Religious nuts at Ledger’s funeral?

Why are those who make the most noise about being religious and righteous among the most intolerant people?

This is of course in reference to the news that a group of cranks who profess to represent a church intending to picket late actor Heath Ledger’s funeral. His crime: being associated with Brokeback Mountain.

The hate and vehemence that spit out at you as they explain their ideology is frightening. Even reading their statement to the press off a bland webpage makes the hairs on your neck stand up. This is fundamentalism of the worst kind—a group of small minds refusing to see that the world does not dance to their perverted tune.

One of the spokespersons of the aforemntioned group says, “You cannot live in defiance of God.” It makes you wonder what sort of rigid, blinkered entity they see God as. Admittedly, I’m about as agnostic as they come, but the way I understand faith is that it is something positive. Something that gives you hope of a better life and a better world. Intolerance and exclusion cannot be ways to achieve that.

This particular group have gained notoreity over the years for making a nuisance of themselves in various places, including some very tasteless remarks about 9/11. They were recently taken to court for picketing a funeral. But they are not the only ones who are so terrified and insecure about themselves that they feel obliged to lash out at anything that threatens to break the confines of their narrowminded world-view.

~PD