Rant on.

Most days, I like to think I have some understanding of human nature.  After all, I am human myself.  But sometimes I get really boggled by the terrible things some people do.

This past Saturday was Transgender Remembrance Day.  It was a day for rational people to take a moment and give some thought to those whose lives were ended because they were born different.  Yes, I know “born different” is one of the current catch phrases for the LGBT rights movement, but it’s a catch phrase for a reason.  Sometimes people are not born into the body they feel they should have had.  Given the obsession this country has over being skinny while mostly being fat, this shouldn’t be so hard to understand, but people do anyway.  Women are born in male bodies and men in women’s bodies.  They figure this out, sometimes when they are quite young, and have an unhappy life until they can do something about it.

Once they can do something about it, the troubles they encounter sometimes get worse.  At church yesterday, there was a reading of the names of some transgender folks who were killed, sometimes tortured and killed, for being who they felt they were.  This is a violence I have a lot of trouble understanding.  It’s an ancient thing, though, hurting somebody for the way they look.  In times past–and not the not-so-distant past at that–there was a lot of racial violence.  People were hurt for having dark skin or for loving somebody who did.  That still goes on today, although it is (thankfully) not as bad as it once was.

Some people just can’t get enough hatred in their lives, I guess.  Take the Westboro Baptist Church, the congregation led by Fred Phelps who like to carry signs saying “God Hates Fags”.  They go to funerals with signs like this or worse.  They are against the current war effort, so they will go to funerals of soldiers and basically cry out that the soldiers deserved to die.  Recently, though, this group took their hatred to a new low.

The WBC folks went to a soldier’s funeral in Oklahoma.  Somebody took exception to their protest and slashed the tires on one of their vehicles.  The church reacted by saying everyone in Oklahoma was going to hell, including the children.  They plan to show up at children’s funerals with signs saying “Thank God for more dead children in Oklahoma”.  This is as sick as it gets, folks.  The kids who died didn’t do anything particularly wrong; they died in terrible accidents.  But they are members of Oklahoma families, and all of Oklahoma is now a target because of the actions of one or two individuals.

Sigh.  Many people like to point a finger at radical Muslims and the terrible things they do, but there are some Christian groups which are just as sick.  No, the WBC isn’t exactly committing acts of terrorism, but I am willing to bet they would do so if they thought they could get away with it.

My only light of hope is that groups like this are not popular with the general populace.  Most folks regard their actions with some disgust.  Sure, some may agree with the God Hates Fags ideology, but only a few of those are going to go along with their protests against the military and hopefully nobody agrees with them condemning the entire state of Oklahoma and the actions they are taking against the children of that state.  Hopefully people will see them for the violence, asinine radicals they are.  Hopefully, more people will see their hatred and know it’s wrong on all levels, and learn a little understanding with the other things the WBC and its ilk protest.

I don’t understand groups like the WBC, and I likely never will.  But I have hope people will see past them and find love where they have spewed out hatred.

Rant off.