I name this Open Thread in honor of Fred Phelps — a Kansas preacher, gay rights foe, and sick f–k — who will picket tomorrow’s Boise, Idaho memorial service of a National Guard soldier killed in Iraq.
A flier on the Web site of Pastor Fred Phelps’ Westboro Baptist Church claims God killed Cpl. Carrie French with an improvised explosive device in retaliation against the United States for a bombing at Phelps’ church six years ago. … A protest is planned for July 11 at Dover Air Force Base, the military base where war dead are transported before being sent on to their home states.
Update [2005-6-14 19:6:14 by BooMan]:Thank the GOOD LORD
I trust everyone knows I’m being sarcastic. He is certifiable.
You can all see what state I’m from, so you know I’m all-too familiar with this nut. But I swear, I read that article 3 times and I still don’t understand what he’s doing this time.
his church got bombed
he blames. . .the US government?
so in retaliation he’s picketing US soldier’s funerals?
Boy that’s weird. (Understatement of century.) Is he cutting back on picketing gays, I wonder? In the Kansas City area where I live, he used to also regularly picket places where “liberal” people gave speeches. People like Deepak Chopra, if you can imagine. If any of you have never seen this guy in action, imagine a small band of adults, sometimes with children in tow, holding up large white signs that have things like, “God Hates Fags,” written in large black letters.
Usually, he pickets funerals of gay men, I think. This military thing seems to be a new obsession that’s possibly even further off the deep end?
Some people sponsor fund raisers for HIV/Aids when he shows up, and that’s nice, but doesn’t stop him.
I’m glad they don’t stop him. People need to see evil. They need to see the far end of the continuum that begins with the “family values” people and ends with Fred Phelps.
I do wish he could be stopped from picketing funerals, though. It’s so painful for families.
It is unconscionable.
But I’m confident that for every hateful, misguided Phelpsian there will be 100 loving supporters for the family.
I lived in Pittsburgh in 2003, when Mr Rogers (yes, THAT Mr Rogers), who was a local, passed away. Fred Phelps and his gang of homicidal lunatics actually picketed the memorial service. At least one paper quoted Phelps as referring to Mr Rogers as “a faggot.”
Mr Rogers, for crying out loud.
To which I can only say… Amen.
certifiably crazy. You can tell your gay hating friends – “geez you wanna end up like him???”
Agreed. Phelps and company do provide that ultimate contrast, the fringe, those on the edge. There is some value in having him show what extremism can lead to, evil.
From Drudge, who’s got his jock strap in a twist over this photo:
REUTERS RUNS BUSH ‘HITLER SALUTE’ ON WIRE…
Unbelievable!
We can actually influence the rating of the photo. Only 256 votes now – but only 2 stars, we should try to bump it up.
(Steal that photo if you want … I resized it and saved it in a smaller file size.)
From Drudge:
Tue Jun 14 2005 21:37:56 ET
President Bush tonight ripped the Democratic Party as a pack of do-nothing obstructionists bent on derailing his agenda of reform, telling Democratic leaders in Congress that on issue after issue, “they stand for nothing except obstruction, and this is not leadership.”
Joseph Curl at WASHINGTON TIMES reporting in fresh editions: At an evening congressional gala at the Washington Convention Center — which drew $23 million for House and Senate Republicans and amounted to the kick-off of the 2006 political campaign season — the president drew standing ovations from GOP faithful as he hammered Democrats for offering no solutions to the nation’s most pressing problems. “If leaders of the other party have innovative ideas, let’s hear them. But if they have no ideas or policies except obstruction, they should step aside and let others lead,” Mr. Bush said to thunderous applause from more than 5,000 supporters.
The president, who has spent the last several months seeking consensus on his Social Security reform package and reaching out to Democrats with non-confrontational rhetoric, said opposition party leaders are pursuing “the philosophy of the stop sign, the agenda of the road block, and our country and our children deserve better.”
“Political parties that choose the path of obstruction will not gain the trust of the American people,” he said at the event dubbed “The 2005 President’s Dinner.”
Mr. Bush said political parties can take one of two approaches: “One approach is to lead, to focus on the people’s business, to take on the tough problems, and that is exactly what our party is doing.”
“The other approach is to simply do nothing, to delay solutions, obstruct progress, refuse to take responsibility. Members of the other party have worked with us to achieve important reforms on some issues, yet, too often, their leadership prefers to block the ideas of others.”
Developing…
I quiver with fear and rage everytime I hear a repub say “reform” cause I know I’m going get screwed again.
Ok, Mr. President please tell us:
WHAT IS YOUR SOCIAL SECURITY PLAN?
From what I have read, the fundraising tactic keeps the Phelps demos very short. He was in NH recently to picket a high school graduation (!) and apparently the demo only lasted 10 minutes once they learned that every minute was raising $ for what they are demonstrating against.
sick, sick f*ck. He is the same @$$hole who led the protest during Matthew Shepherd’s funeral. Luckily his hometown faith communities are fighting against his “church’s” hateful tactics.
THIS is how loony Phelps is. He picketed Focus on the Family (works for me), but check out his REASON:
COLORADO SPRINGS – Gay rights supporters from around the country, angry at James Dobson’s stance against homosexuality, are expected to converge Sunday and Monday on his Focus on the Family headquarters.
A second demonstration is also set for Sunday by a handful of extreme anti-gay activists from the Rev. Fred Phelps’ Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan.
Ironically, both groups will be protesting the stand taken by Dobson and his ministry on homosexuality. The gay rights advocacy group Soulforce accuses Dobson of “spreading lies about same-gender families.”
Phelps’ group says Focus officials are headed to hell because the ministry is soft on homosexuality.
By Dick Foster, Rocky Mountain News
April 29, 2005
When you’re dis-invited from Colorado “evangelical central” Springs because you’re a nutcase, you’re a real nutcase…
“Vice Mayor Richard Skorman responded to the Westboro Baptist Church protest by saying, “I want to say loud and clear that these people are not welcome in our city, and I have the support of all of council to say that. And I wish they would go home and leave us alone. People in Colorado Springs do not support what they do, and they need to leave us alone and mind their own business, because we’re a city of everybody.”
http://westernskies.krcc.org/transcripts/3-12-2005/WS_3122005_A.html
I firmly believe in Hell, and that Fred Phelps and his ilk will be featured residents…but only after they come before the Judgement Seat of God to be judged for their sins of hate, and have that Judgement passed by Matthew Shepherd sitting at the right hand of Christ, and Randy Shilts sitting at the left.
“If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.” — 1 John 4:20-21
I don’t believe in hell, but I do believe that he will be reincarnated as a kumquat.
What a vile mound of excrement that man is.
He obviously gets off on attention, so it’s tempting to just not show up at his little 10-person party.
But hatred like that just can’t go unanswered, and that’s why everywhere he goes there is some sort of counter-protest or AIDS fundraiser that greets him.
Shepards Murder? And was spewing Hate towards Matthew and his family during their sons Funeral. I even think he is a character in “The Laramie Project”. During the Funeral he and his folk Screaming “All Fags Should die and when they do they will go to Hell” along with “God created AIDS to kill all the Fags in the World” He is true evil. He is the biggest MotherFucking Scumsucking Dickhead Son of a Bitch piece of Shit that ever walked the earth and deserves Nothing but Misfortune. He makes Randall Terry seem like Mother Teresa. I don’t think there is any other human that brings out this kind of anger in me. Any question on how I really feel? Ufhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…Jesus is vomiting…wupppppppp
Yes, this is the group that protested at the funeral. While Matthew Sheppard was dying in our local hospital CSU had their homecoming parade and I took my little granddaughter. One of the floats had a scarecrow hanging on a fence with FAG painted on it. I was so shocked I just stood there trying to decide if I really saw what I saw. By the time I was sure that I really saw it the float was long gone but I will always regret that I didn’t make a scene.
Somebody like that, so vehemently and violently anti-gay, methinks he doth protest too much.
And is he a “real” reverend, as in graduate of a legit divinity school? Or is he just another of those self-proclaimed get rich by whatever means televangelists? Sort of a this year’s Jimmy Swaggart.
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, (slpcenter.org) Phelps was ordained as a Baptist minister at 17, in 1947. After driving away most of the congregation at his church, in 1955, he supported himself as a vacuum cleaner and baby carriage salesman. Turns out he’s also a disbarred lawyer.
It would be interesting to know if there are ‘closet stories’ on Phelps.
This is off track, but being a reverend is different than graduating from a divinity school. The title ‘Reverend’ implies ordination by a specific body of believers, either a denomination or an individual congregation. The two often correlate, but many churches will ordain ministers without a Masters in Divinity, and many people pursue a Masters in Divinity for personal or academic reasons and never seek ordination.
of clergy who depend on fear and hatred as motivators.
Somehow, it just doesn’t seem right, you know?
Yet they have the gall to accuse us of being amoral and immoral.
I wrote a diary the other day on the way the right constantly villainizes the secular left as the godless minions of Satan — I Am The Boogeyman.
I attended that National Gay and Lesbian Task Force’s Creating Change conference in Dallas. A few friends and I had ventured out for dinner (my God, the streets of downtown Dallas are empty after 5:00…there’s something wrong with that). We were coming back to the hotel, and there was Fred’s clan. We ran up to our rooms to get our cameras (I so wanted a picture with Fred) but by the time we got back down to the street, they were gone. No picture with Fred š
If anyone interested in queer organizing issues, go to Creating Change. It’s a phenomenal time.
And, speaking of burning in Hell, isn’t Jesse Helms due there soon?
H&$%&%$^$#))_)&(^%$^#$&())&^%($^@ oh holy defication…at Dovor….my God, he is such a demon…
I actually think he is in his own hell here on earth….look at the fire and brimstone he is spouting…
No, this suggestion isn’t about your writing, it’s a suggestion for the FAQ’s, to have a tip sheet on good writing. People want to know how to write well, especially this people.
Citizen-Journalism Sites: Don’t Be Boring
As I’ve been watching content submitted by the public on some of the new citizen-journalism sites, I definitely see a need for some education and encouragement to get better and more submissions.
No, I don’t mean that we in the news industry need to try to turn all our readers into quasi-professional journalists by training and accrediting them. But I do think that citizen-journalism sites should have resource sections with advice for them on some of the basics: how to write a “lede” paragraph to hook people into reading more; how to select and crop your best photograph; how to write a good headline; how to avoid libeling someone and the personal consequences of being careless; etc.
Tell Phelps to stick this in his homophobic pipe and smoke it.
…Fred Phelps (I won’t sully the word “Reverend” with his name) was an extremely abusive father and husband, both physically and emotionally.
Read about it here (lengthy but very informative).
Family values, indeed. I’m grateful two of his kids got out.
Andy
Sarasota
I thought it was a picture of Karl Rove. Talk about selective vision. š
the pic…it is Brilliant…Bood is a genius…look at the other pictures…Loving the Condi one…
I thought it was real.
…and an opportunity for some good jokes:
A First: Scientists Grow New Brain Cells in Lab
Not mine, however.
sparrowsong has a diary on Mukhtaran Mai, the Pakistani woman who was ordered to be gang raped by the courts there. Instead of killing herself, as expected, she instead went on to fight back and start a school. Anyway, now the govt is trying to disappear her and she needs voices of support. Details in the diary.
Thanks!
Hey you are all lucky, I have to drive by that hell on earth everyday to get to my job in Topeka. I guess I could add several blocks and go around, yet I know that when I pass that stinking pile of human excrement, I say a little prayer to Great Spirit that this evil be plucked from the earth. I keep hoping a whirling dervish will pop out of the sky and take him and all his poisonous hellish offspring with him to that place reserved only for such evil. I shudder everytime I pass that venomous pit of inequity. The evil that resides there makes me physically ill. There are only three people that I would deem more evil that this man, only because he hasn’t found the way to gain the same power as these three, Hitler, Stalin and Mao. Between the three it is estimated that more than 1 billion people have perished due to there pogroms. If Fred Phelps had similiar power, I am sure that number would double, that is how evil I feel this man is and will continue in his desire to harm every living thing that crosses his path.
If I was a Republican I’d be checking Phelps’ bank account for deposits made by the DNC. He’s awful. He’s the purest distillation of what’s behind so much of the anti-gay and anti-feminist sentiment in the culture war. Thank God they have their prominent encapsulators of the bad faith.
As a Unitarian I don’t believe in hell, neither the actual place nor the notion of a God that sentences a sinner to eternal punishment. But I wouldn’t mind it springing into existence for 30 seconds or so just as Mr Phelps dies so he’ll get a little fucking jolt of regret and repentance for his anti-Christian abominations. He would’ve punched Mary Magdalene in the face for being a harlot if he’d been alive in 33 AD, not welcomed her into the house of God.
He is an actual antichrist, anything Christ would’ve done he does the other way. Anywhere there’s a choice between love and hate, he chooses hate.
We make our living the same way, more or less. Speak/Assemble where your viewpoint is unpopular (I’m more restrained.) Get arrested. Sue for false arrest as free speech violation.
made me think of Goodman’s article with Mr. Gernman Susanhu posted the other day and how Homeland security doesn’t seem to be looking into these hate groups.
I think they don’t realize domestic terrorists are drenched with religion and white supremacy. Or maybe they know all too well that they are and are protecting them(?)
Phelps, the KKK and Aryan nations ARE the terrorists. why aren’t they in Guantanamo Bay??
Fuckers… all of them.
You want fries with that?