A Further Defense of the Despised Westboro Baptist Church

I listened to a sermon by Rev. Fred Phelps of Westboro Baptist Church. I would be pleased to say that his sermon reeked from the moment he cleared his throat to his last "Amen".

But I can’t say that. Agree or disagree with it, Phelps’s theology -- at least from this sermon -- is consistent and not outright laughable. It demands to be taken seriously.

1. The serious theology of Rev. Phelps.

Phelps drew the sermon that I listened to from the Biblical book of the prophet Jeremiah. Phelps emphasized from Jeremiah imprecatory prayer: prayer to bring harm upon a person, a people, or a nation; a curse. Phelps directs his imprecatory prayer toward America, just as Jeremiah directed his imprecatory prayer toward Judah, the remnant of the Jewish state before Babylonian captivity. For example, Jeremiah prayed:

O Lord of Hosts who art a righteous judge, testing the heart and mind, I have committed my cause to thee; let me see thy vengeance upon them. (Jeremiah 11:20 (NEB).)

And:

Drag them away like sheep to the shambles;
Set them apart for the day of slaughter. (Jeremiah, 12:3 (NEB).)

So Rev. Phelps preaches imprecatory prayer.

That an American pastor would curse America might shock, but it shouldn’t surprise. We’ve seen this before. Remember Jeremiah Wright? Remember "God damn America!"? Phelps is Jeremiah Wright, version 2.0.

2. God and America.

But here’s the thing. For all we know, Phelps might be right. His monomania about gays reveals shallowness; but it might be that God is in the process of withdrawing his blessing from America.

I say withdrawing his blessing, because I cannot look at American history without seeing divine protection and abundant blessing. Here is the briefest possible proof: in times of greatest peril, we have been gifted with indispensable leaders. We had irreplaceable George Washington when we needed George Washington. We had irreplaceable Abraham Lincoln when we needed Abraham Lincoln. We had irreplaceable Franklin D. Roosevelt when we needed Franklin D. Roosevelt. This is only a glimpse of the hand of God guiding, protecting, and strengthening America.

God has kept us safe in times past, but America today is different than what it has been. We are more distant from God than our forebears. The evidence of this is that throughout our history, our culture was infused with scripture; that is no longer true. "The pervasiveness of the Bible in American culture from the colonial period onward has often been observed . . .." (Robert Alter, Pen of Iron, 1) But "[t]he Bible is surely not ubiquitous in American culture as it once was . . .." (Ibid., 6.)

America’s alienation from God is supported by an argument from scripture.

3. America as Babylon.

I cannot read parts of the Book of Revelation without an unease that I am reading about us. Not necessarily America as it is today, but America that is becoming. Revelation chapter 17 prophecies what will happen just before the end of history and the coming of the eternal Kingdom of God: the destruction of Babylon. And we might be Babylon.

Revelation chapter 17 describes Babylon as "the great whore that sittith upon many waters". (Revelations 17:1 (AV).) It also speaks about "The seven . . . mountains, on which the woman [Babylon] sitteth." (Revelation 17:9 (AV).) These two passages puzzle scholars. Historical Babylon sat on canals – "many waters" – but it had no seven mountains. Historical Rome had seven hills, but although the Tiber flowed through it, this hardly is "many waters." But Babylon and Rome were the superpowers of their day, as we are today. So a plausible interpretation of "Babylon" is not a particular city at a particular time, but any profane superpower. I draw on George Eldon Ladd’s fine A Commentary on the Revelation of John in this analysis, though Ladd’s interpretation of Revelation chapter 17 is somewhat different than mine.

There is more that points from Babylon to America. After Babylon’s swift destruction, nations will mourn her – at least, they will mourn their loss of wealth from trading with her:

The merchants . . . which were made rich by her, shall stand afar off for the fear of her torment, weeping and wailing, and saying, Alas, alas that great city, that was clothed in fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold, and precious stones, and pearls! For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off, and cried when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, What city is like unto this great city! And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate. (Revelation 18:15-19 (AV).)

This passage in Revelation reveals that Babylon was loved for its capacity to make people rich; but it also implies the catalyst for Babylon’s downfall – its love of luxury. (1 Timothy 6:10: "[T]he love of money is the root of all evil . . ..") I submit for your consideration that all superpowers share this vulnerability, including America. Our love of comfort and consumer goods crowds out our love of God. And what nation but America is the vortex of world trade?

There are hurdles to this interpretation of the Book of Revelation’s Babylon; one hurdle is not so insurmountable. That is, the Book of Revelation speaks of Babylon’s deadliness toward the people of God: "And I saw the woman [Babylon] drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus". (Revelation 17:6 (AV).) Well, we aren’t known for assassinating prophets and Christians.

But the time might come. Prophets provoke. In fact, authoritative commentator Abraham Heschel finds it remarkable that the people of Israel and Judah tolerated the prophets at all:

The striking surprise is that prophets of Israel were tolerated at all by their people. To the patriots, they seemed pernicious; to the pious multitudes, blasphemous; to the men in authority, seditious." (Heschel, The Prophets)

I can imagine an America further from God than it now is, and a prophet who desecrates a cherished, even a patriotic, belief, provoking us beyond our capacity to endure. Those who dispose of the prophet or the prophets, and those who give silent assent to this, will become the agents of Revelation 17:6.

4. Signs of America’s plunge.

Just like a person can stand by a river and know that there was a flood upstream by the flotsam going by, an observer of America today can see evidence of America’s flight from God in the pollution of American morals.

When I started out in law, yes, lawyers lied; but the ones who lied stood out. Now I confront in my profession a tsunami of liars. What once evoked my outrage now gets a checkmark in the margin. Also, I hear shameless, unselfconscious lies from political leaders and from the media. I don’t remember this in earlier times. I see this calculated un-tethering from reality as the dead canary in a moral mineshaft foretelling fatal fumes. Jeremiah lamented commonplace lies before God destroyed Judah by foreign conquest.

They . . . never speak the truth; they have trained their tongues to lies; . . . deceit follows deceit." (Jeremiah 9:5-6 (AV).)

5. Conclusion.

So Rev. Fred Phelps’s theology of God’s outrage at America is far from laughable. Perhaps pastors who assure their congregations that God wants them to be rich do worse than Phelps.

The credibility of Phelps’s theology is another reason that I hope that the Supreme Court does the right thing and protects him and his provocative congregation. His theology is serious, but unpopular. And if he commits outrage to call attention to his beliefs, at least he succeeds in bringing attention to a word that is heard in few other places, so far as I know. If you are hearing these kinds of things from your pulpit, I would like to hear about it.

One last thing. Writing about religion makes me self-conscious. I really, really hope that I don’t come across as touting my own holiness. I have none. And I don’t mean that in the Apostle I-am-the-chief-of-sinners Paul sense. I mean that, truly, I am appalling.

Note:

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