Picketing Fred Phelps' Funeral

Is it morally okay for Christians to return the favor to the Phelpsians who have been defaming our faith?  When I wrote When Fred Phelps dies, I will picket his funeral I admit that it was a purely emotional reaction to the fact that they were thanking God for the deaths of those West Virginia miners. I was just angry and had enough. Is there anyone whose death these people won’t cheer and try to turn to their sick purposes?  Their behavior is bad enough, but the fact that they do these things in the name of Christianity simply infuriates me.  These cultists do not represent Christianity, and I believe that Christians should not miss a chance to denounce them.

Commenter Jim responded:

While I can understand and empathize with the sentiment, as those who want to manifest our Lord, should we fall into the same behavior which we despise?

A fair question.  And considering it actually brought me back to Christian war doctrine.  What outrages me about the Phelps is not so much that they are picketing funerals – as vicious and vile as that is – but that they do so in the name of Christianity.  The funeral picketing is merely a tactic.  I’m unclear on whether their primary goal is simply, cynically, to provoke lawsuits because that’s their primary source of income, or whether Phelpsians truly believe the bile they spew.  I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt, such as it is, and assume they really mean what they say.  But whatever they may think they are doing, they are actually making war against Christianity.  I’ll refer to an old post, Christianity and War, for background reasons why I feel pacifism is not an appropriate response to the Phelpsian’s attacks.  I feel that those principles – that pacifism is not an appropriate Christian response when evil is being inflicted on other people – can also be applied as a Christian response to the Phelps’ cult.

They profess Christianity, and thereby submit themselves to judgment by the rest of the Christian church body.  The world enjoys parroting “judge not lest ye be judged” but the bible is actually quite clear: Christians are not called to judge those outside the church, but we are called to judge those within it.  There is no other way to protect our doctrine but to judge fellow believers – or at least, those who profess to be.

There’s a right way and a wrong way to do things, as the devotional points out, specifically noting that Galatians 6:1 calls for gentle restoration.  Name calling, harsh accusations, and personal attacks are out of bounds.  The knowledge that we also are sinners needs to be present at all times.  But silence is never the right way, for the sake of the person who is off track, and for the sake of the church.

Will we allow false beliefs that creep in to redefine us?  We can – and must – judge those who profess Christianity. Definitions matter, and we cannot permit the likes of Oprah, Rick Warren, Joel Osteen, Ann Holmes Redding (the “Muslim-Episcopalian” priest) and the Phelps to redefine Christianity.

And since reason and moral suasion have not worked with these people and they continue with the attacks, I think it’s time to step up our response to this cult, for the sake of protecting the reputation of the church, for the sake of the innocent people they harm by their behavior and even for the sake of the Phelps children.  They are raising a third generation of Phelpsians – you can see them in news photos of the protests – and if we can’t reach the preceding generations, maybe we can have some impact on the children.

I don’t want them shut down legally.  Their speech is vile but it needs to remain free.  The answer to vile free speech is more speech.  I was not clear in my original post about what I’d do when I did picket a Phelps funeral – Fred’s or whoever happens to die next.  I was angry and just tossing out an off-the-cuff response to the W. Virginia news.  The truth is that God does not hate the Phelps, although I’m quite certain he hates their atrocious behavior and doctrine.  God would celebrate Fred Phelps salvation as heartily as he does any other sinner’s.  And so whatever response we have to the Phelpsians – right now or when one of them dies – should certainly include prayer.  And I agree with Jim’s sentiment that returning like for like is not appropriate.  Any Christians who picket a Phelps funeral should prayerfully consider what we put on any signs. But I do think we need to start responding a lot more forcefully to them, and picketing one of their funerals would certainly be one way to do it.