“If you can’t love yourself, how the hell you gonna love somebody else?” - RuPaul - - - - - - - - - - - “if by a "Liberal" they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people -- their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties -- someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a "Liberal," then I'm proud to say I'm a "Liberal.” - John F. Kennedy - - - - - - - - - - - - “Imagine finding someone you love more than anything in the world, who you would risk your life for but couldn’t marry. And you couldn’t have that special day the way your friends do – you know, wear the ring on your finger and have it mean the same thing as everybody else. Just put yourself in that person’s shoes. It makes me feel sick to my stomach …. When I shared a picture of my tattoo on my Twitter page and said, ‘ALL LOVE is equal,’ a lot of people mocked me – they said, ‘What happened to you? You used to be a Christian girl!’ And I said, ‘Well, if you were a true Christian, you would have your facts straight. Christianity is about love.’ The debate resulted in a lot of threats and hate mail to people who agreed and disagreed with me. At one point I had to say, ‘Dude, everyone lay off.’ Can’t people have friendly debates about sensitive topics without it turning into unnecessary threats?” - Pop star Miley Cyrus on her marriage equality tattoo - - - - - - - - - - -
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Monday, March 14, 2011

The Quote of The Century by Nate Phelps (Son of Fred Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church)

"I have concluded that any system sustained by hatred, any theology that acts with deliberate cruelty to others and laughs at the suffering it causes, any ideology that marginalizes a group of people based on whom they choose to love is morally bankrupt and I reject it."

 —Nate Phelps, the son of Fred Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church, tells a high school audience that his father's mission in life is a farce [via]

The son of one of the most outspoken religious men of the 80's and 90's, Fred Phelps, came out in condemnation of his family's religious beliefs at Clayton High School on March 10th.  In it, he described his childhood and how he suffered at the physical abuse of his father and how it would sometimes last for hours on end.  He talked of his teenage escape at the age of 18 and the lengths he went to hide his new car from his friends and family. 
"I left the night I turned 18, literally at midnight," Phelps said. "I knew I was going to do it when I turned 15 or so. I bought a car when I was 17—hid it—no one knew it was mine. [I] packed my stuff up and at 11:30 on the night of my 18th birthday, I backed it into the driveway and loaded it up and went inside. [I] waited for the clock to hit midnight, and then I left."
Nate Phelps, the seventh of 13 children, knew that if he were caught or took the steps to return back to his family, he would be severely beaten for violating "the rules."  I found the following video online and thought the interview was really great (granted Peter Klein is kind of bad with interupting and not letting Nate speak at times), and thought I would share.  I like Nate a lot. I like his outlook and how he came to make his decisions about religion, and his willingness to let his kids make up their own minds. I don't think many parents get how utterly terrifying religion is for a 4, 5, 6 year old child. And I also believe that inflicting that kind of fear (that you can go somewhere and burn and be tortured forever if you step out of line) is wrong, if not cruel. I understand the concept of punishment, but I feel like 10 minutes in time out is a far cry from eternity of damnation.

2 comments:

Jessie Mackey said...

I agree Peter, when I was baptized, I remember praying that God would take me to Heaven before morning because I knew I could not remain pure and without sin if he left me here. I felt so clean and I didn't want to take any chances. lol. Kid's minds work differently than adults and we never know how they perceive things really. I believe if we teach them to be Christ like...kind, loving, forgiving, honest, and wholesome they won't go wrong and won't be filled with guilt. Guilt is a killer.

Ryan said...

I'm so proud of him for standing up against all that he was taught to believe in ever since he was born. I only hope that many if not all of these kids hopefully one day actually realize what pain that they are truly causing just by doing what their parents and grandfather think is right, and ultimately run away from this family as fast as they can.

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- Blade 7184 aka Peter