I'm trying to think of a more articulate and eloquent way to say this, but maybe the simple ways are the best: people are weird.
It turns out that a good pal of hated and hating Westboro Baptist Church leader Shirley Phelps-Roper is none other that an openly gay writer whose memoirs about life with a crack-addled rent boy have hit the bestseller lists.
In a friendship formed thanks to mutual respect for their cast iron principles, Josh Kilmer-Purcell said he has more time for Shirley's strong views than people who encourage "homophobia lite" in the form of sayings like "love the sinner, not the sin". Phelps-Roper herself added that there's no black or white about issues like this - you can't be "a little pregnant", she pointed out - and Kilmer-Purcell listed ways in which the two of them are more similar than different. He even tried to donate and raise money to keep the church going when a legal battle threatened to shut it down.
Partly wishing I had the strength to respect someone whose opinions and practices - they're planning to picket Heath Ledger's funeral, of course - are so wildly opposed and repugnant to mine, and partly scratching my head bemusedly, I wish their friendship luck. Who knows, maybe they'll both become more understanding as a result.
And maybe it was a porker with wings that just sailed past the window...
[via SameSame]
