<em>"You've got to be taught to hate and fear ..."</em>
<strong>-- SOUTH PACIFIC</strong>

I think I probably could have gone happily to my grave without hearing the children of the Westboro Baptist Church sing their version of Woody Guthrie's "This Land is Your Land."

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You're probably aware by now that Westboro's pastor, the Rev. Fred Phelps, has made a name for himself with his "God Hates Fags" ministry that pickets soldier funerals and has one of the most vicious Websites around. Phelps first came to notoriety about 10 years ago, after the murder of Mathew Shepard in Wyoming with his insistence that the murdered boy was burning in Hell for his homosexuality.

[caption id="attachment_105" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Children of the corny"]<img class="size-full wp-image-105" src="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/westboro_baptist_church-drones-300x205.jpg" alt="Children of the corny" width="300" height="205" />[/caption]

Look at the children in the picture holding up signs last week when Phelps' crowd was <a title="Children of the corny" href="http://trueslant.com/harmonleon/2009/11/09/westboro-baptist-church-picket-obama-girls-and-blue-collar-comedy-tours-ron-white/" target="_self">picketing</a> a stand-up comedy concert by Ron White, one of the four comedians on the Blue Collar Comedy Tour. White is hardly a liberal and no one has ever accused him of being a homosexual, but I suppose it's getting more and more difficult for these folks to get media coverage.

I remember back when he first came to prominence, Phelps appeared several times on the<a title="John and Ken" href="http://www.kfiam640.com/pages/johnandkenshow/" target="_self"> "John and Ken Show"</a> on KFI/640 talk radio in Los Angeles. It was obvious from the get-go that he was a lunatic, a hater and anything but a good Christian. He's part of the crowd that picks and chooses from Leviticus and ignores the fact that Jesus never said anything about homosexuality.

His ministry offends me so much. I really don't care if adults want to demonstrate for one loony reason of another, but when you start teaching children that hate is a good thing from a very young age, you're poisoning the future.

And when you take Woody Guthrie, who would have viewed Phelps pretty much the same way as he viewed bankers, America Firsters and Father Coughlan, and make his great music part of your cause, you're poisoning the past.

Rev. Phelps, you really need to cut it out.