How the Westburo Baptist Church helped me change my lifestyle choices

Last Thursday the Westburo Baptist church came to my school to picket a band. That one that does The Devil when Down to Georgia. I did not take video, I did not talk to them, I did not counter protest, because I thought that would validate them. But I wanted to.

I wanted to hold up a sign about my God’s love. I wanted to ask them if they thought there movement was liberalizing there fellow Christians, I wanted to get angry. But the WBC accomplished there goal, they got me to think about me and my lifestyle.

There are two kinds of hate, active hate and passive hate. And the WBC and many other groups like them are active haters. They go out, seek confrontation, and try to oppress large groups of people. They want others to feel bad for who they are.

I am a passive hater. It has been a hard habit I have been trying to break out of for several years. Passive hate, like its active counterpart, is a lifestyle. A lifestyle that focuses on bringing people “Down to your level.” Passive doesn’t seek confrontation, it sees confrontation and decides to get involved. Passive hate goes after the individual, especially someone who seams incorruptible. Through sarcasm and off handed jokes passive hate tries to bread passive hate. A passive hater feels bad for who they are, and wants everyone else to feel that hate.

But it never works. Throughout my entire life I have met the incorruptible optimist, they find me and I find them. I have never once turned these people into a passive hater like myself, and these people have brought new meaning into my life. I hate being a hater and I’m trying to stop.

The WBC made me think of my own hate how unlike active hate, passive hate can welcome you with a smile and can much more easily convert you. Passive hate is a deceiving smile not a bullhorn and a picket sign. So I with great nausea say “thank you WBC for showing me the errors of my lifestyle choices.” Because hate really is a choice, a choice I have been making for way to long. So I am sorry for being bitter, for making fun of people hair, for saying peoples stories are uninteresting or joke weren’t funny. I’m sorry for being loud, overly critical, and grumpy. I’m sorry for everything mean I do. I usually don’t mean in.