The Passing of Phelps: To Mourn or to Celebrate

Good evening everyone and welcome to a late night entry of The Magical Mystery Blog.

The Internet erupted with the passing of Fred Phelps, the founder of the Westboro Baptist Church. The Westboro Baptist Church (WBC for short), has done many terrible, and unforgiveable acts of unneeded protest and violence in the past. Most assaults were targeted towards homosexuals because of their extremist ideology that homosexuals are horrible people. They have even gone so far to protest the funeral of homosexual soldiers killed in combat and Lady Gaga concerts.  Thankfully, people have fought against them in the past and continue to do so.

Fred Phelps was the most hated man in existence next to Hans of the Southern Isles and Hitler. But with him gone from this world, a few questions come to mind: should we mourn his death? Should we celebrate it?

Immediately your brain jumps to ‘celebrate it’ as mine did. While my brain still chooses to believe that we should celebrate the death of a hated man, others think differently. Many people have chosen to regard his death with silence and carry on with life, knowing that a vile being has left our world. It’s what George Takei did and many are following in the wise man’s shoes. This, I agree is the mature way to handle Phelps’ death, but people will respond differently to situations.

Then there are those who wish to picket his funeral.  Even the Huffington Post polled its readers, asking if the funeral should be picketed, like he had picketed so many funerals before his death. There are nearly 14% who are undecided, 39% who say yes, and 48% who say no. In the comments below, people claim that we should give him little attention because he deserved none in life, and that no one should stoop as low as he did.

So what do you think? Should we celebrate the death of a hated man or silently regard it and carry on?

Feel free to comment and reblog, and as always feedback and followers are welcomed.