The God of the Bible

One of the things I love most in life is when I get the opportunity to find connections between people -- especially between people who normally don't agree on anything.

Well, here is such an occasion. Bryan at Hot Air has video of Fred Phelps' hate group being chased away from the funeral of an American soldier who died in Iraq; and of Shirley Phelps and her two daughters being interviewed by Tyra Banks.

These videos (especially the one of Tyra Banks interviewing the Phelps) must be seen to be believed. But what I especially want to point out is Bryan's response to the Phelps' twisting of religion to fit their ideology of hate:

Rather than just perfunctorily denounce these lunatics, I suggest you watch this video of Phelps' wife explaining why they behave the way they do. She's clearly a bitter woman who can get fired up on rage at the drop of a hat. Something about her ain't right.

Once you've watched this video, note that Mrs. Phelps in every case blames the tragedy of early death, be it for a child killed in an accident or a soldier who laid down his life protecting his family and country in war, Phelps blames the tragedy on the parents. They must have sinned somehow, resulting in the death of their child, according to the Phelps worldview.

Theologically, her stance is entirely unsound and entirely unsupported by scripture. In fact, it's refuted by the Bible she claims to know so well. The best refutation of her stand is the entire Book of Job, which deals with the very issue of why bad things happen to people who have done no wrong. In the book, Job suffers calamity after calamity including the loss of his children, and Job's three friends try out variations on the theme that Phelps uses in the second video to explain the tragedies besetting him. God explicitly rejects what Job's friends, and by principle the Phelps crowd, say on the subject.

I don't know who these Phelps creeps represent, but it's not the God of the Bible. Not by a long shot.

Amen, Bryan.