift which springs from the love of God for all creation. But like Phelps, too many Christians spend more time preaching and professing hate and rejection of others than they do preaching and professing love and acceptance. In doing so they are destroying the church.

To me, that is regrettable. Many non-believers see religion as a crutch for those who cannot accept that we are alone in the universe and there is no God to help us. Perhaps that is true. Perhaps not. Either way the observation is a matter of faith. It cannot be proven either way. Even as a person of faith, I often have my own doubts about the existence of God. If he does exist, he is nothing like the average Christian perceives him to be; and the Kingdom of God is as mistakenly perceived today as it was by the Jews over 2000 years ago.

But to me, it seems mankind does better when he believes in something bigger than himself. Much of the deterioration of society that we are all witnessing today is the result of too many people who do not believe in anything or anyone that is bigger and more important than themselves. Such viewpoints are destroying law and order, honesty and integrity, as well as religion. That is a shame. It is also very dangerous for all of us. As society deteriorates, as each of us begin to see our wants and our wishes as supreme over everyone else's wants, wishes, hopes and dreams of the future, incidents like that at Sandy Nook School and other barbarous crimes against even the most innocent among us begin to proliferate.

Certainly, one does not have to be a Christian to see the Ten Commandments as applying to all mankind, not just Christians. But as Christianity comes to be seen as a foolish anachronism supported only by small minded zealots, everything that is derived from it begins to be seen the same way including our civil laws which are based in large part on Judio-Christian values.

Currently, there are large and growing segments of our society that value nothing beyond their own pleasure and their own wants. If society is to continue to endure, that must change. People like Megan and Grace, who are still willing to risk everything they have ever known, give me hope.

Jack Scott

Evangelicals Try New Tack Towards Gays

The following article appeared in the February 3, 2013 issue of the Houston Chronicle. I have been contending for years that Evangelical and Fundamental Christians are, in effect, committing suicide by refusing to understand their short sighted approach to Christianity is driving people away from the church at large rather than drawing them too it.

In this case, I don't really take any pleasure in saying, "I told you so," but it is always encouraging to have one's insights validated by others.

Frankly, I have known for some time that the status of gay people was going to change in the United States. What I initially failed to understand was just how quickly this change was going to take hold. I came to understand it when a Christian friend told me of her experience with her favorite grandson. The two had always been very close. She loved all of her grandchildren, but there was no doubt this child was her favorite. He was smart, handsome and gifted. When he came out to his family as gay, there was shock and dismay. But his grandmother, a devoted Christian, was also smart and capable of critical thinking too. Because of her love for this young man, she quickly came to the rationalization that nothing had changed except that she now knew about his homosexuality which had always been a part of him for as long as she had loved him. She refused to let her knowledge of the truth destroy the love she had for him or the way she treated him.

As the number of gay men and women coming out of the closet reached critical mass, there is no extended family in the United States that his not been affected. Most have ultimately reacted just as my friend did and come to acceptance and support of their young family member.

Our institutions, including our churches have faced the same decisions. Evangelical and Fundamental Churches faced with a growing number of their own young members coming out have had to face the fact that homosexuality has nothing to do with how one is raised or whether or not one is a Christian. Instead it is a much more complex and convoluted thing. Evangelicals and Fundamentalists are not noted for their reasoning ability or they wouldn't be Evangelicals and Fundamentalists but even with their limited willingness to reason, when faced with a growing issue from within their own ranks, they have reluctantly begun to realize that the issue must be addressed in new ways. That is what the following article is about.

I hope you read it with a new sense of optimism and hope for the future.

******************

ASSOCIATED PRESS
NASHVILLE, TENN. The Rev. Robert Jeffress has changed the way he talks about homosexuality from the pulpit.

The pastor of the 11,000-member First Baptist Dallas hasn't stopped preaching that homosexual sex is sinful, but he no longer singles it out for special condemnation. Now, Jeffress says he usually talks about homosexuality within "a bigger context of God's plan for sex between one man and one woman in a lifetime relationship called marriage."

"It would be the height of hypocrisy to condemn homosexuality and not adultery or unbiblica1 divorce," he said, explaining that the Bible-allows divorce only in cases of adultery or desertion. He also includes premarital sex on that list.

A new generation
The pressure to change the way homosexuality is addressed in evangelical churches is increasing as mainstream support for gay and lesbian issues increases. This support is especially strong among young adults, and researchers say they don't expect this group to become mote conservative on the issue as they age.

In a 2011 survey by the nonprofit Public Religion Research Institute, 62 percent of adults between 18 and 29 years old said they supported gay marriage and 71percent supported civil unions. Among adults 65 and older, those numbers were 31 percent in favor of marriage and 51 percent for civil unions.

Asked about the idea that "religious groups are alienating young people by being too judgmental about gay and lesbian issues, 69 percent of the younger group agreed.

Another-recent poll 'by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life found that nearly 20 percent of adult Americans now describe themselves as unaffiliated with any specific religion, and the problem for evangelical churches is apparent.

"Evangelicals have been sobered by studies that show people are dropping out of church in droves," said Bill Leonard, dean of Wake Forest University Divinity School; That has affected how they relate to marginalized people, including gays and lesbians,

"I'm amazed at the changes, the softening of the rhetoric to be more compassionate," Leonard said. "There's a realization that the idea of 'love the sinner, hate the sin' comes across as pretty cold."

Demographics isn't the only force driving changes in the evangelical response to gays' and lesbians. As it becomes safer for gays and lesbians to come out of the closet, it becomes increasingly more likely that evangelicals know gays and lesbians personally, researchers say.'

Meeting in the middle
"Over the last five to 10 years, evangelicals have been faced with the issue even more poignantly as their sons and daughters come out of the closet," Leonard said. " ... It has become more difficult to dismiss 'those people.'''

Justin Lee, founder of the Gay Christian Network, is one of those Children.

Like most evangelicals, Lee grew up believing the Bible was to be taken at face value but, in wrestling with the realization that he was gay, found a more nuanced way to read Scripture. Now, he works to foster understanding of gays within evangelical institutions.

"I do hear from church leaders and pastors, who say, 'I already know where I stand, but how can I be more loving and gracious to the gay community without compromising my convictions?'" Lee said. "There are a lot of things I say, but chief among them is that the the more you listen to the people and ask about their lives and stories, the more you are able to show grace and love, even if you don’t agree."

Jeffress, who has gay and lesbian members in his church tries to be compassionate. He said he is open to the possibility that sexual orientation has a genetic basis that cannot be cured or prayed away.

"I think we were too quick to dismiss the possibility of a genetic predisposition," Jeffress said.

But that hasn't altered his belief the Bible teaches that acting on homosexual desire is sinful, and he feels it is his responsibility to talk about it with his congregation.

************

As one Christian to another, I have a suggestion for Jeffress and other Evangelicals about how they can be more understanding of and compassionate to gay people. All they need to do is read their own Bibles and apply fully what they read there.

A good place to start is Romans 8:31-37

31 ...If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 Certainly not God, who did not even keep back his own Son, but offered him for us all! He gave us his Son — will he not also freely give us all things? 33 Who will accuse God's chosen people? God himself declares them not guilty! 34 Who, then, will condemn them? Not Christ Jesus, who died, or rather, who was raised to life and is at the right-hand side of God, pleading with him for us! 35 Who, then, can separate us from the love of Christ? Can trouble do it, or hardship or persecution or hunger or poverty or danger or death? 36 As the scripture says, “For your sake we are in danger of death at all times; we are treated like sheep that are going to be slaughtered.”
37 No, in all these things we have complete victory through him who loved us! 38 For I am certain that nothing can separate us from his love: neither death nor life, neither angels nor other heavenly rulers or powers, neither the present nor the future, 39 neither the world above nor the world below — there is nothing in all creation that will ever be able to separate us from the love of God which is ours through Christ Jesus our Lord.

*****************

The Bible is not easy to read and harder still to understand, but there are places where the nature of God is imparted in a straight forward and unambiguous way. The verses from Romans above are one of those places. My contention has always been that if one knows and understand nothing about the Bible other than this one set of verses, he knows enough.

The verses are about the amazing power of God's grace and love for us. A love so strong that nothing can defeat it or change it. Unfortunately, Evangelicals and Fundamentalists spend most of their time attaching conditions to God's grace, a sort of "grace, but……." message. Reread the verses above. There are no conditions and no buts. All Mr. Jeffress and others have to do to treat homosexuals and all others who supposedly offend God with compassion and understanding is to treat them as people loved and valued by God.


Jack Scott