Westboro Baptist Church (G-d Hates Fags)

[Lewinsky Stinks, Dr. Brennan Rocks]

Inspired by the godhatessweden.org (a front website for Westboro Baptist Church) post here, what do you all think of the Rev. Fred Phelps and his "ministry"? I studied his website fairly extensively a few years ago, and came to some mixed opinions. As a movement leader, he says a lot that JTF would agree with, and has similar passion and intensity as Chaim. On the other hand, he does not appear to have an especially high view of Jews or Israel; he appears to hate everyone who is not a devout Calvinist.

His outrageous hatred towards America (to the point of being overjoyed when soldiers in Iraq are murdered) is just plain vile, but he does make a somewhat plausible argument that America's woes like this are owing to its abandonment of all morality.

As a Christian leader, there can be no doubt he's a cultist and is just plain nuts (his "church" is actually a huge residential compound consisting of two or three very large extended families, which do not marry outside of the sect). But I have mixed views of him as a political personality.

Your thoughts?

Chaimfan

[Lisa]

Chaimfan,

Remember when that nutjob shot and killed those young girls in the Amish school?  These Westboro people were all set to protest at the funerals and go on about how those girls deserved to die as punishment for America tolerating/promoting homosexuality.  The only reason they did not do this was because some mainstream media outlet agreed to do an interview with them. 

So I personally don't care if they're against the Iraq war.  Regardless of where people stand, protesting with placards saying "thank G-d for dead soldiers" or "thank g-d for IED's" is totally repugnant.   On one of their webistes (which I can't access right now, they had banners saying "thank G-d for 9/11."  Here's what Wikipidia says about the Amish massacres:

In the wake of the tragic Amish school house shooting, members of Westboro Baptist Church planned on picketing the funerals of the five girls killed in the shooting. Their signs were going to call the girls "whores" and that they are "burning in hell". In an attempt to stop them, news radio personality/host Mike Gallagher attempted to dissuade them. After first rejecting a monetary offer, Gallagher offered them an hour of unrestricted airtime on his show. WBC accepted, and the picket was called off.[33] On October 5, 2006, members of WBC were "hosts" of the Mike Gallagher's radio show, with Gallagher giving periodic warnings to viewers that they (the members of WBC) did not represent the views of him or the station.

Link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westboro_Baptist_Church

Personally, I don't think that being against homosexuality gives you an excuse to pontificate that other people deserve to die. 

[MassuhDGoodName]

Pastor Fred and all of his children are devout Jew-haters.

I recently heard his daughter interviewed by Alan Colmes on his radio show, and she was absolutely no different than any StørmFrønt jerk, and she proudly boasted how her father had always forbidden any of them to associate in any way whatsoever with a Jew.

She said that if anyone in her family was in need of emergency surgery or medical treatment, all of them would joyfully choose death rather than go to a Jewish doctor.

They're definitely good for laughs, but they're most definitely not friends or allies.

[Trumpeldor]

I don't care if they like Jews or not. They are Nazis a la 'Din Rodef', through and through.

[judeanoncapta]

They're Nazis. They even had a protest against the Holocaust at the Holocaust museum in Washington. Their leader said that the Holocaust was "miniscule". They Nazis, lunatics and wierdos. Just because they oppose gays doesn't make them our friends. The Taliban executed Gays and the Taliban are not our allies.