Westboro Baptist Church

Lance Corporal Matthew Snyder, 20-year-old Marine, was killed in a Humvee accident in 2006 while deployed in Iraq.

Albert Snyder, the father of the dead Marine, won an $11 million verdict against the Westboro Baptist Church for intentional infliction of emotional distress, while picketing his son's funeral. A judge reduced the award to $5 million to avoid getting the reward thrown out altogether because of First Amendment Rights? Are you freaking serious? First Amendment Rights? Picketing a soldier's funeral with hostile and ass-crap signs like  "Thank God for Dead Soldiers", "You're Going to Hell", "God Hates You" and "God Hates the USA" is not exercising the First Amendments Rights/freedom of speech, that's manipulating constitutional rights and the Bible and exercising sheer stupidity and disrespect. Lawyers or any other legal advocates of the Westboro's actions being First Amendment privilidges, ought to be disbarred for even suggesting such nonsense. Picketing in a general area is one thing but at someone's funeral and at a soldier's funeral who just honorably served and gave his/her life for this country ought to be a crime. These people have taken God's words and mission and turned it into something evil and sick. Something needs to be done to stop these people from picketing military funerals. It seems more like terrorism than exercising freedom of speech. These people give a bad rep to Americans & Christians, and I say that as a Christian and as a retired American Soldier. Check out the stupidity below:

Capital Punishment...Hmmmm?

First of all can you believe that I am posting on the same day the class is held? lol...Yeah. Anyway, I thought it would be interesting to post on one of the subjects Im referring to in my paper. Capital punishment is an issue that I am very passionate about not only because I don't believe in murder of ANY individual by ANYONE for ANY reason, but because it applies mostly to people of color, e.g, African American. Plus if you do the research, you will find that most of these individuals on death row are innocent. Isn't that a nasty pill to swallow? Well anyway, if you haven't figured it out by now, I am against capital punishment. It wasn't until I saw the movie "Dead Man Walking" (with one of the greatest actresses of all time, Susan Sarandon-in my opinion) that my view on capital punishment changed implicitly. The book-turned-movie was written by Sister Helen Prejean, whose character stars in the film about a spiritual advisor who counsels inmates on death row. Sister Helen Prejean's work is a true inspiration and pure and genuine example of Christ's work and mission. Here are some of my favorite quotes by Prejean from the article "Would Jesus Pull The Switch";

"There's a lot of what I call "biblical quarterbacking" going on in death-penalty debates: people toss in quotes from the Bible to back up what they've already decided anyway. People want to not only practice vengeance but also have God agree with them. The same thing happened in this country in the slavery debates and in the debates over women's suffrage."


"Jesus Christ, whose way of life I try to follow, refused to meet hate with hate and violence with violence. I pray for the strength to be like him. I cannot believe in a God who metes out hurt for hurt, pain for pain, torture for torture. Nor do I believe that God invests human representatives with such power to torture and kill. The paths of history are stained with the blood of those who have fallen victim to "God's Avengers." Kings, popes, military generals, and heads of state have killed, claiming God's authority and God's blessing. I do not believe in such a God."

"I don't see capital punishment as a peripheral issue about some criminals at the edge of society that people want to execute. I see the death penalty connected to the three deepest wounds of our society: racism, poverty, and violence. In this country, first the hangman's noose, then the electric chair, and now the lethal-injection gurney have been almost exclusively reserved for those who kill white people.....In Louisiana, murder victims' families are allowed to sit in the front row in the execution chamber to watch the murderer die. Some families. Not all. Almost never African American families."

These are just a few quotes from the article. If you would like to read the whole article for yourself click on the following link;
http://salt.claretianpubs.org/issues/deathp/prejean.html

Here is also a clip of Sister Helen Prejean talking about capital punishment and another one below is a clip from the movie starring Susan Sarandon, as Sister Helen Prejean, & Sean Penn, as Patrick Sonnier. Some of you have probably seen this movie. Hope you enjoyed the post!...feel free to comment.





The following quote is also from the article "Would Jesus Pull The Switch" by Sister Helen Prejean. It is very powerful. I found it fitting as a closing piece for my post and the clip from this movie;

"When you accompany someone to the execution, as I have done three times as a spiritual advisor, everything becomes very crystallized, distilled, and stripped to the essentials. You are in this building in the middle of the night, and all these people are organized to kill this man. And the gospel comes to you as it never has before: Are you for compassion, or are you for violence? Are you for mercy, or are you for vengeance? Are you for love, or are you for hate? Are you for life, or are you for death? And the words of Jesus from the gospel kept coming to me that night: "And the last will be first" and "This too is my beloved son, hear him." On death row I grasped with such solidity and fire the grace of God in all human beings, the dignity in all human beings."

Southern + Religion?......

I've been enrolled in this class for over a month now, but coincidentally I never really thought about Southern Religion, religion in the South, etc. Then the other day, while my brain was off on a tangent, I was thinking of this wonderful man, God-sent, AWESOME man, God's gift to the South & Religion......A sure inspiration to me and one of my idols......he is none other than......Dr. Martin Luther King (arguably one of the top five greatest men to ever grace this Earth!)! I just love this man. I know that his "I Have A Dream" speech is what everyone is more familiar with and prefer BUT my favorite is "I've Been To The Mountain Top". This speech has so much meaning to me because it was his last. I truly believe he knew what was in store for himself, his passing, and us as Americans and African Americans. I cry every time I hear this speech. So since I feel like Dr. King is the epitome of Southern religion, I decided to pay homage to him by dedicating a post to him and his legacy with his last speech. ENJOY!



Here also is a man I admire, that not only helped pave the way for the South but he also laid down the foundation for Dr. King. A lot of people are not familiar with him but he has been considered the "Father of the Civil Rights Movement". He was definitely a man before his time and maybe even now. He was very eccentric and passionate in his efforts. Here below is his last and most famous sermon "It's Safe to Murder Negroes". Ironically, this particular speech is similar in context with my paper concerning capital punishment. Anyhow, it is a really great speech/sermon where he ridicules the Black race for standing around allowing other Blacks to be unjustly killed in the South and not taking a stand. He basically says that Blacks are just as guilty as the whites that lynch blacks, because they stand by and let it happen. He even goes as far to call them hypocrites! Anyway its a great speech, watch it for yourself. This clip was from the movie The Vernon Johns Story. This sermon took place at the Dexter Baptist Ave. Church in Montgomery, Alabama. Dr. Vernon Johns was relieved/fired as pastor after this sermon and replaced by a more subtle preacher,....Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Bible Nit-Picking

So far I think my field situation will concern the use/abuse of the bible to victimize people. It has been used by some as a play for power to subdue, hinder, and oppress others. They nit pick certain aspects of their religion by advocating what benefits them by applying it to others and not themselves. I want to try to focus on slavery, capital punishment, domestic violence, and polygamy mainly because these categories involve the victimization and abuse of minorities. I will be focusing on Christianity, of course. Its interesting how this sacred text is misinterpreted and used to oppress minorities. The Bible never really said African-Americans should be the slaves, women should be beaten or raped by their husbands, that capital punishment should mostly be applied to certain class of people, lower class individuals; Blacks, Hispanics, etc., or that its okay for men to marry as many wives as possible. Sure it mentions these things but that doesn't mean God is condoning it. Thats as far as I've thought! What do you think?......