Well, Topeka will be a lot quieter this weekend

Just got the news that Fred Phelps, Sr., and his vile minions will be venting their insane spew in Virden, Illinois, this weekend at the funeral of another casualty of the war in Iraq.

Phelps claims to be the minister at Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka. Mr. Phelps (you'll get no honorific of "Reverend" from me) and his followers defile the name and concept of God, it seems, since some strange idea about dead soldiers in the Iraq being God's retribution for tolerance of homosexuality burrowed a wormhole into his brain.

I imagine that the Baptist Convention allows this jackanape to spout off due to the tradition of allowing each individual church to have autonomy. I hope that their silence in the face of his disgusting tactics is not implicit agrement with his bizarre opinions. But since they have purged other members for far less than this, I would think that action would be demanded to preserve the integrity of their reputation.

I am always dismayed by people who claim to be Christians behaving in this way and I am from a town that has more than its fair share of mindless religious self-righteousness. It's so easy to criticize Muslims for the behavior of some who justify violence in the name of their faith, but here's a plank in our own eye.

I will be praying for the family of Staff Sergeant Gary Harper on Saturday.