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GodHatesAmerica.com / Westboro Baptist Church

But it is possible to 'qualify' as a religion within Smarts model, even if a religion has so little evidence of one or more aspects for it to be considered none existent. TM comes to mind, but at a stretch, it's basis in Hindu scripture does give it a tick in all the boxes. Then there are religions belonging to civilisations that no longer exist, so evidence for them fitting Smarts model is limited to archaeological interpretation, yet we would still define the Inca's has having a religion. Equally, archaeology might find evidence of a ritual aspect, such as an altar, but it's not supported by any evidence of doctrine.

It's a handy framework, but one criticism of the model is that it's definitions are quite broad, (if you're expecting a citation or something, forget it, this is all from the bit of my memory marked 'half a lifetime ago', which doesn't have a C&P option) but the alternative is an almost exhaustive list, which tends to be biased towards a particular viewpoint.

dunno where I've got 9 from though, maybe I should use it in the lottery, divine inspiration maybe?
 
OldTimeRadio said:
Mythopoeika said:
Fred Phelps is a disbarred lawyer (how the heck did that moron qualify as a lawyer?.
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It was an absolutely staggering surprise to me when I first learned this, but Fred Phelps was at one time one of the leading Civil Rights (!!) attorneys in the American Midwest and was then described as "the man who integrated Kansas."

What in hell happened?
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Good point!
There's a man who actually did something for racial equality, but he's turned into a nasty, bigoted man. I dunno, maybe he had some kind of mid-life crisis that sent him round the bend?
 
Well it's not like bigotry is an all or nothing proposition. Homophobia and racism don't always go together. We tend to group them together because they're both essentially forms of hatred, but many people who support black rights (for example) hate homosexuals. And a number of Nazis have turned out to be gay. (Or maybe that's just some movie I saw in the 80s.)

It doesn't excuse it by any means. Sure, he did some good work in terms of race relations, but he's still a hateful bigot who should be starved of the media attention he clearly craves.
 
I now find myself wondering if one or more of the panel members who voted to disbar Phelps were homosexual. Or perhaps a witness ag'in him. That would explain a lot.
 
Wasn't he disbarred for making false or malicious prosecutions which he took forward himself, as prosecuting lawyer?

and iirc didn;t several of his family members also get disbarred when they tried to take over this role for him?
 
BlackRiverFalls said:
Wasn't he disbarred for making false or malicious prosecutions which he took forward himself, as prosecuting lawyer?

and iirc didn;t several of his family members also get disbarred when they tried to take over this role for him?
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He was disbarred in 2 stages.

In the first, he decided to sue a court reporter because she was a little late in supplying him with the information he needed. In keeping with his nasty and obsessive character, he turned this into a vendetta. Kansas state didn't agree with the way he treated the woman in court, so they revoked his state licence.
He was still able to practice law on a national level.
In the second stage, he had his licence completely revoked because both he and family members working for him had made up malicious rumours about various high court judges he had dealings with.
Given the unprofessional way in which he ran his practice, it would seem they had no option but to throw him out of the legal profession.
 
Mythopoeika said:
He was disbarred in 2 stages.

In the first, he decided to sue a court reporter because she was a little late in supplying him with the information he needed..
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My understanding is that Phelps not only charged the court reporter with tardiness but alao accused her in open court with engaging in sexual relations with seven different men, whom he named,

But not only the defendant but all seven men vehemently denied the charges,

The Kansas Bar was apparently not amused.
 
Anome_ said:
There are a large number of people who would no doubt support the Rev Phelps, just as they probably supported the Alabama legislature for erecting a monument of the ten commandments.
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I'm sorry, but that's simply unfair. That's like me equating Adolf Hitler or Josef Stalin with the guy down the block who leaves grass clippings on the sidewalk.
 
Anonymous~ said:
I find it hard to understand how he can reconcile his Christianity, with his need to gloat over the terrible and violent end of a fellow human being (for any reason) and then to gloat further on his religious belief's consignment of that human being's spirit, or soul, to eternal punishment.
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Putting "Reverend" before one's name and thumping on a King James Bible does not automatically make anyone a Christian. In fact, one Christian cult-watch list has described Phelps as "an enemy of the Cross." Trust me, that ain't praise.
 
They're at it again, albeit on a slightly different tack:

Westboro Baptist Church set to picket Foo Fighters' Kansas live show

The notorious Christian fundamentalists will be out in force outside Dave Grohl and co's show in Kansas City.

Foo Fighters' live show in Kansas City later this month is set to be picketed by members of the notorious Christian fundamentalist church Westboro Baptist Church.

The church, who have become notorious after they protested the funerals of fallen US soldiers with signs that read "God hates fags" and "Thank God for dead soldiers", will be out in force outside the band's show at the Sprint Center on September 16.

According to a statement on the church's protest schedule, they have opted to picket Dave Grohl and co's show because:

The entertainment industry is a microcosm of the people in this doomed nation: hard-hearted, hell-bound, and hedonistic. These people have a platform and should be using it to encourage obedience to God; instead they teach every person who will listen all things contrary to him: fornication, adultery, idolatry, fags.

It continues:

The people in this nation have sinned away their day of grace and have so enraged their God that you are seeing new outpourings of his wrath continually. We will be there to remind you that the day of your destruction is upon you, even as you vainly seek comfort in the frivolities of this life.

The church have also picketed the funerals of a number of high profile musicians in recent years, including Michael Jackson and former Black Sabbath singer Ronnie James Dio.
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Source.

I take it the Phelps family won't be a big fan of Norwegian Black Metal either. Maybe we should send them a mixtape.
 
I think this is more to do with the Phelps family watching the new Foos video on YouTube, which advertised their North American tour with a jokey gay porn spoof. Who would have thought the Phelps had no sense of humour? Astounding, isn't it?
 
Hey, the Foos just turned the tables by protesting the Westboro gang! They rolled up on a flatbed truck next to where the Phelps family were protesting and performed a gay... anthem.

I still worry that they're giving the maniacs the oxygen of publcity, but if nothing else it proved there's more to a sense of humour than sporting a fixed grin.
 
I think this fits here.

CHILD ABUSE: TODDLER SINGS ‘AIN’T NO HOMOS GONNA MAKE IT TO HEAVEN’ IN CHURCH
05.29.2012
http://www.dangerousminds.net/comments/ ... _in_church

Wow. Just wow. This is one of those astonishing things where you watch it and your brain just freezes for a few moments while you try to make sense of what you just saw.

I know the Bible’s right, somebody’s wrong
I know the Bible’s right, somebody’s wrong

Aint no homos going to make it to heaven

These kids get a standing ovation, too, from a roomful of ADULTS. If this doesn’t send chills down your spine, nothing ever will.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRNbC-aS ... r_embedded
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How awful :cry: I feel so sorry for that little boy. Some of the comments on there are just disgusting too. What a shame some people think that this is being a good parent.
 
I'd call that a form of child abuse, using a child to make comments on a subject he is too young to know anything about.
 
vid & images at link

Westboro Baptist Church Military Protest Countered By Zombie Demonstrators (VIDEO)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/2 ... ostpopular
The Huffington Post | By Mollie Reilly
Posted: 07/29/2012 5:48 pm Updated: 07/29/2012 7:08 pm

A Westboro Baptist Church protest was overshadowed Friday when demonstrators dressed as zombies gathered at a DuPont, Wash. military base to counter the radical group's efforts.

After members of the controversial Kansas-based church announced plans to picket Joint Base Lewis-McChord, a military base south of Seattle, 27-year-old Melissa Neace decided to organize a counter-protest, launching a Facebook group titled "Zombie'ing Westboro Baptist Church AWAY from Fort Lewis!"

"We wanted to turn something negative around, into something people could laugh at and poke fun at," Neace told the News Tribune. "It was the easiest way to divert attention from something so hateful."

About 300 counter-protesters showed up in varying degrees of zombie garb, far outnumbering the picketers from Westboro. According to KIRO in Seattle, just eight protesters from the controversial group showed up.

"I think that their message is very hateful, and Jesus was not a hateful person. He loved everybody," one of the counter-protesters told KIRO.

While it is unclear why Westboro Baptist Church targeted the DuPont military base for its latest effort, the group frequently pickets military funerals. The group believes that deaths in Afghanistan and Iraq are God's punishment for the United States' tolerance of homosexuality. Last year, the group announced it would "quadruple" protest efforts after the Supreme Court ruled that such demonstrations are protected by the First Amendment.

However, counter-protests like the zombie effort in DuPont are becoming increasingly popular. Earlier this month, thousands of people in red shirts formed a human wallaround a fallen soldier's funeral to block the anti-gay protesters. At a similar protest atTexas A&M University, students dressed in maroon formed a circle around a funeral and seemingly discouraged Westboro protesters from ever showing up.

Below, a closer look at Texas A&M's "maroon wall" demonstration:
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Brr, those dead-eyed, unthinking, grinning ghouls... and the zombies weren't much better.
 
Satanic Temple will make Westboro Baptists founder Fred Phelps gay in the afterlife

America’s Satanic Temple has pledged to hold a pink mass over Westboro Baptist Church founder Fred Phelps’ grave to make him gay in the afterlife once he dies
19 MARCH 2014 | BY ANDREW POTTS

The pink mass being performed over Fred Phelps' mother's grave last year
Photo by Satanic Temple

America’s Satanic Temple has pledged to make the founder of the virulently anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church a homosexual in the afterlife by holding a ‘pink mass’ over his grave.

The Satanic Temple already claims to have made Fred Phelps’ mother Catherine Idalette Johnston a lesbian in the afterlife after holding a ‘pink mass’ over her grave in July of last year in which two same-sex couples kissed over her grave during a satanic ceremony.

The Satanic Temple believe a pink mass is a ceremony that can change a person’s sexuality in their afterlife, similar to how Mormons baptize dead people into the Mormon faith after they have died.

‘The Satanic Temple exercised its own right to offensive Free Speech in our performance of the Pink Mass at Fred Phelps’s mother’s grave this past summer,’ Satanic Temple leader Lucien Greaves said in a statement to Vice Magazine.

‘At the time, I predicted that Fred hadn’t too much longer till he would pass, and I stated - in a direct tweet to the WBC - that I would be presiding over Fred’s own Pink Mass before too long. As I have made a promise to a dying man, I fully intend to do my very best to see it through, and the pomp and circumstance of this Pink Mass will surely far, far exceed that of the original event in Meridian, Mississippi.’

Greaves said that while the Satanic Temple found Phelps’ views appalling they were glad that America was a society where people had free speech regardless of their views.

‘In his life, Phelps can be credited with many an inadvertent positive influence,’ Greaves said.

‘As a caricature of cruel religious-based inhumanity, Phelps often rallied people in opposition to his stupidity, and he served as a ludicrous arch-villain. He was a living argument ad absurdum in support of all of the things he detested and decried.

‘On the eve of Phelps’s death, I think there is much that the American public can be proud of. We can be proud not only of the strong counter-protests that followed the Westboro Baptist Church wherever they flagrantly and tastelessly displayed their disgusting malice, but also that we live in an environment where Fred Phelps was allowed to publicly spew his vindictive ideas with such infuriating and thoughtless impunity.

‘It is infinitely better to suffer the few Fred Phelpses that will surely always exist than to live in a political environment in which odious speech is regulated by an officiating body.’

- See more at: http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/sata ... j0t1T.dpuf
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Those Satanists have got the right idea.

If you're going to come up with religious bollocks, at least make it hilarious bollocks.
 
OneWingedBird said:
Those Satanists have got the right idea.

If you're going to come up with religious bollocks, at least make it hilarious bollocks.
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You dare to mock our Dread Lord Satan?
 
Mythopoeika said:
What do they mean, 'once he dies'...He's just died...
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He'd been ill for some time - about 84 years, at a guess.

I think a large crowd of bereaved services families should attend his funeral waving placards and and shouting obscenities - that would be a nice gesture.
 
Let's hope his sad little band of publicity seekers break up soon after.
 
Spookdaddy said:
I think a large crowd of bereaved services families should attend his funeral waving placards and and shouting obscenities - that would be a nice gesture.
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Yeah...it's what he would have wanted.
 
Another suggestion I've read is to send a donation to an Aids charity in his name. He'd have HATED that! :lol:

It's all pointless though. He is dead, and his own personal gut-rotting hatred has died with him. The world has already moved on.
 
I think there should be a military firing party at his funeral: three volleys into the coffin to be on the safe side.
 
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