Westboro’s rainbow neighbor a sign of hope

 

The multi-faceted charity, Planting Peace, started renovations on Tuesday to their newest project, the “Equality House.”

The rainbow-colored house, a symbol of equality, peace and positive change, the website states,  “will serve as the resource center for all Planting Peace equality and anti-bullying initiatives and serve as a visual reminder of the commitment of global citizens to equality for all.”

The kicker? One of the charity’s founders, Aaron Jackson, purposefully sought out and bought the house for its ideal location – across the street from the infamous Westboro Baptist Church’s headquarters in Topeka, Kan

The Westboro Baptist Church is well known for its intimidating anti-gay protests outside of soldiers’ funerals, pride parades and even Sandy Hook Elementary memorial services. Jackson told the Huffington Post he was inspired to pursue the Equality House because of a story that he read about 10-year-old Josef Miles, who held a sign that read “God hates no one,” while Westboro Baptist protestors stood next to him holding signs that read “God Hates Fags.”

Inevitably, any sane individual would be aghast by the irreverent, ignorant, homophobic and anti-Semitic filth that the self-proclaimed church attempts to veil as religious oration and peddle on its website. The church’s leaders routinely quote scripture out of context to justify their unjustifiable hatred to the point where most other religious factions, would sooner call them a cult than a church. 

Their unapologetic and relentless hate-mongering has stigmatized the church in the public eye, but the church maintains the right to maintain its belief in whatever it is they want. 

The members deserve the right to spread their perception throughout the world just as it is everyone else’s right to judge their pitiful ignorance.

Aaron Jackson and Planting Peace should be commemorated as a sign that, while the Westboro Baptist Church can spread its bigoted ideology, the rest of the world can promote charity, equality, peace and love.