Fred And Charles

[poliphilo]

Fred Phelps is in the news again but this time it's because he's dying so lets play pretty.

Not that he'd play pretty if it were someone he disapproved of that was dying. Given half a chance he'd be picketing the hospital telling them how much God hated them and how they were going to burn.

But really, it takes courage to be as horrid as Fred has set himself to be. I couldn't be that brave. Let's at least praise him for that.

As it happens I've been reading about Charles Borromeo.

Charles was a lot like Fred. He hated sin. He preached hell at people. He went out on the streets and demonstrated his contempt for everything human.

The difference is he lived in the Phelpsian universe of the late 16th century where preaching hell at people was the thing to do.

So Charles got to be Bishop of Milan and have a private army and burn people for real and not just in his imagination.  Then after his death they made him a saint of the Holy Catholic Church.

Whereas Fred has his tin tabernacle and a big file of newspaper cuttings and that's about it.

Comments

[artkouros.livejournal.com]

It's easy to hate him, but I never did. He did the country a useful service by articulating the logical extension of Bible based homophobia. He said the things that the main stream evangelicals only hinted at.

And later, as I've learned to understand Buddhist psychology, it's apparent that he has been living in his own self imposed hell here on earth, estranged from his family, and now - at the end - kicked out of his own church.

But yeah, I might dance just a little jig.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

He was very annoying, but I can't see he did all that much actual harm. His stance was so extreme he alienated almost everybody- and ended up more laughing-stock than gadfly. As you say, he can't have been a happy man.