Dear Freddie,
Reverend Phelps:
This is in response to a newspaper article I read on January 7th. Over the past two months, I haven't been able to get any peace about what I read. The story was the account of a demonstration by your family and congregation at the funeral of Sgt. Andrew Wallace. I was outraged. I was shocked. I was offended. I couldn't sleep. I wrote about you on my blog.
But I didn't want to just react. I wanted to take some time. I wanted to think. When I posted on my blog, someone commented and said, "This is about your response to life." That hit me. I wanted to analyze this. I wanted to be careful, and to be honest. I want to respond to you the way I want to respond to life.
Salman Rushdie said, "In order to understand just one life, you have to swallow the whole world." The problem is I don't want to understand you. I want to cry out against you. I don't want to swallow your whole world. I want to vomit you out of mine. But I can't.
The easy answer would be to condemn your actions carte blanche. To make blanket statements about your misinterpretation of scripture. Maybe I could write a scathing open letter, and angrily quote scriptures about love and tolerance, and include insincere prayers for your eternal destiny.
But I don't want to live my life by the easy answers. So here I go. My first blog post about this subject was my reaction. This is my response.
I read about your church-- a church made up mostly of your own family members, according to CNN and the Milwaukee JournalSentinel. I read of your demonstrations at funerals of soldiers, AIDs victims, and celebrities. I read the things you said about the West Virginia mining accident last month, and about the hurricanes Katrina and Rita. I watched the video of your demonstration here in Wisconsin. I read your interviews with websites and journalists. I read what you said about Matthew Shepard, a homosexual who was murdered simply because he was gay. I read about the hate leveled towards you, and your family. I read about the pipe bomb at your daughter's house. I read about your extensive legal battles. I read the letters that people sent your church, and I read the rebuttals.
I'm not going to lie to you. As I was reading, the same emotions kept boiling just beneath the surface. I was angy, offended, nauseated--probably the kind of response you often inspire. And I wanted to explore those emotions. I wanted to wallow in my righteous anger. But I wouldn't be any closer to a real response than when I first heard about you. I would still be reacting. So I took a step back.
I can relate, probably more than most people, to the pipe bomb attack at your daughter's house. I am an Army reservist, and for eleven months, I was deployed with a construction unit to Iraq. The base where I lived was nicknamed "Mortaritaville" because of the amount of mortar and rocket attacks. I am very familiar with explosions. I can still remember what it was like when a 122mm shoulder-launched rocket landed less than 15 feet from me while I was playing volleyball. The force of the impact alone was enough to knock me to my knees, while a wall of sand and gravel washed over me. I can remember the next few minutes--how time slowed down and the shouting and yelling was drowned out by the sound of my heart beating. I can remember feeling myself to ensure that I wasn't bleeding while my eyes frantically searched out my friends to make sure that they were ok. And I can only imagine the reaction that I would have if this had happened at my home.
And I really don't want to get into a debate about theological truth here. I'm not going to argue with you. You use verses to support your position, and so do I. If we really wanted to, we could go back and forth all day, each of us--to varying degrees--pulling text out of context and putting context into the text, quoting and misquoting, all to support our respective views. And at the end of the day, I don't think that either one of us would have convinced the other.
But allow me to state why I disagree with you. I think that you have a warped view of God. You see a God that hates homosexuality, all that practice it, and all that accept it. I see a God that hates all sin. He hates homosexuality and pride. He hates sodomy and contention. You see a God that only loves his few choice people, and I see a God that isn't willing that any should perish. Your God has had enough, and wants to rid His creation of all that tolerate sin, specifically homosexuality. My God loves the prodigal son, even though he spurned Him for so long.
And I think you are demonstrating for the wrong motives. I don't think you are doing this to reach out to these people. I think you want to attack them. And I don't know why that is. I don't know if it is because you feel threatened, or if you really feel that it is the best way to fulfill the Great Commission. I think that you take careful steps to make sure that you are noticed, and that you incite as many people as possible.
But there I go again. Taking the easy way out. Who am I to question your motives? And what about you? Supposedly my God loves everybody, but what do I think about you?
I believe in tolerance. Not because I believe in tolerating sin, but because I believe that I am a sinner. I know that I am horrible and warped and repugnant in God's eyes. And as such, who am I to talk about someone else's sin? I don't have the answers. I haven't attained anything. I am not any closer to meeting God's standards of holiness on my own than anyone else. My only cause for hope is Christ's love.
And honestly, I can't claim that my view of God is perfect. Too often I act like God is a genie or a good luck charm. I don't actually believe that, but that is how I act. And my motives? My whole life has been built on a fruitless quest for validation. What are my motives for writing this letter?
It grieves me that people will associate you with God. That people will harbor bitterness towards all things Christian because of your actions. But what about my actions? My testiomony hasn't always been great. I haven't been a shining example of Christ's love. I know that I have hurt the cause of Christ by my bitterness, or my anger, or my doubt. Who in my life will reject Christ because of me?
Part of me wants to condemn you for the right reasons. I want to show how your philosophies and actions are unbiblical and harmful to the cause of Christ. And part of me wants to hate you for the wrong reasons. Because you are offensive. Because you attack veterans. Because you make yourself dispicable.
I probably won't even send this to you. Because this isn't about you. You have been demonstrating for years, and I doubt whether one more outraged Christian is going to sway you. This is about me. This is about me choosing the right reasons. Knowing that I'm still a sinner, and that I can't make universal statements, but that I can't just sit by and do nothing.
So I am going to do something. I am going to learn from you. I am going to examine my life, and my actions. And I am going to pray.
Sincerely,
Dale Mundt
This is in response to a newspaper article I read on January 7th. Over the past two months, I haven't been able to get any peace about what I read. The story was the account of a demonstration by your family and congregation at the funeral of Sgt. Andrew Wallace. I was outraged. I was shocked. I was offended. I couldn't sleep. I wrote about you on my blog.
But I didn't want to just react. I wanted to take some time. I wanted to think. When I posted on my blog, someone commented and said, "This is about your response to life." That hit me. I wanted to analyze this. I wanted to be careful, and to be honest. I want to respond to you the way I want to respond to life.
Salman Rushdie said, "In order to understand just one life, you have to swallow the whole world." The problem is I don't want to understand you. I want to cry out against you. I don't want to swallow your whole world. I want to vomit you out of mine. But I can't.
The easy answer would be to condemn your actions carte blanche. To make blanket statements about your misinterpretation of scripture. Maybe I could write a scathing open letter, and angrily quote scriptures about love and tolerance, and include insincere prayers for your eternal destiny.
But I don't want to live my life by the easy answers. So here I go. My first blog post about this subject was my reaction. This is my response.
I read about your church-- a church made up mostly of your own family members, according to CNN and the Milwaukee JournalSentinel. I read of your demonstrations at funerals of soldiers, AIDs victims, and celebrities. I read the things you said about the West Virginia mining accident last month, and about the hurricanes Katrina and Rita. I watched the video of your demonstration here in Wisconsin. I read your interviews with websites and journalists. I read what you said about Matthew Shepard, a homosexual who was murdered simply because he was gay. I read about the hate leveled towards you, and your family. I read about the pipe bomb at your daughter's house. I read about your extensive legal battles. I read the letters that people sent your church, and I read the rebuttals.
I'm not going to lie to you. As I was reading, the same emotions kept boiling just beneath the surface. I was angy, offended, nauseated--probably the kind of response you often inspire. And I wanted to explore those emotions. I wanted to wallow in my righteous anger. But I wouldn't be any closer to a real response than when I first heard about you. I would still be reacting. So I took a step back.
I can relate, probably more than most people, to the pipe bomb attack at your daughter's house. I am an Army reservist, and for eleven months, I was deployed with a construction unit to Iraq. The base where I lived was nicknamed "Mortaritaville" because of the amount of mortar and rocket attacks. I am very familiar with explosions. I can still remember what it was like when a 122mm shoulder-launched rocket landed less than 15 feet from me while I was playing volleyball. The force of the impact alone was enough to knock me to my knees, while a wall of sand and gravel washed over me. I can remember the next few minutes--how time slowed down and the shouting and yelling was drowned out by the sound of my heart beating. I can remember feeling myself to ensure that I wasn't bleeding while my eyes frantically searched out my friends to make sure that they were ok. And I can only imagine the reaction that I would have if this had happened at my home.
And I really don't want to get into a debate about theological truth here. I'm not going to argue with you. You use verses to support your position, and so do I. If we really wanted to, we could go back and forth all day, each of us--to varying degrees--pulling text out of context and putting context into the text, quoting and misquoting, all to support our respective views. And at the end of the day, I don't think that either one of us would have convinced the other.
But allow me to state why I disagree with you. I think that you have a warped view of God. You see a God that hates homosexuality, all that practice it, and all that accept it. I see a God that hates all sin. He hates homosexuality and pride. He hates sodomy and contention. You see a God that only loves his few choice people, and I see a God that isn't willing that any should perish. Your God has had enough, and wants to rid His creation of all that tolerate sin, specifically homosexuality. My God loves the prodigal son, even though he spurned Him for so long.
And I think you are demonstrating for the wrong motives. I don't think you are doing this to reach out to these people. I think you want to attack them. And I don't know why that is. I don't know if it is because you feel threatened, or if you really feel that it is the best way to fulfill the Great Commission. I think that you take careful steps to make sure that you are noticed, and that you incite as many people as possible.
But there I go again. Taking the easy way out. Who am I to question your motives? And what about you? Supposedly my God loves everybody, but what do I think about you?
I believe in tolerance. Not because I believe in tolerating sin, but because I believe that I am a sinner. I know that I am horrible and warped and repugnant in God's eyes. And as such, who am I to talk about someone else's sin? I don't have the answers. I haven't attained anything. I am not any closer to meeting God's standards of holiness on my own than anyone else. My only cause for hope is Christ's love.
And honestly, I can't claim that my view of God is perfect. Too often I act like God is a genie or a good luck charm. I don't actually believe that, but that is how I act. And my motives? My whole life has been built on a fruitless quest for validation. What are my motives for writing this letter?
It grieves me that people will associate you with God. That people will harbor bitterness towards all things Christian because of your actions. But what about my actions? My testiomony hasn't always been great. I haven't been a shining example of Christ's love. I know that I have hurt the cause of Christ by my bitterness, or my anger, or my doubt. Who in my life will reject Christ because of me?
Part of me wants to condemn you for the right reasons. I want to show how your philosophies and actions are unbiblical and harmful to the cause of Christ. And part of me wants to hate you for the wrong reasons. Because you are offensive. Because you attack veterans. Because you make yourself dispicable.
I probably won't even send this to you. Because this isn't about you. You have been demonstrating for years, and I doubt whether one more outraged Christian is going to sway you. This is about me. This is about me choosing the right reasons. Knowing that I'm still a sinner, and that I can't make universal statements, but that I can't just sit by and do nothing.
So I am going to do something. I am going to learn from you. I am going to examine my life, and my actions. And I am going to pray.
Sincerely,
Dale Mundt
posted by oneweekend at 11:46 AM
3 Comments:
Thanks so much for the post, it meant a lot to me. This story has produced many of the same emotions in me and I appreciate the Christlike response showed here.
Thanks for a thoughtful post. As I see more and more of the response of fundamentalism to sinful actions (whether in "the world" or within our own ranks, as in this case), I am realizing we so often miss what God has for us. If we would focus on learning what He has to teach us, we would avoid so many petty squabbles that sidetrack us from accomplishing His will. Thanks for breaking that trend.
The only thing original I can really say to that is we need to remember what it means to be this kind of Christian "Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself. But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another. For every man shall bear his own burden (Gal 6:1-5)."
Other than that, all I can say is, "Amen to what they said."
Noah
2 Corinthians 1:3-5
1 Timothy 6:12
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