Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - Fred Phelps and his latest messages of hate

Bill O'Rights · 08-11-2005, 12:37 PM

I appologize, in advance, for the length of these articles. Normally I try to pare them down, for inclusion on these boards, and provide a link for those that want more "dinner" with thier "meat". This time, however, I found that every word held just as much import as the last.

Lincoln Journal Star

Quote:

OMAHA — There were flags. Across the street from St. Bridget Catholic Church, flags hung from protesters: drooping, dirty, dragging on the ground. A forlorn backdrop to the protesters' signs, which read, among other things, "God hates the U.S.A.," "God hates soldiers" and "Thank God for IEDs."

About 10 protesters stood on the sidewalk across from the church where the funeral for Staff Sgt. Tricia Jameson, 34, of Omaha was about to be held. The Nebraska Army National Guard medic, a member of the 313th Medical Company of Lincoln, died in a Humvee ambulance on July 14 as she rushed to the aid of three Marines wounded in an attack on their convoy in western Iraq. She was killed by an improvised explosive device, or IED, less than three weeks after arriving in Iraq.

The sunburned protesters were members of a radical Topeka, Kan., church led by anti-gay crusader Fred Phelps. They have protested at everything from schools to churches across the country, spreading their belief that America is damned because of its tolerance of homosexuals. They're taking their signs to soldiers' funerals, claiming their church was bombed by an IED 10 years ago, and that God is retaliating by killing American soldiers with IEDs in Iraq.

But there were other flags, too.

Such as the one that emerged from a silver hearse, solemnly draped over the coffin of Jameson. Her family exited a limousine and read the signs across the street. Their disgust was palpable, but they maintained their composure.

Did the protesters not understand, some asked one another, that Jameson died defending their right to hold those signs?

Dozens of soldiers in green uniforms — many of whom had worked with Jameson — lined the sidewalk, silently staring at the signs.

The irony was not lost on Maj. Gen. Roger Lempke, Nebraska's adjutant general. He's seen protests before, but nothing like this.

"It always reminds me of how there are difficulties in living in a free society," he said. "That's one of the things we put up with to live in a free society."

The scene was more than Jameson's mother, Pat Marsh, could take. The petite blonde woman crossed the street and asked the protesters to leave, out of respect. The protesters said it's not about her daughter; it's about America.

But today was about her daughter, Marsh said, the girl who never gave her any trouble, from day one — "Like you were given an angel." The girl who didn't tell Mom she'd volunteered for duty in Iraq.

Jameson, the happy, gung-ho soldier everybody described as a caretaker, died trying to help a fallen soldier, the priest said. She was proud that she was a soldier who helped the injured. She'd trained and trained others for years, but this was her first foray into combat.

Her greatest fear, her mother said, was that she would forget everything she'd learned during training and not be able to save someone. She never got that chance; her mother said 30 pounds of metal tore through the back of her head.

Her death, Rev. Adams said, was caused by "hate and fanaticism."

Never let it be said that I do not give equal time to the hate mongers...

God Hates Fags

Quote:

OMAHA, NE EPIC – July 23, 2005
Cast of Characters (a/k/a Tachmonites): Gran; Megan; Zach; Grace; Gabriel; Jonah; Noah; Theresa; Lauren; Shirl; Ben; Mara; Seth; Anna; Fred, Jr. and Betty (scribe).

Introduction: The Lord sent his servants rising early and speaking to the inhabitants of Omaha, Nebraska on July 23, 2005 to warn them to turn from their evil doings and to not worship other gods and to not provoke the Lord to anger. (Jeremiah 25). The occasion was the funeral of Staff Sgt. Tricia L. Jameson, killed by an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) on July 14, 2005.

Contradictory Cops: Upon arrival at the host Catholic Church in Omaha, we were met by contradictory and contentious cops. We were told not to stand on the sidewalk by the church because it was private property, so we went across the street only to be met by a man with a large commercial mower who found it necessary to blow as much debris upon us as possible. We were told by the first cop if we stepped onto the grass we’d be arrested. Another corpulent cop came up later and said we needed to move off of the sidewalk into the grass so the contract mower-in-residence could weed-eat along the sidewalk. When we obeyed that directive from Sir Corpulent, Mr. Mower ran across the street crying to yet another cop (we’ll call him Cop #3) who had just pulled up. Cop #3 promptly strutted over to us, and announced we must return to the sidewalk. When Shirl began explaining the contradicting directives we were receiving from law enforcement, Cop #3 got his pad out, demanding her personal identification information and otherwise strongly implying her arrest was imminent. With some carefully crafted words and Lauren running the camcorder on him, he finally got off of that.

All the while this cop chicanery was going on our signs were high in the air. “Fag Church”, “Don’t Worship the Dead”, “God Hates Fags”, “God Hates Fag Enablers”, “Thank God for IEDs”, “America is Doomed”, “Thank God for 9-11”, etc. and 3 flags dragging on the ground was the sight that met those attending, as well as the media covering, this event.

Myopic Media: A representative from the Lincoln, Nebraska paper, the major Omaha newspaper, National Public Radio, an Associated Press photographer and TV cameras were all there to help publish our message. Several of us were interviewed and had good words to say such as “if God can bless America, he can also curse America.” Also, “the worst thing you can do is to harass the Lord’s servants. An IED was set off at our church and now the Lord is using this same tool to punish this country.” Also, “your children are being dashed to pieces.” (Psalm 2:9; Isaiah 13:16-18). We told them this is not about just this one solider, this is about a nation that has spit in the face of God and is now facing the terror of the Lord. We also said this funeral was being used to promote the military and the war, so we’re also using this as a platform to get our message out. And so on.

Massive Military: While these interviews were going on, good words were also flowing to those standing outside the church, both civilian and military. “Do you think you can turn this country over to the fags and not pay the price for it?” “God blew up this body and now you’re taking it into a church with a pedophile priest!” We were called “scum” and told to shut up over and over. Gran answered wisely with “this does not change anything, God still hates fags and fag enablers and the truth is, you don’t want us here, you want us to leave.” We were told to give the family some peace. Shirl responded: “You’re never going to have peace.” (Isaiah 57:21).

Judging from the many varying uniforms we saw, it was apparent that virtually every branch of the United States military was represented at this funeral. The services were nothing more than a showcase for the military. A public spectacle, if you will. It occurred to us that the military is good at pomp and circumstance, but sorely lacking in any answers as to what is really happening and why it’s happening. The mother of the deceased seemed in her own way to confirm this was nothing more than a vain glory military show, when she approached us sadly and announced she hated the war as much as we do (actually we don’t hate it as we see the hand of God in it), but, said she, this just wasn’t the time and place for our demonstration. In reality, though, it was just the place and just the time for us to appear.

Conclusion: It was a privilege to be a part of this venture. Everyone kept rank and aided in getting our message out. The Lord protected us as evidenced by our safe departure. When we walked to our vehicles a man with a KC Chiefs cap and big belly was trying to block the sidewalk and give us grief. In fact, that man was stalking us (we cleverly nick-named him “the stalker”) and had been for some time. Several shabbily-clad guys on motorcycles, who had passed our picket site just moments before, were also waiting for us at our van to cause us trouble. After we quickly loaded up the van in the near 100 degree heat we heard some loud shouting and cursing behind us. It turned out those cyclists thought the other man was one of us. So, instead of turning their vile intentions against us, the Easy Rider wannabes turned their attention to the stalker and we slipped away without incident. We are very thankful for this help from God. (Psalm 108:12, 13).

I feel like I need to shower.

First, for those that do not know, an IED is a Improvised Explosive Device.

Now...for the discussion part:
I know of very few (in fact...I really know of none) Christians that embrace, nor even condone, the Rev. Phelps' idealogy. I would call Phelps an...extremist. Why then, do we assume that because some Muslim extremists step out of the bounds (to put it lightly) of human acceptability, are we so quick to catagorize them as representative of the entire islamic faith?