This is just hilarious. I particularly like the part about "hooligans," "Godless Sodomites," and "fag-enabling fools." And don't forget: "the Satanic spirit of mockery." (I wonder if Respectful Insolence⢠would qualify.)
Funny, but Phelps looks and sounds much as I pictured him. Actually, I couldn't watch more than the first half of it, as it rapidly gets tiresome and repetitive. Still, it's disturbing to see that the Westboro Baptist Church nutcases are now doing video, and the production values are actually better than I would have expected. Too bad it's all to dress up truly vile, hate-filled content and to defend their despicable tactics of picketing the funerals of homeosexuals and slain military personnel, with plans to picket the Flight 93 memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania on the fifth anniversary of 9/11 next week.
Via Crooks and Liars.
They're picketting the Flight 93 memorial???
I hope that they get a lot of spit on them.
Can the non-fundie Christians out there start denouncing these people? Would like it if some consensus would be reached about some title to call them that labels them as anti-Christian, and puts them in the same category as the Salem witch hunters and the Spanish Inquisition.
It's a "No True Scotsman" thing, but hey, not-bat[poo]-crazy Christians need to clearly mark this sort of thing as utterly unacceptable in civilized society, and make that mark clear to the fundies.
Shouldn't we mobilize, just in case "The Lord" call one of Phelps' congragation to join him in hell? It would be quite amusing to picket the funeral of one of these nut-cases.
Anyone who uses that barbaric tale of Lott as some sort of moral guide should be considered criminally insane.What a piece of sh1t.
One of the nice things about Phelps and his cronies is that they're so ridiculous that they marginalise themselves. We don't have to do anything about them.
And it also just occurred to me that Phelps' congregation are probably the only people on the planet I might feel comfortable calling "sheeple", if it weren't such a completely ridiculous word.
The Phelps gang are basically attention whores of the first order. There are certainly very far out there Christian groups who believe as Phelps does that troubles visiting the US are a result of the loss of God's favor, but to me Phelps is in a separate category. He likes to be in the spotlight, that's his main religion. Most of his church is his extended family members, and they specialize in legal shenanigans.
At one point I lived in a majority gay neighborhood, and this guy brought his little gang (including kids, perhaps 6 or 8 people in total) to stand on my street, in my driveway, even, waving their day-glo signs around, on the day of the Gay Pride Parade.
Police on horseback had the Phelpses surrounded for their own protection. They appeared then very small, and that is the image I remember.
The only good thing about this video is that the hatemonger looks like he's knocking on death's door. I'm afraid though that if he ever does die and is buried that his corpse will pollute the earth from the inside. Fred Phelps lives on hate like a vampire lives on warm blood.
Its obvious that the man has never read anything that wasn't the bible, or that for which the bible was the only source. The whole church is basicly his extended family, its like some ma and pa cult.
I thought it was funny at parts, apparently he can acuratly date the destruction of sodom.
One question remains though, if it truely is "too late for America to repent" as he puts it, then why doesn't he and his ilk shut up, stay in westboro, and die waiting for the not-gonna-happen rapture.
If "America is doomed," does that mean he and his followers are going to leave like Lot leaving Sodom? That would be too bad.
Did he show a picture of ... toast?
Phelps is a hateful, angry little man with way too much exposure in this world.
Before he and his cult get carried off, will he be like Lot himself and offer his daughters up for the invaders to ravage? He seems to really like the whole rest of that story, so I don't see why not.
Their video library really repays watching...check out God Hates You. Damn, these people are in touch with one nasty aspect of the holy spirit.
A better arguement for atheism, I have never seen.
He's a very sad little man. Anybody who obsesses that much about gay sex... well, you know. If you want some reading material on him, and can handle the rise in blood pressure, here.
I can't wait for the Daily Show on Monday!
Even the fundies have denounced this guy.
"Fred Phelps does not give the religious right a bad name, because nobody claims kin to that guy. He's a certified nut. He's got papers to prove it--he doesn't, he should. Anybody who goes to a funeral of a little boy who's dead, and his parents are looking at a big placard Fred Phelps puts up saying "Matt is in hell," is either mean as the devil or a nutcase. Either way, he doesn't represent anybody credible. "--Jerry Falwell on Frontline
Non-fundies have denounced this guy early and regularly, but that doesn't make news. Dog bites man just isn't a story.
That last comment made me look up the interview with Falwell here. I have to grudgingly admit, Falwell comes across there as a rather methodical, almost logical thinker --- somehow able to translate faith-based "knowledge" into rational argument.
That's in some ways scarier than the outright plumb-loco approach of Phelps.
In fact, I know of no group of Christians who haven't denounced him. His "Westboro Baptist Church" consists almost entirely of his own family, and he has made no converts to his ugliness elsewhere -- there is a persisten rumor that he doesn't want any, that his whole thing is a scam -- that he makes offensive comments so that people will attack him, then sues them, and that is the way he makes the money for the "Church."
However, he is so noisy, and so successful at getting media attention and in other ways that he is really the 'school bully writ large' at least in parts of Kansas. (And, sadly, I have seen any number of people attacking regulations creating a 'protest-free' zone around funerals as, in some way, a limitation on free speech.. No one is, or, sadly, should, keeping him from preaching his hate, from using the net, from creating his demonstrations, but there are authentic questions as to whether inappropriate demonstrations -- demonstrations inappropriate to the place where they are taking place -- can be limited, if the rules are general.)
I don't understand this. As much, for example, as I hate the war, I would oppose a protest at a soldier's funeral, or any funeral on that topic.
Prup's rumor makes sense...I believe that Fred Phelps was a lawyer, but was disbarred. On the other hand, I read that he used to teach at a Mormon university, and they told him to get psychiatric help or get fired. He chose termination.
I think you could reasonably define a protest at a funeral as trespassing. That video was clearly for an internal audience, why else would it speak of Americans as irredeemable? It sound like a rant to fire up the troops rather than an attempt to attrat converts.
Actually it reminds me of a certain firely rhetorician with a silly moustache who was doing the rounds a bit over 60 years ago, but I just caught the scent of rotting meat outside the door, so I'm going to discontinue this line of thought.
James, I see where you're going with the analogy to the fella with the Charlie Chaplin moustache who showed everybody how high his dog could jump when he greeted them, but that guy's army assuredly DID NOT entirely consist of his family. If anything, his rellies kept a good distance from that fella, except when they needed money. Phelps is even more whacko than the guy with the moustache, so the Zombie can relax.