False Prophets

Tonight is the Academy Awards; Hollywood's big night. Believe me when I say that the entire neighborhood is on fire with activity right now. I counted 6 helicopters, 2 blimps, and 2 planes in the air over Hollywood Boulevard, not to mention the congested mess that is traffic on Sunset (especially at major intersections like La Brea and Highland). The events of tonight paired with Angeleno's natural curiosity, sense of entitlement when driving, and love of celebrity make for a real spectacle...which is exactly what everyone loves about tonight; the spectacle of it all.

See, in America, we don't have a mythology of our own. As a relatively young culture, our mythos didn't develop around the campfire or on the hillside, guessing at the names of stars. Our constellations instead consist of those artificial stars we've made; the beautiful and the talented among us who we've elevated to quasi-divine status. It is on this night that gods walk among men; the pantheon of Hollywood striding amongst the rank and file of we mere mortals, dazzling in their brilliance, inspiring in their designer clothes. Likewise, those who trail along the coat tails of these mighty men and women show their faces as well, hoping to catch some scrap of fame left in the wake of the gods they follow. That's whatever. I never got into celebrities and I think people who obsess over that sort of thing are pretty shallow. It's pretty awful how the big names are reverred like the ancients worshiped their gods of wood and stone. George Clooney can play Zeus. Brad Pitt would make a good Apollo. I personally vote Scarlett Johansen to play Venus. :-D It's all pretty foolish if you ask me. But they're our American gods...the exalted among us.

Even so, nothing, nothing can ever justify hate. It doesn't matter who you are, what you stand for, or what moral grounds you claim; if you hate another human being for any reason you are wrong. The reason I make this point is because as I was driving down Sunset to the Mayan tonight, I saw a major hulabaloo going down on La Brea. A group of protesters holding the most horrific signs I've ever seen... "God hates America", "God is your Enemy", "Fag Tinsel Town", "Idolotry leads to Hell", "God Hates Fags", "Heath Ledger is in Hell", and the one that broke my heart the most: "God Hates You". There was a large group of them...about 30 or so. They were chanting something I didn't quite catch (not that I'd want to anyway) and were led by a man dressed in sackcloth (I'm sure he'd poured ashes on his head beforehand) with a megaphone, screaming obscenities and defaming the name of Jesus, using Christianity as a backdrop for his hatred. I've no doubt that these people were part of that crazy Phelps church that protests the funerals of soldiers who've died in Iraq...and I know no one in their right mind pays attention to a word they have to say. But still, the fact that they're claiming the God who loved us and gave himself for us as the basis for their unspeakably inhumane, unchristian acts really, really makes me angry.

Part of me wanted to stop right there, get out of the car and rebuke them. Part of me wanted to go back home, make a sign of my own and stand contrary to them ("God Loves Fags"...though that might not be such a positive word to use). But the wiser part of me kept driving. Don't cast your pearls before swine, discretion is the better part of valor (though I've always thought that valor was the better part of valor...), etc. I know arguing with them would be useless. Rebuking them would be playing right into their hand. They're IRL trolls; they're looking for a fight. They're looking to stir things up and piss people off. They love the attention that being a provocateur wins them. After the flash of anger, I begin to feel sorry for people like that...what kind of life do they have where expressing their profound, irrational hatred for another group of human beings fulfills them? What kind of twisted heart beats in their chest that derives pleasure from contributing to the evil in the world? How screwed up does a person have to be to buy into that crap?

I know that God is not mocked...they will one day reap what they're sowing. Honestly, I believe that church is a tool of Satan and the Phelps are heavily influenced by demonic forces. But beyond any feelings of frustration towards these false prophets and the shallow sicophantic star-worshipers they condemn, I feel a deep and abiding sorrow for my city...for my country. How many times have Christians with the best of intentions misrepresented Christ with our actions? With our words? With the causes we choose to support? How many times have we wrongly invoked the name of God to support our own agendas? How many times have we used morality as a basis for hatred and condemnation? "For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but that, through him, the world might be saved." Has someone, in their search for meaning, seen our bias, our black and white "thou shalt nots", or our "God hates ____" and turned elsewhere? Turned to where there is beauty without truth? Turned, perhaps, to the stars?