Fundies Gone Wild!!! - Just saw this on CNN - Funeral Protests...

[Peter Frank]

Who the fuck do these people think they are!?

The Westboro Baptist Church (Topeka Ks.) is sponsoring protests of funerals of our soldiers killed in the Mideast.

<snip>During the 1990s, the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan., went around picketing the funerals of AIDS victims with protest signs that read, "God Hates Fags." But politicians began paying more attention recently when church members started showing up at the burials of soldiers and Marines killed in Afghanistan and Iraq./<snip>


<snip>The church has about 75 members, most of them belonging to the extended family of Westboro Baptist's pastor, the Rev. Fred Phelps. The church is an independent congregation that preaches a literal reading of the Bible.


Shirley Phelps-Roper, Phelps' daughter and an attorney for the church, said states cannot interfere with their message that the soldiers were struck down by God because they were fighting for a country that harbors homosexuals and adulterers.<snip>

http://news.aol.com/topnews/articles?id=n20060206142309990010&cid=235
.........................

<snip>Phelps and his Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka have made headlines picketing funerals of soldiers nationwide. Phelps said the soldiers were being killed because God was angry at the United States’ tolerance of homosexuality.

Kansas and other states, including Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska and West Virginia, are pursuing laws to keep demonstrators farther away from funerals because of Phelps’ actions.

Sacco’s husband, Sgt. Dominic Sacco, 32, was killed in Iraq in November. At his funeral in Topeka, Phelps and his followers demonstrated.<snip>

http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2006/feb/02/phelps_defends_funeral_protests/?city_local

Where does this shit end? Can't people even mourn in peace anymore?

[BuyingThyme]

1. I didn't know it was possible, but these people are beyond fundamentalism.

[Peter Frank]

3. Respectfully, I believe you're wrong...

IMO These people are the essence and the culmination of fundamentalism.

[BR_Parkway]

6. Exactly, Phelps and crew just care slightly less about maintaining the

cover of normalcy/respectibility. Plenty of other fundies who get all frothy in the mouth over me being able to file a joint tax return, and the more they hear that "all of America is against gay this or that" the more vocal they have all become.

If they felt enough people were on their side, public stonings would be in for a huge resurgence. Hell, they'd probably adapt it to some reality TV show.

Stoning with Celebrities?
Flogging the Fags?
American Idolatry?
The Interogator (Darth Cheney plays Donald Trump)

[TomClash]

7. But people aren't on their side

This was my favorite news item of the week:

FORT CAMPBELL, Kentucky (AP) -- Wearing vests covered in military patches, a band of motorcyclists rolls around the country from one soldier's funeral to another, cheering respectfully to overshadow jeers from church protesters.

They call themselves the Patriot Guard Riders, and they are more than 5,000 strong, forming to counter anti-gay protests held by the Rev. Fred Phelps at military funerals.


http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/02/21/funeral.motorcyclists.ap/

[Peter Frank]

8. I saw that too, and it's an incredibly great story...

...but why should the bereaved need a home grown militia to allow them to grieve the loss of their loved ones lost in war?

[BR_Parkway]

17. How many more would publically be on their side if they thought

they wouldn't get lambasted for it?

When Robertson and crew call for return to the good old days, when gays were locked up as criminals or worse, when blacks were lynched - what is it they really are crying for? A way to purge America into being a white nation where everyone follows the same creed and no one is different.

I no longer wonder how so many Germans could stand by and do nothing in the 30's - every day I see how easy it is for the general public to call out a group and blast them with hatred.

[TomClash]

33. Germans stood by and did nothing in large part

because the Nazis offered bread - something they didn't have. YOu can't compare America today with Germany in 1933.

The fact that war vet bikers are out there battling these people is a very good sign.

[PassingFair]

26. I'm the first one to fling stones at fundies.....

but THESE weirdos don't represent anyone but themselves.

No one stand with them.

[MountainLaurel]

32. I agree, Peter

They're just an uglier face to the hatred that is standard for these folks. They're just not sitting in a white clapboard church with a steeple in their Sunday suits while they do it.

[mia]

9. classic reaction-formation

The blocking of desire by its opposite.

Freud would have been taking notice of this group.

[Wetzelbill]

2. there has to be a special place in Hell reserved for people like that

That is just plain sick!

[opihimoimoi]

4. Sick? Add Delusional and Lost to the list.

[Wetzelbill]

5. no doubt

[ninkasi]

19. Also add

hateful, spiteful, mean spirited and evil.

[Behind the Aegis]

10. This has been going on for awhile.

Most people are now just taking notice because they are protesting military deaths. When it was the 'fags' they were protesting, many just turned a blind eye.

Those people are vile, in a way that most people have never seen! I have met that asshole, Phelps. I have seen the children he uses to advance his hate. Until you actually see it, you have no idea at the level of depravity of which these people sink.

[Peter Frank]

11. I saw video his daughter Margie earlier - And You Are Exactly Correct!...

These people are unimaginably evil in intent -- in the name of their fundamental concept of God.

[Behind the Aegis]

13. A visit to his site would confirm that.

Go there and you can listen to the screams of Matthew Shepard and Diane Whipple (lesbian killed by a neighbor's dog) in Hell and count the number of days they have been "there."

[Leopolds Ghost]

29. Lovely people.

I have to say, I am happy to see someone, no matter how evil, willing to state their beliefs openly. If only it were true of Republicans in general, we would have far less problems. It makes public discourse so much easier when we know where people REALLY stand. Too many people in this country have private condescensions and private grievances against people and ideas without saying so. This plays into their thinking at the ballot box without leaders having to say so openly, and creeping priorities visavis Katrina, etc. What was that movie where everyone was given a truth serum, or a spell, or something, and chaos erupted in the streets?

[kayice]

20. Phelps has doing this for at least 15 years.

The whole Phelps clan are lawyers. They are are an embarrassment in Kansas but sometimes I wonder if some people in Kansas don't share at least some of their ill thinking; at least where gays are concerned.


The first time I seen Phelps is when I took my sons to a wrestling match in Topeka about 15 years ago, thank God my kids couldn't read yet. I lied to them when they asked what the signs actually said and tried to explain it the best way I could --to 4 and 5 year old boys.

[Leopolds Ghost]

27. I pity them... especially the kids

But I also have to wonder if they don't have the right to picket -- within reasonable grounds of keeping the peace within 500 yards of a funeral -- saying they don't would set a terrible precedent for "free speech zones". Remember, free speech only protects speech that we can't tolerate. Tolerable speech needs no such protection - it is easily regulated by "libel" laws and "blasphemy" laws of the sort that every other country without a 1st Amendment seems to have. And they claim free speech depends on lack of physical coercion, not protection of speech/opinion that is considered intolerable, which is the stricter standard we have in the US.

Basically, I think the motorcycle band story is heartwarming, and yet we have to ask ourselves, if it is not beyond the pale for the motorcyclists to do what they are doing to drown out the Phelps lunatics, then we are obliged to protect the general right to picket within 500 yards of a funeral in a non-disruptive fashion.

Your milage may vary, of course.

"Would you cut down every law in England to get at the devil? When he comes after you, where then will you hide?" --Sir Thomas More

[acmejack]

12. I am amazed these Phelps people hasn't been beat to within an inch

of their lives yet. It is simply a matter of time, IMO. If it was a funeral of one of mine, it would certainly be sooner, rather than later, too.

[Behind the Aegis]

14. Time

You may be right. However, they have been doing this for years! As angry as this might make you, the absolute shock of it happening at a funeral for a friend might overwhelm you. Besides, that is how they survive...they sue anyone who attacks them...and they win!

[woo me with science]

15. They travel with lawyers.

From what I've heard, that is their intent: to incite people to lay a hand on them. Then they call the police and file lawsuits.

They are despicable.

[Libby2]

16. They are lawyers.

[Leopolds Ghost]

30. Your point being? All the more reason... *ahem* ahem* ;-)

These motorcycle guys are probably a bunch of teddybears compared to say, Hells Angels, but I wouldn't take any detours down darkened side streets on the way home if I were a member of Phelps' clan. Especially if the funeral was anywhere near a military base...!

[bbernardini]

25. Simple. Wear a mask, bring a baseball bat, run quickly.

Problem solved. :)

[ryan_cats]

18. As a Christian, I'm offended

As a Christian, I'm offended. Phelps and his klan don't speak for me. Him and his groups are pure hatred. I don't think his 'church' has members that aren't part of his family.

I am sickened by their protests at AIDS victims' funerals, this is not the way Christians work.

Finally, his use of the word, fa** really offends me. The first amendment is not for this brand of hatred, his group has no shame whatsoever and to be honest, if some other group got physical against them, it wouldn't bother me. It would unfortunately, play right into their hate stained hands.

[Scout1071]

21. For the love of God, please stop.

Every thread, news article, camera crew, etc just feeds the monster.

He's sick, but he's smart. He and most of his devil spawn are attorneys and know the limits of the law.

All the anger, all the publicity, just feeds the monster. It's exactly what he wants. I live in Kansas and I have learned that the best way to defeat Fred is to ignore him. Kind of like when you are training a puppy. When they really need attention, they don't care if you are praising or yelling. Either way, they are getting your attention. So the best way to deal with some behaviors is to completely ignore them. They will then stop the behavior and move on to something else because all they are interested in is your attention.

Please don't take this personally, this post applies to all who post on Fred, sometimes multiple times a day. He is without a doubt the most vile of humans, but he grows stronger with every thread, article and tv piece. I know it will be difficult, but we have to try!


I posted this just 2 days ago in this thread: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=503085&mesg_id=503230

How about we try to go one hour without feeding the monster? Every thread makes Fred's PR hard-on grow.

PS - Fred is a registered Democrat. Fucker.

[Peter Frank]

24. Sorry - I can't oblige...

Evil is evil -- and the light needs to shine on it.

[bumblebee1]

22. He gives all ministers a bad name.

He's a disgrace to the profession and to the Democratic party. He's also a wife beating, child abusing disbarred lawyer. At least Kansas had the guts to toss him from the legal profession. Yes, an all around disgrace of a human being. Whomever told Fred Phelps that he was a man lied to him.

[Rocknrule]

23. This is sick

According to them, God hates America because we haven't put all homosexuals in gas chambers yet

[Leopolds Ghost]

31. You have to wonder if he doesn't simply have a sick attention fetish

I bet he doesn't even personally give a damn about gay people. Hell, he might be one himself. Repressed urges, covered for by over-the top theatrical attention getting and cult of personality, with which he uses to sustain his current marriage? After all, without his church, I bet no woman would want to be married to him. It's probably all for show.

[rpgamerd00d]

28. Someone tell the families that cemetaries are private property...

...owned by the church.

They can have the fundies arrested for trespassing.