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This is a story I would rather not be relaying. I would rather not give this man any press whatsoever, but am fast coming to the conclusion that I should, rather, keeop a CLOSER eye on him for reasons that will become clear later in this article.

Fred helps and his usual gang of idiots areon the road again, tapping their seemingly endless supply of fuel money to head to West Virginia to protest the funerals of the 12 miners who died there. The litany is the same; that somehow the deaths of these miners represents the hand of God because these miners raised their children to accept homosexuality.

First, they don't know that. I have a strong feeling that most miners would not be very accomodating to the homosexual lifestyle, having plenty of anecdotal evidence of miners who've gotten their clocks cleaned by other miners for suggestive "play acting" in the shower.

Second, while I am a religious conservative and believe in every word of the bible as it is written (differing from literalists in the fact that I understand the literary uses of metaphors), I find no evidence of God micromanaging cultures in this way. Even if one were to read through the Old Testament, they would find that when God destroys something it is pretty complete devastation. If, for instance, the ENTIRE city of New York were devastated on 9/11, I'd be more inclined to buy these idiots' arguments. If, when the mine collapsed, the entire community was sucked down into a sinkhole never to be seen again, I'd be impressed by the possibility that it could be the hand of God. But nowhere in scripture do we find God acting in such random, disconnected incidents to accomplish total devastation in "baby steps".

I find it sad but necessary to preface my next comment with the following disclaimer: What I am about to say does NOT represent my opinion, but rather an example where a more compelling case could be made by Phelps & Company.

A far more compelling, but equally ludicrous, case for the "hand of God" could be made by pointing to the destruction of the city of New Orleans. I find it interesting to note that, although N.O. is geographically closer to Phelps' home base in Wichita, Kansas, he sidestepped the opportunity for a full frontal attack on the port city, possibly deterred by the fact that he couldn't get the protection of the police in a city where they couldn't even protect the food shipments from the looters.

When Phelps goes to West Virginia, I sincerely hope that violence does not erupt. But it's a sad, but possible reality that it may. I hope, instead, that residents in the area will look to the fact that there are some who have SHOWN how to silence these imbeciles. In Oklahoma, at the funeral of a soldier, veterans rode down by the dozens on their motorcycles, obscuring the protestors from the view of the grieving families and revving their engines to drown out the shouts. The coverage of the counterprotest FAR outshined the coverage of Phelp's group. When the group threatened to protest the funerals of soldiers in our area in the Texas Panhandle, biker groups made it known that they would be there to lend support in exactly the same way, and, surprisingly, Phelps' group found other commitments.

I don't wish death on anyone, but I truly long for the day when Phelps is either taken home to meet his maker or is ignored completely by all media. I have followed Phelps' actions since he first made national headlines with his protest of Matthew Sheppard's funeral, and will follow these actions until he's no longer in the spotlight, if only to expose him for what he is. He is a stain on the name of Christianity and all who practice it, and speaking against him and others like him is important to all mainstream conservative Christians for the same reason an imam speaking out against Islamic radicals is important to all mainstream conservative Muslims.