Fox News Sunday and Phelps: Unbalanced in So Many Ways

Chris Wallace anticipates complaints in this video talking about his decision to welcome Margie Phelps to Fox News Sunday tomorrow. They will discuss the recent Snyder v. Phelps ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court. Unfortunately, just hours before air time, Wallace seems happy for the controversy, rather than trying to book a guest who could provide balance. Then again, how do you balance Phelps? On Fox? Unbalanced in so many ways.

United Support for Al Snyder is organizing on Facebook and Twitter, attempting to get Fox News to include perspective from military personnel. Wallace could also include faith leaders who would offer context to the Phelps' rants on theological grounds. Fox could also include gay rights leaders, or even gay faith leaders. Wallace acknowledges this is a shift in policy from ignoring the Phelps, so why not at least attempt some balance?

Register your comment encouraging Fox to add another guest here.

One can hope Wallace is at least doing his homework, but just in case, here's a little context on Phelps; how they are viewed in Topeka, Kansas; changing attitudes toward gay rights in America since they emerged on the national scene at the time of Matthew Shepard's murder; and the real winner in Snyder v. Phelps.

Musical Interlude: We Are One

We interrupt our regularly scheduled writing for a musical interlude. Thanks to Chief K. Masimba Biriwasa, editor of Afro-Futures.com, for featuring this uplifting track by Black Coffee with Hugh Masakela (Louie Vega Roots Mix). Happy Friday.

Snyder v. Phelps: In the Court of Public Opinion, Snyder Wins

Note: This article also featured on Huffington Post Politics.

It is easy to see the US Supreme Court decision in Snyder v. Phelps as a victory for the hate-mongering Westboro Baptist Church. That is the obvious story with an 8-1 decision. Most people won't think about it beyond the initial news coverage.

The justices awarded a "win" to Phelps inside the court, but Al Snyder beats Westboro Baptist Church hands-down in the equally important court of public opinion. No one will embrace the Phelps' message of hate because of this ruling, the justices unanimously agreed their speech is vile. But many millions of Americans have re-examined their hearts and beliefs because Al Snyder had the courage of his convictions to stand up to the Phelps. Al Snyder's efforts make America a better place because more people are exercising their free speech to counter the Phelps hate.

The law says free speech trumps all, and apparently leaves no remedy for private citizens, distinguished from public figures, who are harmed by speech that crosses the line into harassment. In his dissent, Justice Alito hit exactly the right tone, "In order to have a society in which public issues can be openly and vigorously debated, it is not necessary to allow the brutalization of innocent victims." Alito articulates an ability to protect private citizens from harm, noting the targeted nature of the Phelps' attacks against Snyder in press releases, pickets and an online diatribe after Matthew Snyder's funeral. In each instance, the Phelps personally attacked an honorable family who gave the ultimate sacrifice to their country.

The Phelps will continue to picket funerals, taunting mourners and disrupting one of the most sacred rites every family, of every belief, experiences. They will not be bankrupted by the $5 million tort judgment for the intentional infliction of emotional distress that a jury of their peers awarded Mr. Snyder in the lower court.

But because of Al Snyder's courage and grace, seeing this case through to the US Supreme Court five years after his son's funeral, more Americans are now aware of exactly what hate looks like: furrowed brow, aged beyond years, narrow beady eyes, pinched faces and foaming spittle in the corners of angry mouths. Hate is rabid. Americans know what hate sounds like: pitched tones screaming absolutes rather than genuinely listening to the heart of another. Hate knows no compassion. Because of Al Snyder's dignity, Americans now know what hate feels like: abusive and intrusive, both emotionally and psychologically -- just as the Phelps children experienced at the hands of their father growing up, as has been documented.

Far from winning converts, the country is turning away from the Phelps' hate. Counter-protests are now more common than they were when Snyder filed his case. Wherever the Phelps go the counter-protests are usually much larger than the half-dozen or so Phelps family members picketing. Online efforts like Phelps-a-thon.com and others raise money for anti-bullying and pro-LGBT organizations whenever and wherever the Phelps picket, giving people all over the country an opportunity to counter hate with love. Another opportunity to push back against the Phelps, as Al Snyder is now faced with the ultimate insult added to his injury, having to pay the court costs of the Phelps, is to contribute here as a way of thanking him for exposing the Phelps as the small-minded bigots they are.

No doubt, there is celebrating in the isolated Phelps family compound in my hometown of Topeka, Kansas. To them, their hate has been vindicated. This family of several reprimanded and disbarred lawyers, with a long history of abusing the legal system, triumphed in the highest court in the land. They believe they are famous, but infamous seems more accurate.

The Snyders in Westminster, Maryland, are obviously disappointed, but not for the loss of the millions of dollars awarded by the lower court. Mr. Snyder's sorrow is for the families all across America who now will experience what he did -- the taunting, invasion of privacy, and intrusion into one of life's most sacred moments.

Al Snyder wasn't the least bit concerned about the money except for the fact it might have deprived Westboro Baptist Church from ever disrupting another family's mourning. The legal remedy he sought was not for private gain, but public good. While the court's decision strongly affirms free speech, and that is certainly in the public good, Snyder's concern was that the court's decision gives all rights to those who threaten civility by targeting private citizens with hate, turning funerals into spectacles. It seems the law reserves no rights to Americans who, like him and his family, simply want to bury a loved one and grieve privately.

Legal scholars and others will agree or disagree on the fine points of the law, but in the battle for hearts and minds, Al Snyder won the day he took a stand, and millions of Americans stand with him today while the Phelps grow ever more isolated. That's progress.



"Why Do You Believe What You Can't Prove?"

I had a notion to get this website finished and begin writing more regularly by my birthday, yesterday. While I worked on other aspects of the still unfinished (including not fully edited) site, many issues popped in the news that I resisted writing about. But this morning brought news that Rev. Peter J. Gomes died. His writing has been foundational to my understanding of faith. I think his book, The Good Book: Reading The Bible with Mind and Heart, should be next to The Bible in the backs of pews everywhere. His passing inspired me to stop waiting until everything else on this site was "finished."

In my spiritual journey, letting go of the notion that anything is ever "finished", or "just right" is a recurring theme. More often than not, those notions are distractions, delays, perhaps even denials that this moment isn't the moment to begin, to be, to do, whatever it is we've set out to. Aren't we in some ways, always a work in progress?

I wanted to spend time with Rev. Gomes today, in the only way I ever have, through his books. Alas, my copies are in storage as I make a transition from one coast to the other. Almost as good, Google turned up videos, including an interview with Charlie Rose in which he asks Gomes, "Why do you believe what you can't prove?"

Gomes' answer is classic, "I believe in all sorts of things I can't prove; love, goodness ..." and as the conversation goes on I think, how can anyone listen to this man and not see the proof of God they seek, in his life, his words, his love, his goodness. Our failure to recognize God expressing through each life we encounter, through our own fumbling, bumbling and still miraculous existence, is the root of many of the challenges we create for ourselves within our own lives, and that continue to plague society.

The "proof" some skeptics or atheists tauntingly seek from believers (of all faiths) isn't something that will be found no matter how many billions are spent smashing atoms; not that there aren't tremendous lessons to be learned from those endeavors. The "proof" comes from within. Not everyone's life is about an outwardly expressed spiritual journey, any more than everyone's life is about understanding physics. I'm glad there are scientists devoting their lives to understanding things I don't have to. I'm especially glad people like Rev. Gomes devoted his life to understanding faith in a way that is inclusive, compassionate, and grounded in evolutionary principles recognizing that God is constantly being revealed, through science, art, politics, athletics, nature. Through me. Through you.

Rose concludes the interview by reading from The Scandalous Gospel of Jesus: What's So Good About the Good News?

Given that our world today is less safe than it was a half-century ago, that the disparities between rich and poor increase rather than lessen, and that Christians fight with each other for power and inflluence while the culture seems to deteriorate; is it possible to imagine a country in which those who claim to be followers of Jesus Christ, and devoted to his mission as found in his first controversial sermon, can unite in a social wisdom that goes beyond The Bible and into the whole Gospel of the whole person?

Many more people are open to this question as they look around and see a world in transition, recognizing exclusion isn't evangelism, judging another isn't love, and that the proof any person of faith has found within isn't transferable. It's not possible to persuade someone to believe. That comes from within, each from our own life experience. At best we can share our experience and hope it resonates within another, helping them to find their path. All over the world we see the disastrous affects of people being forced to believe, of dogma deterring common sense, demonstrating a lack of Gomes' notion of "social wisdom."

Gomes' life is proof that, at the very least, we're making progress toward a time when that social wisdom is more evident. That progress is proof enough for me.

One Love? Sure. But All On One Website?

I love my life. My passion for politics has made for an extraordinary professional journey looking at life's most intimate issues -- how we come to and leave our physical life and how we find love in between.  It is challenging to communicate life's most complex moments in ways that allow people to move through their own fear or preconceived notions, find facts in the midst of misinformation and heated rhetoric, and move to a place of informed political decision. It is impossible to divorce these issues from a discussion of morality, and how we each define that differently, based in part on where and how we grew up and what our own life experiences taught us along the way.

To meet this challenge, personally and professionally, I've relied on an internal compass: faith.

Many people are turned off by any discussion of spirituality, especially liberals, and with good reason. Dogmatic religion is too often used as a bludgeon against people who believe differently, or as a political tool by those willing to say or do anything to gain the slightest electoral edge.

These issues -- birth, love, spirituality, death -- are where the personal becomes political for many, and often where the political becomes far too personal. In many ways the intensity of people's passions on social issues gets in the way of other policy debates. These are the issues on which I've honed my skills as a strategic thinker and communicator;  they are grist for my writing mill as I make sense of my own path, reflect on my connection to something beyond my five known senses, and honor the diversity of people, experiences and beliefs that shape this moment in history.

Some advise, "Write a blog to share your personal views," and others suggest, "Create a website so people can find you professionally."

Can they exist on one site? The personal and the professional? The political and the spiritual? Can we talk about who we are as part of why we do what we do, believe what we believe, without trying to persuade others we or they are right or wrong?

I'm about to find out.

Your patience as I build the site (gradually), take chances, make mistakes, and learn something new today I didn't know yesterday, is greatly appreciated. Some might even call it a blessing.