MY NEW HERO
Josef Miles
Holding anger is a poison. It eats you from the inside. We think that hating is a weapon that attacks the person who harmed us. But hatred is a curved blade. And the harms we do, we do to ourselves.
- Mitch Albom
I’ve written far too much over the years about the Westboro Baptist Church, Fred Phelps’ merry band of inbreds. They’re the folks infamous for taking their “God Hates Fags” message anywhere they can rub salt into the wounds of grieving families.
It’s What Jesus Would Do, don’tchaknow??
Over the years, a lot of folks have stood up to WBC (the Patriot Guard Riders come immediately to mind) in an effort to counter and neutralize their message of hatred and vitriol. Standing up to mean-spirited inhumanity is always a good thing…but few have done it with more class and effectiveness than nine-year-old Josef Miles.
When nine-year-old Josef Miles spotted members of Fred Phelps’ Westboro Baptist Church doing their hate-mongering thing on the Washburn University campus in Topeka, he asked his mother, Patty Akrouche, if he could stage a small counter-protest to their message of intolerance.
With just a pencil and small notebook in hand, Josef took on the bigots with a succinct yet poignant proclamation: “God Hates No One.”
“Those people are scary but he stood strong, was respectful and stood by his convictions,” Akrouche wrote on her Facebook page. “He will be a good man, I have no doubt.”
Without a doubt…if for no other reason than a nine-year-old boy has learned and is living a lesson that far too many adults are unable and/or can’t be bothered to learn. In the meantime, I have a feeling that he’ll make his parents proud many times over,
When Christianity ceases to be about love and tolerance and becomes about hatred and discrimination, it’s no longer Christianity. It’s just another bludgeon the self-righteous and intolerant use to marginalize those whose beliefs and lifestyles they despise.
I’d love to buy young Master Miles a beer…but it looks as if I’m going to have to wait about 12 years for that opportunity. in the meantime, I have a feeling that he’ll develop into a young man any parent not a member of Westboro Baptist Church would be proud of.
