It's not a normal habit of mine to actively read over the obituaries of celebrities; in the recent case of Steve Jobs though, I somehow couldn't help but to feel obliged to do so. It's partially due to the fact that I sincerely admire his ingenuity, but a lot of it has to do with the fact that we both shared this experience in developing pancreatic problems. I got lucky and overcame mine. It wasn't so for him, and it progressed to something worse that ended his life. I found myself curious if how he dealt with the news was anything similar to the way I did. I hoped to find out when and where his the funeral services would be, and to perhaps even find an online book of condolences to share my sentiments for this great innovator.
My search through the postings of the death of Steve Jobs was a sobering reminder as to why I have divorced and abandoned myself completely away from the stupidity of religious dogmatism and fundamentalism, and the people who fanatically chose to follow such things. When it comes to spirtuality or religion, there is nothing more disgusting to me than people using their sanctimony, or citing "God's will", to preach hatred, abuse, and violence, no matter which faith it is. Through the news gleaned in my searches, I discovered a reprehensible plan by the Westboro Baptist Church of Kansas to intrude, and picket, and protest at the funeral of this wonderful human being who has brought so much benefit to modern society. Their reason, according to a Twitter message from one of it's members, which ironically was sent from an iPhone (which Steve Jobs of course invented), is stated as,"Westboro will picket his funeral. He [Jobs] had a huge platform; gave God no glory & taught sin." Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/312445#ixzz1a6wadcw3*
If I was ever approached by the fool who ever said that to me, and if I was given no choice to avoid engaging with them about the subject, I'd have to point out to them that Steve Jobs wasn't even a Christian, but a Zen Buddhist; and if he indeed lived up to using a Zen perspective, a.) he would have regarded his "platform" not so much as huge, but non-permanent and ever-changing/evolving, and he wisely did not squander it to the will of absolutist thinkers (or thinking), b.) with a Zen mind, it wouldn't have been a concern to him as to whether or not there was even a God to give any glory to, and c.) there is no such doctrine or dogma in Zen Buddhism that recognizes such a concept as "sin" to begin with** therefore he didn't make it some mandate of his to intentionally "teach" sin to others. How Jobs supposedly "taught sin", according to the WBC, was that he somehow made Apple Inc. a very "pro-homosexual" company.
Of course the members of the WBC are too busy bending interpretations of scriptures to make them suit their political agenda, and would seem far too ignorant to bring themselves around to Zen Buddhist thinking like Steve Jobs did: that is, being mindful and noting interdependence of all things in existance, and the interplays of cause and effect. They proved that their organization has no problem or qualms about using computer technology to do their self-righteous gay-bashing; yet they fail to see the irony that without one gay person at a critical time in our history, there might not have been any computers (as we know them), nor even any freedom of speech for this group to enjoy or exploit for expressing their delusional beliefs for that matter. It would help if I used the context of something in real history about another "computer innovator" to shed light on that last point.
During World War II, the British were feverishly trying to develop a machine to decode the cyphers being intercepted from the German U-boat fleets in order to get a leg up on the Battle of the Atlantic. A man with a brilliant mathematical and technical mind, named Alan Turing, was the genius who contributed to this decryption project in Blechley Park in London that ultimately broke the Nazis codes. This in turn helped the British turn the tables to have more allied shipping and supplies safely arrive; saving Britain from starvation and scarcity of other defense resources. This the helped lead to the allies victory in Europe, which ultimately overthrew the stranglehold of fascism and preserved democracy and free speech, at least in Western Europe. Alan Turing's ingenuity also laid out the ground work for the technology for the first digital computers, which were ultimately used to accelerate developments for the Manhatten Project, which finally led to the victory over Japan, thus securing America's victory and democracy. Turing also happened to be a homosexual.
I can't help but to wonder how differently the world could be now, and the alternate consequences that would have unfolded, if a scenario occurred where some ignorant, bigoted, sanctimonious bastard found out about Alan`s lifestyle, and just for sport, used his religiously-inspired prejudice to find Turing and incidentally beat him to death in a gay-bashing frenzy before Turing was ever able to finish the vital work for he was doing for the defense of Britain during that war. Britain may have then lost out to the evils of Nazism had that happened. I would hate and fear being under the boot heel of a totalitarian regime (ie. no right to intellectual freedom, no freedom of expression, no right to assemble, and no right to vote or live democratically, and no right to question authority) far more so than I would ever fear and hate someone who was a homosexual. Living life under the ideology of religious fundamentalists would be very close to, if not exactly like, living under a totalitarian regime.
I've seen the ugly face of this radical WBC group before. They are into the condemnation of any person or celebrity figure whom they regard as being so "sinful" as to respect the rights of gays and lesbians. This band of brain-washed idiots also protested at the more recent military funerals of the American soldiers who served overseas, citing that it was God's punishment to America for being more tolerant of homosexuality in society.They're more of a cult than a church, being made up of mostly family members under the direction of it's deranged leader*** Fred Phelps. I once saw a YouTube video of Phelps expounding his gratitude that "George Carlin is now in HELL!" soon after Carlin's death in 2008. George Carlin, despite his culture-clashing, satirical style of humour (like the Seven Words You Can't Say on Television routine), did so much to actually pave the way for freedom of speech rights in American media, and examine the semantics of our public (or decent) use of language. So, then Phelps and his troop of ultra-conservative religious loonies exploited those very same rights that Carlin exemplified and even legally fought for, only to then publically broadcast the 'damnation' of George Carlin. George Carlin did all that dirty work for them, only to have them abuse this freedom of speech that they have to announce that he'll be sent to hell for what he did. How ironic can you get!
If indeed the WBC successfully executes its indecent intention to disrupt the service and rites of the funeral of Steve Jobs (or any other people they term as "sinners"), I'll be very saddened and fearful. Protesting at a funeral, in my mind, defies all that is decent. Willfully disrupting an event of commemoration for a person's good works on Earth of finding new innovations that unite humanity with new technology, and then using that same technology to try to rally people together to indignify and defame him is beyond insulting, and exposes a whole new level of deplorable ignorance in religious fanatics. They will only prove to the rest of the world yet another monstrous side of themselves; how arrogant, bigoted, intolerant, hypocritical, and obnoxious religious fundamentalists are, and how willing such people are to trespass and encroach on the events of harmonious commemoration and celebration others are trying to create.
* - I only include the link for an accurate reference, I by no means wish to give this abomination of a christian "church" more attention than it deserves.
**- In Buddhism, there are no sins, but there are differing degrees of skillfulness (or unskillfulness) in conduct (which is relativistic) which then always results into, or is resulting from, karma, which will ultimately determine if or how you will suffer. It's not about terms of satisfying some absolute moral imperative which puts you at the mercy of the favour (or disfavour) of some kind of anthropomorphic divine being, like in Western monotheistic religions.
*** - I use the term "cult leader" instead of "pastor", as he calls himself, because I chose not to insult any Christians of better discretion by endowing him with the latter mentioned title.
