God Hates Dead Soldiers
8 April 2006 by King Retard
Fred Phelps is at it again. Once again demonstrating the love and tolerance we’ve all come to associate with American Christianity, members of the Westboro church show their feelings towards an American service person who was killed in Iraq.
FLUSHING, United States (AFP) – Five women sang and danced as they held up signs saying “thank God for dead soldiers” at the funeral of an army sergeant who was killed by an Iraqi bomb.
For them, it was the perfect way to spread God’s word: America was being punished for tolerating homosexuality.
For the hundreds of flag waving bikers who came to this small town in Michigan Saturday to shield the soldier’s family, it was disgusting.
Not just for the hundreds of bikers, it was disgusting for anyone with a conscience.
“That could be me in that church,” said Jackie Sandler whose son Keith is currently serving his second tour of duty in Iraq.
The fringe group of fire and brimstone Baptists from Kansas has been courting controversy for more than 15 years, traveling the country with their hateful signs and slogans.
The Westboro Baptist Church first gained national notoriety when they picked the funeral of Matthew Shepard, a Wyoming student who was murdered in 1998 for being gay.
They have since picketed the funerals of Frank Sinatra and Bill Clinton’s mother, celebrated the terrorist attacks of September 11 as an act of God’s wrath, and have even targeted Santa Claus and the Ku Klux Klan.
But it was the callousness and cruelty of harassing the grieving families of soldiers at dozens of funerals across the country that has sparked a grassroots movement of bikers determined to drown out the jeers and taunts.
Even for intolerant xian assholes, this group has to be seen as completely and utterly evil. Not that I condone violence of any sort, but how long are the bikers who are lending their support at these funerals going to “drown out the jeers” with only flag-waving?
In Flushing, Michigan they turned their leather-clad backs to the five women and held flags and tarps up so that mourners walking past wouldn’t see the signs saying “God hates fags,” “fag vets” and “America is doomed.”
Many found it hard to hide their anger when Margie Phelps, the daughter of Westboro’s founder, called out “All this for little old us? Oh, you shouldn’t have. I feel so special,” before she started singing “the Pope, the Pope, the Pope is on fire. He don’t get no water let the heretics burn” in front of a Catholic church.
Wow. How in the hell does the gay-hating pope get such a clever song at a funeral? Because he’s not a True Christian (TM) of course.
The glee with which the women hurled insults made John Franklin, 64, sick to his stomach.
“This guy’s family deserves a peaceful funeral. It’s not right what they’re doing,” said Franklin, who fought in the Vietnam War. “The only reason they’re able to walk around like that is because the veterans fought for their freedom.”
While Westboro’s congregation remains stable at around 100 people – most of whom are the extended family of founder Fred Phelps – the ranks of the Patriot Guard Riders has swelled to more than 16,000 in just a few months.
Only 100? I guess old Freddy boy better start spreading his “word” around even more. So does that mean there are only 100 real Christians in the whole world? How come the rest of the god-fearing public hasn’t learned the truth of Pastor Fred’s teaching?
The protests come at a time when many Americans think the war in Iraq was a mistake but are anxious to show their support for the troops.
Four states have enacted legislation barring protests at funerals and a dozen more are in the process of introducing bans. But it is unlikely that the bans will stand up to legal challenge.
The group is careful to protest in public spaces and is well aware of its constitutional rights – 11 of Phelps’ 13 children are lawyers.
“This nation is poised to trash the first amendment just to stop my preaching,” Fred Phelps said in a telephone interview. “I’m kind of honored.”
Phelps said he and his congregants are targeting the funerals because God’s way of punishing an “evil nation” of “fags and fag enablers” is to “pick off its children.”
“I don’t have any sympathy for these parents. They’re all going to hell,” Phelps said. “The family’s in pain because they haven’t obeyed the Lord God.”
The group is so outrageous that some among the extreme-right have speculated that Phelps is a plant aimed at giving the anti-gay movement a bad name, said Mark Potok, the director of the intelligence project at the Southern Poverty Law Center which tracks hate crimes.
“I don’t think they have any constituency beyond their own members – even the Nazis aren’t interested,” he said.
There’s a real slippery slope here. Of course, the legislation can’t stand up under the first amendment and nor should it. As soon as that kind of legislation is passed, the door is open for all sorts of limits. That said, I find it interesting that 11 of his 13 children are lawyers. Is he saying the law of man is more important to study than the word of gawd? I also find it funny that even the Nazis aren’t interested in joining with him. Maybe Jared is right, Hitler wasn’t a Christian. After all, Fred Phelps told him so.
EDIT: Sorry. I was doing some further research and learned that the Westboro Church isn’t targetting the funerals of these soldiers because they were gay, but simply becuase they were serving in the armed forces of a nation which “tolerates homosexuals.” Well that makes this story even more interesting. Apparently, they just pick these funerals as public gatherings to spread their hate and intolerance with callous disregard for the family, friends, and loved ones of the deceased. Way to spread that Christian message! Oh, and for those who don’t think that the Westboro Church is really Christian, just ask them, they’ll tell you so.
8 April 2006, on 1:55 pm
I have been watching this latest crap of Phelps’ with some interest. Not because he and his psycho brood deserve the attention, but because it holds a mirror up to right-wing religious intolerance and the logical conclusion to discounting all that secularists and the left have fought for over the past couple of centuries. I figured it could start to help people go “Hmmm… If we let ourselves go too far, we might end up the Taliban blowing up ancient statues for idolatry.”
And then I read this:
The group is so outrageous that some among the extreme-right have speculated that Phelps is a plant aimed at giving the anti-gay movement a bad name, said Mark Potok, the director of the intelligence project at the Southern Poverty Law Center which tracks hate crime
Man, they never manage to put the shit back on us, do they?
Their hypocrisy truly knows no bounds. Just like when religious fanatics destroyed the World Trade Center, we all know Jerry Falwell said: “I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America. I point the finger in their face and say ‘you helped this happen.’
So now Phelps is a PLANT to help discredit the ANTI-GAY movement?
Hey, anti-gay movement: anybody who defines themselves as anti-anything based on people’s freedom to live as they please as long as they are not harming others has ALREADY DISCREDITED themselves because they are BIGOTS.
8 April 2006, on 2:02 pm
Well you may have heard the same stuff over and over but let me ask you
if there is no God then where do we come from thank about it and just to let it be known it is true that the meanest people out there can be christians however, you can not sterotype everyone if that were the case then all men would be dogs and that is not true you also have to rember that people are at differnt levels at ther relationship with God and then you have to remeber that not everyone is really what they say they are so therefore i just wanted to set things strait for everyone who actually reads this that God loves the sinner and hates the sin he loves all people even if you hate him to the point of denying him he still loves you
8 April 2006, on 2:37 pm
Phelps is a psychotic freak- I plan to drive to Topeka one of these days and demonstrate in front of his “compound.”
8 April 2006, on 3:23 pm
Holly, first off let me say that humanity invented something called punctuaton. Punctuation includes things like commas, periods, colons, etc. and is a useful tool for making what you write more readable instead of a run-on, jumbled mess. That said, your question/statement/rambling rant does nothing more than offer the same-old tired Christian fallacies. Obviously, you missed the ironic element of my post: namely, that there are all sorts of groups claiming to represent True Christianity (TM) and that said groups love to lay claim to that title by discrediting the other groups. Therefore, how can we tell above all of the shouting who really represents the true tenants of Christianity? Answer: we can’t. Furthermore, the idea that atheists deny God because they hate him presupposes that he exists. I don’t hate God. That would be as fruitful as hating invisible ass goblins. Neither are real. I save my energy for things and entities that actually exist, such as the Westboro Church. That is an existing entity and something worth hating. God? Not so much.
8 April 2006, on 5:19 pm
Clearly the evidence is building for a correlation between idiotic religious belief and a lack of language skills. Why don’t you dumbass religious morons get your head out of your babble bible, stop trying to proselytize on atheist forums and go out buy a dictionary and “English for Dummies” or something like that ?
8 April 2006, on 5:27 pm
Holly, first off let me say that humanity invented something called punctuaton. Punctuation includes things like commas, periods, colons, etc. and is a useful tool for making what you write more readable instead of a run-on, jumbled mess.
KR — Xians frown on education, remember? It’s evil.
if there is no God then where do we come from thank about it
Holly,
First of all, if you don’t know the answers to something, like “where do we come from?” you can’t just make up answers like “my imaginary sky daddy must have made me.” I could just as easily say “Lord Voltron brought us here from the planet Moldar” and have about as much evidence for that as you do your gawd.
Why do you think you have the right message, Holly? Why are you right and all the other thousands of xian sects wrong? Xians fight amongst themselves all the time. There are so many variations of the message, why doesn’t this all powerful supernatural being come down and explain it correctly so we can all understand if he wants us to know it? It’s ok to think about this…the boogerman is not going to come get you if you question things.
The world would be a much better place if people stopped trying to force their religion on others who do not believe the same way you do. Xians think they have all the answers and that their way is the right way to live and that their sky daddy is real. What is wrong with just believing in your imaginary friends and leave the rest of us alone? That’s the whole problem — xians do not respect another person’s right to not believe in something or to believe in something else. It is the EVANGELIZING and wanting everything to be according to YOUR religious principles in a SECULAR NATION. You may want to believe this is a “christian” nation, but that is not how it was set up.
I seriously doubt that you 100% believe either and are just doing your xian duty or whatever. If you were told you had two hours left to “meeting your maker”, you would be crying your eyes out in panic. I know, I know…you will say that is just “being human.” Yes, that is true. So what the hell does your faith do you? Nothing that I can see except an emotional crutch and some people need that, some don’t.
8 April 2006, on 9:21 pm
Well, frankly, I hope Holly keeps on posting and Phelps keeps on yelping. People like that just add credence to the stereotype that xtians are an overwhelmingly brainless, bigoted lot.
10 April 2006, on 12:20 pm
“Well, frankly, I hope Holly keeps on posting and Phelps keeps on yelping. People like that just add credence to the stereotype that xtians are an overwhelmingly brainless, bigoted lot. ”
Prezactly. The more they babble endlessly the more sensible people see them for what they are – adults with imaginary friends.
And that picture makes me sick. Those poor children. Whatever else sick fucks like Phelps do, dumping their sick bullshit on their children is the worst of it. It’s child abuse.
18 April 2006, on 2:13 pm
The Rev. Fred Phelps is a typical example of today’s hateful right-wing American evangelical born-again Christan southern WASP bigots.
27 April 2006, on 1:15 am
[...] I wanted to post this video to update the post I wrote recently regarding the Westboro Baptist Church. You want to know how scary these people are? They make Fox News’ Hannity and Colmes look like the good guys. [...]
9 June 2008, on 11:39 pm
[...] Here. [...]