These Westborough Baptist buffoons...

I saw the other day that they still manage to make the news by standing outside a funeral and holding up signs saying "glad you died" and so on... (which is ridiculous in itself, and I don't know why the local law don't just fit them up for child porno or something to put them away)

But what made me think is, all of these people must have started out with some kind of Christian belief.

I am pretty sure that what they are doing now is obviously intentionally offensive and they dont believe it to be spiritually true... but it is massively sacrilegious.

What if there IS a God, and broadly He is the God represented by Jesus in the Gospels that were almost contemporary to him?

When Fred Phelps dies, I wonder has he never thought that it's going to be pretty difficult to account for the way he carries on if the God he started off believing in does exist? Or maybe he has just gone fully psychotic now and he actually does believe himself?

 

StrangeFamous, how have you been, mate?

Folks can make fun of Alabama hicks all they want, but those hicks do come in handy sometimes. Like recently when Westboro announced they would be protesting at a funeral in nearby Opelika, Alabama. The newscasts were loaded with truckloads of Billy Joe RayBobs, visibly armed to the teeth, announcing that they couldn't WAIT for those bastards to come over here and disrupt the funeral of a hero. A Sons of the Confederacy motorcycle "club" announced they would escort the funeral procession. And the local sheriff and his deputies were commenting that they couldn't POSSIBLY be everywhere at the same time, and they didn't know WHAT might go unnoticed.

They canceled.

 

There have been some really great stories about how communities have stood up against these bigots.

 

Unfortunately, many in the community who don't agree with Westboro's interpretation of God's will have their own skewed interpretations. I would much rather they reflect upon their own prejudices and intolerant attitudes when they look at those of the Westboro congregation.

 

As with many other religions, there are extremists that pollute the message with prejudice.

 

I once had a far right extremist "Christian" explain how he reconciled "his" beliefs and those of God's. He told me that according to his church the soul and the body are different, thus God knows that, we as humans will make mistakes, however once we are "saved" our souls go without sin because "God" knows what is in our true hearts. To me it sounded like an excuse to do what you know is wrong but try to reconcile it with your beliefs. I think it is B.S. and hypocrisy at it's greatest, personally in my belief, I believe once you have accepted Christ, yes your soul maybe saved BUT the sins you make afterward you are still responsible for and shall have to face God and explain them. In other words, once you accept Christ, you do your best to LIVE by his teachings.

 

It has very little to do with belief. The Phelps family are mostly lawyers and they videotape everything extensively so they have evidence when they provoke someone to violence.

 

Yeah, I know that part (or most) of the way they operate is to try and sue people for restraining their right to free speech.

But surely you can deal with these kind of people "off the books"

America is supposed to have billions in black budget projects, all kinds of secret forces and powers... it can't be too hard to deal with 20 or 30 private citizens. I'm not saying do a Waco on them... (1) nobody wants the kids who are caught up in the family to be hurt (2) its massively expensive and embarrassing. We know about a lot of the stuff that happened in the 60's/70's (MK Ultra, etc...) you have to know that the same stuff is going on now (and not especially in America, in all powerful states)

All you need to do is throw the right sort of mud at them (child porn and paedophilia accusations will always stick whether they are guilty or not) and fit them up. How hard is it to plant a couple of PC's, fake some history on them, to the degree an impartial expert will say its real. Or plant drugs on them? Fit two of the main personalities up for an unsolved murder?

Nobody wants the govt to abuse their powers like this in principle. Thats why people want the state in the first place. So somebody can do the dirty work their own morales wouldnt allow them to do or vote for. After all, every survey you do shows more than 50% people believe in capital punishment. Something like 0.05% people would be willing to the be the hangman.

 

I think the best thing to do with the Westboro lot is to ignore them - every time. They are addicted to the attention they get. Depriving them of it will hurt them where it matters most to them.

 

I cannot imagine being the father of a fallen serviceman and seeing them protest at the funeral. I'm sure I would end up in jail.

 

Jonie, I agree in principle.

But when they are basically dancing on the graves of dead soldiers or children in front of their loved ones... it is an unreasonable suffering for those people to have to TRY and ignore them.

I think better to just take them out.

 

I'm talking about the media attention these assholes enjoy. Turn the cameras away from them. How the families of deceased soldiers handle the invasion of their privacy is up to them.

 

I swear, one day I will come to the UK and have a beer with you strange. I just want to know for sure. Are you TFP's most longest running trollmaster? I need to know.

To be somewhat back on topic, ... no. Ignoring is the best thing to do with attention whores. You don't "take people out". Especially not civilians who want to believe what they want tpo believe. This is the US. Not the Middle East.

 

That's why it's done off the books. So people with tender consciences can kid themselves that they live in a world where the law is respected and everything is fair and just and good.

The way that the state behaves is fundamentally no different in the US, or Russia, or France, or UK, or Egypt, or anywhere else...the only difference is the stronger the state is the less of the bad things you see.
--- merged: Nov 22, 2012 at 4:58 PM ---

But in the US, "freedom of speech" is such a popular theme that any attempt to ban press coverage of them would probably backfire.

And the media will not voluntarily ignore them. They will do whatever they think will sell more papers, or gets more advertising revenue. Morality doesnt come into it. I am sure that most people in the media find these hooligans as revolting as anyone else, but if you dont print it someone else will and sell more than you...

Will the general public vote with their feet and ignore media outlets that cover them? unlikely... these clowns will always come up with something disgusting enough that people will demand the right to be shocked by it.

_

In the old days you could just declare people like this "outside the law" and let nature take its course... but things are different now.

There is no need to be inhumane. It would only be necessary to imprison 4 or 5 of them on some made up charge that is sufficiently morally offensive to destroy their hold on the small group, and they would be done with.

 

So the media is not to blame because it's only responding to the public's desire for titillation?
And the public is not to blame because the public is ALWAYS blameless for being driven by its base instincts?
The only culprits here are the Westboro assholes who should be "taken out" or imprisoned for offending those who are unable to ignore their ignorance?

Sorry, but I don't fully get your logic, Strange.

 

I have to agree with Joni, we can't play Judge, jury and executioner, and start eliminating those who upset us. We would be just as bad or worse then they are.

 

But we would feel better.

 

well yeah, but clean up afterwards would be a bitch.

 

THIS is the funniest post I have read in TFP for quite sometime. Well said Mr. Guru.