Poison.

As I grew up and have lived the majority of my life in Kansas, the Phelps family and their "church" is not foreign to me. I went to university in Topeka, and Phelps' followers frequently picketed my school.

This was something I saw often, with the exception of this kid.. Josef rocks my damned socks, though.

Fred Phelps has succumbed to whatever illness plagued him. While I would like to think that he died of a blackened heart and soul, what took him is not my concern. His death is not unlike any other. People will mourn him, miss him, and carry on the legacy (like the choice of word or not, it is what it is) that he has instituted. Topeka will always carry a scar, thanks to the Westboro Baptist Church.

I told myself when I heard he was failing that I was not going to acknowledge his death. That I was going to fight every instinct I had to picket this poor excuse of a human being's funeral and dance on his grave. As a former military spouse, I've witnessed his horde protesting funerals. Picketing a school and calling it's founder -who has been deceased for many years- derogatory terms is one thing; standing at a fallen soldier's celebration of life, chanting hate - that soldier who laid down his or her life to defend the right to do just that is deplorable.

The passing of Mr. Phelps does nothing. It does not erase the hate. It does not collapse the church. His poison has spread through the veins of the vulnerable sheep he has led. As a God-fearing woman, it pains me to be grouped under the term Christian as these people, but I do know that there is nothing that I, or any other living person, could do or say that will rival what that man has received when he attempts to enter the gates of Heaven. My God is a loving, forgiving God, true. But I can't imagine Him allowing the kindling of the fire of hate to receive anything other than the flaming pits of Hell.

It is not my place to judge Fred Phelps or his congregation. He has received his judgement, just as I will one day. Rather than sensationalizing this any further, I will make a conscious effort to be the best person I can be; to be an example of love, in the hopes that it becomes the antidote to the poison that flows so strongly through our country.

"Beloved, let us love one another." 1 John 4:7