Shoulda done some background digging first ...

Just a few hours ago, I posted my thoughts about the video showing how Pastor Steven L. Anderson from the Faithful Word Baptist Church, was viciously tasered and beaten by border patrol at a checkpoint when he merely (and nonviolently) demanded to be known if and why he was being arrested.

The thing that shocked me the most, as was alluded to in my previous commentary on the issue, was the extreme amount of vitriol and hate the man attracted to himself in the YouTube comments to his vids. At first, I thought it was merely because he had the sheer gall to disobey cops who wanted to search him when they had no business doing so; but such amounts of bile were indicative that something else was definitely at play here. What had Pastor Anderson done to attract such hatred?

It seems I should do some Googling of people's names whenever I use them. I might get some better background info, then.

It turns out Pastor Anderson is indeed one nasty piece of work. Just to give you a taste: he uses imprecatory prayer in wishing death to President Obama (it must be fun, wishing for someone's death yet merely claiming, "Hey, it's not me, it's God who wants him dead ..." as a fallback to deny wishing for someone's demise), praying for gays and lesbians to be put to death, and etc. Really sweet stuff, isn't it?

Now, in my original post, I strongly defended the Pastor (whom I yet knew nothing about) and decried the horrific brutality that had been brought down upon him.

You know what my learning about him and his horrible, twisted beliefs changes in my views and reaction to what happened?

Absolutely fucking nothing at all.

Yes, he may be one nasty preacher – aren't they usually so? – but why would that change anything? Why would his beliefs, as wrong, filthy and amoral as they may be, make the cops' tasering and beating him any less atrocious? That's it – it shouldn't.

If you expect to implement reason and fairness in this world, one of the crucial notions to realize is that such reason and fairness apply to absolutely everyone, no matter how we may feel about such persons as Pastor Anderson. Seriously; it'd be Osama bin Laden they were electrocuting and hitting around like that, and I wouldn't oppose what they've done any less (though perhaps only because my disgust for that bit of filth has dissipated over time and lack of exposure). I shouldn't. Moral righteousness and socio-legal fairness can't be applied only to those whom we deem deserve them. They must be absolutes, applicable to every living human being on the planet, no matter who they are, what they believe, or what they've done. Doing anything otherwise makes us nothing more than massive hypocrites.

Anyone who agrees to extend rights to freedom, justice and fairness to those who "deserve" it, and not to others, deserve it not for themselves, as a quote from my very own Random Quotes section states, and damn straight, too.

Edit (02/07/12 5:21 PM ET) – Fixed broken link.

Technorati tags: pastor anderson · hate speech · border patrol · police brutality