Roy Moore and the Westboro Baptist Church

“On November 21, 2017, God required the soul of one of your idols. David Cassidy, best known for his role as Keith Partridge in the Partridge family. At the age of 67, Cassidy died of liver failure, which was surely caused by his publicly known alcohol abuse. Along with this sin, Cassidy followed suit with your stars in committing regular adultery, marrying three wives during his life. Unless he repented, Cassidy is surely in Hell.” – Westboro Baptist Church

Located in Topeka, Kansas the Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) describes itself as an “old School (or, Primitive) Baptist Church”. In my mind the congregation and leadership of the WBC has one job and one job only, not to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ but to scare the shit out of you and I with the threat of God’s wrath. You see from WBC’s standpoint the end is near and has been near since 1955 and they have taken it upon themselves to make sure the rest of us know that, like David Cassidy, if we don’t repent we will all burn in Hell.

If you aren’t familiar with the WBC these are the people who demonstrate opposing homosexuals, at funerals of service men and women, and a variety of other things they believe are “lifestyle of soul-damning, nation-destroying filth”. During their demonstrations they carry “colorful signs” with catchy slogans like; GOD HATES FAGS, FAGS HATE GOD, AIDS CURES FAGS, THANK GOD FOR AIDS, FAGS BURN IN HELL, GOD IS NOT MOCKED, FAGS ARE NATURE FREAKS, GOD GAVE FAGS UP, NO SPECIAL LAWS FOR FAGS, FAGS DOOM NATIONS, THANK GOD FOR DEAD SOLDIERS, FAG TROOPS, GOD BLEW UP THE TROOPS, GOD HATES AMERICA, AMERICA IS DOOMED, and the catch-all THE WORLD IS DOOMED. Sound like a fun group people you want to meet at the Golden Corral and share an endless buffet with? Yea, me neither.

I thought about the WBC as I read an article about Roy Moore, the Republican candidate running for the open Senate seat in Alabama. Roy practices the same “fire and brimstone” brand of Christianity that the WBC promotes. According to Moore, we are all going to hell unless we repent, homosexuals should be burned at the stake and Islam is a “false religion” that has no place in this “One nation under God” country. Sounds like a real charmer doesn’t he?

In the meantime, without actually giving Roy Moore an endorsement by name, Trump tweeted; “The last thing we need in Alabama and the U.S. Senate is a Schumer/Pelosi puppet who is WEAK on Crime, WEAK on the Border, Bad for our Military and our great Vets, Bad for our 2nd Amendment, AND WANTS TO RAISES TAXES TO THE SKY. Jones would be a disaster! I endorsed Luther Strange in the Alabama Primary. He shot way up in the polls but it wasn’t enough. Can’t let Schumer/Pelosi win this race. Liberal Jones would be BAD!”

What does this Senate race in Alabama mean? Different things to different people. For the Alabama Christians so far right that their toes are teetering on the edge of our flat earth it’s the final knot at the end of their righteous rope. Roy Moore represents the last of an aging line of Old Testament prophets that has the ability and the will to save America from doom and destruction. For moderate Republicans, Moore symbolizes everything the “modern” party is trying to distance itself from. Godly values, America values, and family values are still important but not without some sense of compassion and diversity.

At this point I fully expect Roy Moore will win the Senate race in Alabama. Trump gave Moore his blessing without actually saying anything and the majority of Alabamians would rather admit to eating instant grits than vote for a Democrat. I hope I am wrong. It is time for dinosaurs like Roy Moore to become and stay extinct. Despite what he and his supporters believe Moore and the WBC aren’t saving America, they are killing it and honestly, in my mind, that is their ultimate intention.

“The Westboro Baptist Church is no more a church than Church’s Fried Chicken is a church.” – Jon Stewart