Why The Religious Right Can’t Afford Not to Hate

In order to understand the coattail followers of Jerry Fawell including the American Family Association, Westboro (Fred Phelps), et. Al., and why they so vehemently hate and oppose the GLBT community, you first have to understand why Jerry Fawell was so anti-gay.

There was and is big money in being anti-gay. Jerry Fawell got his start as an Evangelical back when the South, including Fawell’s town of Lynchburg, VA (just look at the name) was still divided by legal segregation. He started his bible beating days preaching about how God did not want white and black people to cohabitate. This man used the bible to preach why our nation should stay segregated. He was using the bible to spread his brand of bigotry and hate. Being in the South, he gained recognition and of course wealth with his campaign against the government and desegregation.

When the civil rights movement finally began to see fruition, and racism was no longer spoken about so freely. After black people were given the right to attend schools, public restaurants and actually given the opportunity to exercise their right to vote, the money Jerry Fawell was receiving started to drop off. Racism was still alive and well in the South, but it was no longer good to publicly admit racism, so Jerry Fawell needed another way to get the financial support he wasn’t receiving based on racial bias.

This is about the same time the gay rights movement was building up steam…..and there it was, a sign from God. This is how Jerry Fawell would bring in millions upon millions of dollars, from those same bigots who were no longer visibly able to be racist. Jerry Fawell sent out tens of thousands of letters pleading with people to send money to help him rid the world of the abominable sin of homosexuality. He scared people into believing there was a “Gay Agenda” which included recruitment of all the little Johnnies and Susies in the world. He preyed upon the uneducated and the really uneducated that literally “bought in” to his way of thinking. Jerry Fawell built an evangelical empire from fear and hate.

This is another reason why the GLBT community cannot rest on its laurels. We need to be as proactive as possible, in an effort to stop being solely on the defensive and always reactive. Let’s stand together, and make the world better, one person at a time.

God Hates Fags and John Edwards Too

The Westboro Baptist Church, the anti-gay Christian organization run by the not so mentally stable Fred Phelps, has announced that John Edwards is “cursed” by God.

The former North Carolina Senator has been part of the campaign to end the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy regarding LGBT members of the U.S. armed forces.

The WBC claim is that Edwards is a “fag enabler”, who attacked the WBC for “preaching God’s holy truth about fags.” The church also said that Edward’s ex-wife, Elizabeth, recently diagnosed with terminal breast cancer, is a “fornicator-enabler”, due to her work as a lawyer, and a “blasphemer”.

The WBC’s cult members regularly picket the funerals of U.S. soldiers, asserting they died as punishment from God for allowing the existence of gays and lesbians in America.

The church has vowed to use the Edwards’ lives as an example of the beliefs of the WBC, saying of them: “You will stand alone - naked and alone - for your Final Judgment, before that holy God in whose face you regularly spit. “Meanwhile, WBC will picket your funerals, which, especially in the case of Elizabeth, if she is telling the truth about her breast cancer, might not be too far off.”

This, all in the name of religion.

Phelps Follower Receives Life for Hate-Crime Murder

A Texas man convicted of killing a male flight attendant was given a life sentence and was also found guilty of a hate crime.

Terry Mark Mangum, 27, of Cypress, killed Kenneth Cummings, 46, because he “hated homosexuals” was the Wednesday verdict delivered by a jury.

Mangum had only been out of prison for three weeks, after serving a 5 year sentence for burglary, when he met Cummings at a Houston bar on June 4, 2007. 

Prosecutors proved on the night they met, Mangum slit Cummings’ throat and stabbed him in the back of the head, breaking 1.5 inches of a knife blade.  Mangum then cleaned up the house and drove Cummings’ body to a ranch about 30 miles south of San Antonio.

The partially burned body was found in a shallow grave in a dried-up stock pond on June 16 of last year. Investigators said Cummings’ credit card, which had been taken along with his wallet and car keys, was used to buy a flashlight, charcoal, gasoline and other items.

Mangum pleaded not guilty due to insanity. One psychologist said he was “a cauldron of hate.” Another said he wanted to “rid the world of a harvest of sin.”  Jeremy Warren, the prosecutor saidm “The sin he focused on was homosexuality.”  Mangum has been associated with the infamous church of Fred Phelps.

It only took the jury a little over an hour to return with a guilty verdict and only 30 minutes to return a life sentence.  They also imposed a $10,000 fine.

The prosecutor said Mangum will be eligible for parole in 30 years.  He also said capital murder charges, which carry the possibility of the death penalty or life without parole, weren’t filed in this case because prosecutors weren’t sure they could prove the killing was part of another crime.