Good

Good Friday, even for a non-practicing type like me, is not a day where I feel quite comfortable taking pleasure in someone's suffering. But there are exceptions. Even good ones.

When the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the loathsome toads of the Westboro Baptist Church in a suit about their protests at military funerals, I agreed with the court but added that I wished the WBC folks ill. Sort of post-modern Volatairean response: I disagree with what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it. And if someone drops a house on you all, I will not, by the way, mourn your passing.

Turns out that the vilesters were planning to picket the funeral of Marine Sergeant Jason Rogers down in Mississippi. The good Christian people of that town handled things rather well, I think. When one of the visitors alien invaders mouthed off at a gas station, he was set upon and beaten by a group of people he could not identity and for which event, strangely,  no witnesses could be found among the large crowd of bystanders. Gave him a chance to suffer for his faith. Kind of them.

Then the cars of the Kansas "church" people were oddly blocked in at their motel by a set of local pickup trucks, sans drivers. The police towing vehicle, it is said, was backed up with other tasks and could not get to the parking lot till, oh, after the funeral. "Be ye wise as serpents," said the Lord (Mt 10.16), "and innocent as doves."

A lot of good things have flowed from Good Friday. And some bad things, too. It seems right on this Good Friday to mark a moment when some of its bad turned to good. Let's hope for more.

HT to Kathy Shaidle