Phyllis Schlafly Was Pure Evil, But Jesus Loves Her Anyway

Phyllis Schlafly is finally dead.

Ding dong.

She was one of the worst, WORST, examples of a human being claiming to be a Christian I can think of, right up there with Jerry Falwell and others of their ilk. She was notoriously homophobic and anti-feminist. She is most well known for the defeat of the Equal Rights Amendment but she did plenty of other damage as well.

I don't want to talk about her any more except to say that I hated her for the harm she did to people like me and the people I love. I could never forgive the awful things she did and the horrible things she said.

If I believed people could go to Hell when they died, I would revel in the thought of her burning there for all eternity.

But I don't.

A fundamental part of my Christian belief is that God extends grace and salvation to everyone (now whatever that is, whatever that means is open to interpretation).

As one of my friends posted on Facebook today, "For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus." Romans 3:23-24.

You see, though I, like Phyllis, have hate in my heart; though I cannot see past my anger and inability to forgive; though I am blinded by rage at this horrible, horrible woman, I realize that God is bigger than I am.

God is bigger than my fear and rage and hate. God's grace is vast enough to encompass and forgive both Phyllis and me in spite of our sin, that which separates us from God's love.

When I calm down, I might pray that as Phyllis transitions into the next phase of her existence, her spite and hate might give way to real peace and love, that the light of true grace might shine where the darkness in her soul once resided.

I might pray the same for myself and all the rest of us as well.