And another trans-Atlantic infection…

UK has laws against hate speech which will see these bozos arrested. They had better have a good legal fund.

Just 4 lines and the head ache started. Way more than I can handle this early in the morning.

That part is actually unfortunate -- I don't think the rather draconian laws against speech in the UK are a good thing.

Let 'em rally and rant, I say, and let the good people of the country speak out loudly against them.

Bah, I wouldn't get too woried about them, a large portion of the time they claim to be heading to a high profile event, they never show up. Simply attention seekers.

hmm, if it wasnt basingstoke i would have been tempted to wander along as it stands it is the sort of place those idiots deserve.

It's hard to believe those people actually believe what they say. I'm personally convinced that at when gay marriage is legalized, the Phelps family will say, "Oh, by the way, you guys got TROLLED!"

Dor sho gha! If I was Michael Phelps, I would be smoking bongs, too!

I cannot read anything more from that hate filled woman. I feel sorry for the way she was raised, but she is old enough to leave that cult. I doubt that they'll show up though, with airfare what it is. What can any of them do for jobs? You would think they would get fired from any private business for harassment.

Maybe it's just me, but the words ...the Bible CLEARLY says that God HATES people... literally jumped at me.

Ha! Draconian laws that shut up other Draconian laws.

Re: "where the worm that eats on you NEVER dies."
Apparently they didn't consider that the mass of one's flesh is finite, and thus cannot be eaten on FOR EVAR!!1one

They're definitely hip with the kids, though, with their "get his ___ on" and such.

I was shocked by the "antichrist in the white house" bit. I guess I shouldn't be.... but wow. Just wow.

I thought these were going to be biology posts. I'm telling SEED.

I have read the God Hates Fags site and dealt with the likes of Phelps at GLBT events for years. I refuse to engage with any of these fuckwits in person. It only validates their view that the wicked world is out to attack them. I just where a very forced smile and wave.

But it hurts to put up a false front to such vile people. Too cowardly to attack people but, dammit, they are happy to be cheerleaders for monsters.

Didn't Shirley plagiarize this from Fox News?

"The antichrist is sitting now, in the Whitehouse, the time is SO SHORT - the Lord is coming and this generation is DOOMED! You see the destruction already before your eyes! As filthy america goes down, and The Beast Obama, That Son of Perdition, that Man of Sin gets his power grab on, you will all give over the power of your government to him and when you see that phony façade fall away, and he gets his war on and all your fawning over him turns to great fear, then you can remember these words."

They had better have a good legal fund.

Keep in mind that there's currently a $5 million jury verdict against the Phelpses and Westboro Baptist Church from a federal court in Maryland. (The suit was brought by the family of Matthew Snyder, a soldier killed in Iraq, who the Phelpses subsequently defamed on their website and at the funeral.)

It's on appeal to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals right now. Oral argument was in early January. Depending on how the court rules, old Fred might very well get put out of business (unless the Supreme Court hears the case, which is not impossible).

The Phelps clan brings up the question of which came first: the paranoid, misanthrophic, eyes-bugged-out, frothing-at-the-mouth insanity, or the religious doctrination that provides the rationalization for the same? And is there a difference? And does it matter?

Damn, where's the coffee.

They're picketing The Laramie Project, huh? Maybe they think they'll have more luck in the UK than they did here. Here's hoping the counter-protesters outnumber the crazies, just like back home...

@11: I know. What a load of BS. I am so not in the White House. :P

Doctrination. I meant, of course, indoctrination.

Yes, I really DO need that coffee.

Ooooooooh, did anyone see Louis Theroux and America's Most Hated Family (ie: the Phelps Family) on BBC? It was/is astonishing and sometimes very funny! I have never seen anything quite like it.

I think you can still catch it on BBC iplayer or BBC on demand if you're in the UK.

Vic,

Apparently a few of them are lawyers, which I find exceptionally worrying.

Kobra, those of us in the GLBT community have been dealing with them for decades. They are as serious as the dog shit you sometimes step in.

@20:

Yeah, but isn't that insulting to the dog shit? At least the dog shit helps fertilize the grass.

I hope this group does a counter-protest:

http://www.godhatesshrimp.com/

Truly barking fit ta rapture!

If they do start with the hollering gay fag nonsense they will be quietly requested to move on...then if they persist they will be arrested for breach of the peace...if they continue in the cells and courtroom...tis contempt of court...and seeing as they will most likely be on a visa they will be simply exported back to place of manufacture!
Doubt if the hate laws will be used...although not out of the question!
A breach of the visa conditions will do for them...revoked stamped personna non grata for ever and ever amen and back to sweet home westboro for these bunnies!

They want to go picket a pro-gay play because a teenage girl got pregnant by a pre-teen boy? I'm confused. What's gay about that?

@23:

Or, http://www.godhatesfigs.com

"Apparently a few of them are lawyers"

Holy crap! (jaw falls to floor)

If the recent denial of entry to Geert Wilders to the UK is any guide they may find that their visas get denied. That is if anyone in the relevant departments is made aware of this. Or maybe their luggage will be searched by customs on arrival and the hate literature within causes their deportation. I like that scenario because it will have cost them more money than if we simply denied them visas.

This whole thing read like a bad email forward. It's just more static, more meaningless noise in a world that already has too much.

I have this feeling we're reading the writings of the next batch of homegrown terrorists.

@ Evolved Dolly [21],
I saw that one, and the one by that other Brit, Keith Allen.
The WBCers (except Fred, of course) actually seem "normal" at some parts of those documentaries. It's when they hit the streets that their insane-o-meters max out.

Good. Maybe the Brits will keep them.

Weird! That's just down the road from me, may have to go along for some photos!

"The God-smacks are his business"

That's hilarious. I didn't realise God made cereal.

Good. Maybe the Brits will keep them.

Oi! the whole point of America is to act as the repository of Europe's religious crazies. The criminals types we went to Australia, nice and tidy you see. Now play your role like good colonials, there's a good chap.

Another brilliant American export.

I think "flock of slaughter" would be an awesome name for a band. Thanks, Shirl.

Or, rather;

"The God Smacks are HIS WORK!"

Still sounds like a cereal advert.

I can't help but read Shirley Phelps' last sentence in the voice of South Park's Big Gay Al:

"Thanks for asking!"

WBC is always good for a laugh.

Off-topic, come phyrangulate this poll!
http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/stories/2009/02/15/georgia_sunda…

Help is poor Georgians get these religious laws off our books!

We're all UNREPINETANT.

ice

@39: How? They already have an overwhelming "Yes" for allowing alcohol sales on Sunday.

Meh--needs more cowbell.

I would be very surprised if they were let into the country. Maybe we should organise thousands of protesters to meet them at the airport - then the Home Secretary might consider it 'a an undue risk'...

I mean, isn't it obvious that these guys are sort of a joke? They're media obsessives. Yes, their belief in their doctrine might be legit, but if it weren't gays it'd be something else. I mean, heck, Shirley calls into Adam Carolla's show! Frequently! It's all a twisted pursuit of media coverage and treating them seriously at this point only furthers that. Better to recognize them as an extended, bizarre kitschy joke, a ridiculous overextension of the logical result of anti-gay religiosity. Getting picketed by them is akin to an honor of arriving; they're like the far-right, bigoted Weird Al of activism.

Speaking of PollCrash(TM) and gay, there is a Supreme Court decision pending on whether to annull 18,000 Californian marriages for the crime of being same-sex. A petition is up:

http://www.couragecampaign.org/page/s/divorce

and I do believe it needs pharyngulating.

Re: the WBC mob protesting in the UK: Can't we just advocate a little violence? Just this once?

All I'm suggesting is a couple of burly lads, some swords and a general slashfest. Nothing too nasty, just a maiming or two, perhaps the odd decapitation. Hey, we're just thinning out the WBC herd, it's for their own good. Frankly you USAians with all your lah-di-dah guns and what not should have sorted these people out years ago.

Whaddya mean "no"?

I'm off for a sulk.

Louis

P.S. Do I need to mention the tongue in cheekiness? I advocate ignoring them. They'll get bored and go away. Perhaps offer them some tea, that usually sorts things out.

Can we convince them into going to Saudi Arabia or Iran? Surely there must be some abomination in these countries that needs their attention.

Gee, why don't they stay home and let their god do the picketing? Other committments? Oh, like bringing planes down, earthquakes, religious murders, deformities. Yeah, all those chores take effort and time away from solidarity with the insane lunatics. Isn't religion just peachy?

That part is actually unfortunate -- I don't think the rather draconian laws against speech in the UK are a good thing.

Let 'em rally and rant, I say, and let the good people of the country speak out loudly against them.

Speaking (slightly OT) about censorship, Ottawa officials have turned down the Atheist bus here. I'm so embarassed... I'd have thought this'd be an easy sell here.

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/Entertainment/Officials+reject+campaign+bu…

"How will we get to the UK? Wouldn't you like to know. Maybe we'll fly. Maybe we'll walk. Maybe we'll bodily ascend into heaven and be spat out near Cheswick. You'll just have to wait and see. No one expects the Phelps Family Inquisition!"

Oh please. They didn't even show in in Charlottesville, VA, when they said they would. We had a big counter-protest for them and everything! There's no way they are flying to the UK.

Chris @ #9:

the words ...the Bible CLEARLY says that God HATES people... literally jumped at me.

How did that happen? Did a part of your monitor pinch itself off like a droplet, fly in a parabolic arc, and land in your lap?

Or when you say "literally", did you really mean "metaphorically"?

Could they please stay there? Break all the airplanes and boats, please.

HA! PZ you won't get me reading that today! I'm wise to your efforts to enstupidize us.

The less attention these attention whores get, the better.

Chris@#9: The thing is, the Bible does say that god hates people. (This is not to say that I agree with either the Bible or the Phelps clan in any way.)

I saw a documentary on Irish TV recently about gay bars in the Bible Belt. And inevitably, it had a fairly long interview with Fred Phelps. His line was that this whole "god is love" thing that moderate churches come out with is a lie, because that's not what the Bible says.

The weird thing about the Phelps clan is that if you take the Bible as 100% true, their interpretation of god isn't actually as crazy as it looks. The god of the Bible is a wrathful, vengeful psycho. From their point of view, they're doing the will of the murderous divine tyrant that rules their world.

They're utterly batshit, of course, but you can see why they do what they do.

What is it with these idiots and The Laramie Project? It's a good show, but, to fly across the world, to see a school production? Just doesn't make any sense. If they really want to see some gay theatre I can take them to Madam Chang's Bitchy Bingo. It'll knock their socks off.

..., because even though the Bible CLEARLY says that God HATES people and it is a perfect hatred - a determination to send the UNREPINENTANT to hell for ever.

Aside from the astounding claim that God hates people "perfectly", I'm wondering where the other half of the "even though" clause is. As in, "even though I hate George, I accepted his invitation".

A couple of paragraphs in and I got the gist.

It's cool that the paper ran it, complete with all the yelling - er, uppercase - so people can see what kind of whackjobs these so-called Christians really are.

Heh. If their buddy came back, these guys would be on the shit list for sure.

"If you like my "I get email" series, you will relish that letter."

I'm disappointed. I was expecting Comic Sans

Or when you say "literally", did you really mean "metaphorically"?

it is acceptable to use "literally" as an emphatic "metaphorically".

literally - (intensifier before a figurative expression) without exaggeration; "our eyes were literally pinned to TV during the Gulf War"

wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

Jesus was a bright guy. I like to think that he would have chucked the whole God thing if he could have seen the kind of stupidity it has engendered.

Or when you say "literally", did you really mean "metaphorically"?

it is acceptable to use "literally" as an emphatic "metaphorically".

literally - (intensifier before a figurative expression) without exaggeration; "our eyes were literally pinned to TV during the Gulf War"

Further proof that language is a virus.

"'Apparently a few of them are lawyers'

Holy crap! (jaw falls to floor)"

Actually, back in the day before he went completely bs insane, Fred was on the right side in a number of civil rights cases. If I'm remembering correctly, he even left Bob Jones U because he disagreed with some of their more racist stances.

He and most of the family members who follow the lawyer path went to Washburn University in Topeka. They're vehemently anti-KU. Of course, after the good folks in the KU Law department helped get him disbarred, that part is almost understandable. His family now also pickets every KU Law graduation. It's sort of sweet... they've made special "KU Law Fags" and "Rock Chalk Gayhawk" signs just for that annual event.

Further proof that language is a virus.

Apparently this might no longer be just a clever Laurie Anderson metaphor, but may be literally true. That is, that a virus was actually responsible for altering the human (or slightly pre-human) brain to give us the ability of language. This from a recent documentary on one of the science channels about the role of viruses throughout evolution. That they may have played a much more significant role than previously imagined.

You know what this horrible screechy sermon makes me think of ?

In Stephen King's movie "Mist", when that screechy old hag (marvelously played, you really can see the craziness, you can almost taste that nutty flavor) tries to have the boy as a human sacrifice and the store clerk shoots her straight in the head, stopping her mid-speech in her god-soaked rant.

I swear I enjoyed that moment to no end. It's gory, it's horrible, and I'm not someone who usually enjoys violence but by dog it's one of the most enjoyable film moment I ever saw.

That's what I imagine :

...And what will you do when you all land in hell FOR EVER where the worm that eats on you NEVER dies and the fire is NEVER quenched and the smoke of your torment ascends up for ever and ever and -

Bang ! - Body drops, silence, sighs of relief -

I really don't like thinking like that about another human (she is, whatever we might call her).

At the same time there's another part of me that feels pity for her. I think she's mentally ill. Rabidly crazy.

C'mon, these whack-jobs aren't going anywhere. Why should they? They get all the free publicity they need just by announcing their "actions".

They just want attention, and there's no reason to give it to them: they have no power, no influence, and no numbers. Why the hell the media -- or bloggers -- gives this particular tiny group of whack-jobs the slightest bit of attention more than any other tiny group of whack-jobs I don't understand. Dump their press releases in the trash as soon as they come in the morning mail, don't return their hone calls, don't send out news camera crews when they show up.

Actually, Laurie got that from William Tell, ooops I mean William S Burroughs. Just a trivia note.

I actually stay up-to-date on the Phelps family. And ever since their Canada "trip", which never happened, about some guy getting beheaded on a Greyhound bus because "Canada supports gay rights"; they have made numerous threats about going places and they never do. The last thing this white-trash family from Kansas wants, is to be in a foreign jail and justice system. Don't worry England, they won't be coming.

The Phelps clan are definitely completely down with the God of the old testament (So what if I just wiped out your family and everything you ever loved? Can you arm-wrestle a hippo? Then shut it. And go slaughter the Amalekites) and of Revelations (Because you are neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. Also, death, plague, swords, whores). Maybe they serve a valuable function of demonstrating exactly what the literal reading of scripture means.

I think Shirly is really going to England to protest the creation of a language that is clearly much too difficult for her!

Strangebrew> You sure you don't want to keep them? They'd be awfully entertaining if you locked them up in Soho somewhere...

Why kind of medication does this woman need to be on? Sheesh.

Basingstoke is only 15 mins on the train for me. I may have to check out these international celebrities.

Considering its recent treatment of Geert Wilders and that guy who was arrested for merely *saying* that he was less than fond of Israel, it will be interesting to see how the UK deals with these wackos, who are far more dangerous and specifically WANT to incite hatred. If they are let into the country, free to do as they please, it will certainly speak volumes about the UK.

"UK has laws against hate speech which will see these bozos arrested. They had better have a good legal fund."

Aw... let them rant and rave. How are people going to know what hate speech is, and why hate speech is bad, if there is no hate speech in the first place? I suppose that people overseas will at least able to keep up with what the Phelps are doing here, though.

@ bønez_brigade #31:

Haven't seen the Keith Allen one, is it worth looking up?

They did seem relatively normal, apart from their monster raving lunatic patriarch and that scary woman.

I respect their right to free speech, by all means they should be able to run around around screaming stupidity and parading those ridiculous signs, BUT they should not be taking small children out with them.

At best they haven't a clue what is actually happening, and at worst they get hurt (one of the little boys got hit by a drink container thrown from a passing car. Now that is WRONG.

your goofy queen and her adulterous whore of a son

I say, old girl! Steady on! Whatever you may think of Prince Charles and his well-documented philanderings with that woman Camilla, there's no need to be so dreadfully rude about the Queen. She has served Britain dutifully and faithfully as head of state for more than fifty years -- remember, Ike was president when she became Queen! So leave her alone, otherwise you'll be spending a long vacation in the Tower of London!

I can't help but think of what Brad Pitt said in Se7en:

When a person is insane, as you clearly are, do you know that you're insane? Maybe you're just sitting around, reading "Guns and Ammo", masturbating in your own feces, do you just stop and go, "Wow! It is amazing how fucking crazy I really am!"? Yeah. Do you guys do that?

oh dear, brackets missing and double words, should check before posting.

Why kind of medication does this woman need to be on? Sheesh.

The nasty part of me says "rat poison". The reasonable part says thorazine, straight jacket and small, padded room with soft music.

Seriously, if she can induce such thoughts of violence in me, imagine what she can do to the minds of a grief-stricken family. I fear that something will happen someday. I even think that's what they intend, to have a martyr to vindicate their stuff.

I love the Phelps clan and their Westboro Baptist storefront church. If they did not exist someone would have had to create them. No one in the world works harder or accomplishes more in demonstrating the fallacies and ignorance of christian thought.
I can't help but wonder if they are a parody group like Landover Baptist and are cleverly spoofing religious protesters. Probably not they seem sincere in their insanity, but intended or not they are the best parody of the religious bigot that has ever existed.

Well I for one hope that if someone cares enough to make a single martyr, they make them ALL martyrs. Not that I'd wish harm...

Draconian laws against hate speech are what prevent people in that country from speaking out against Shariah laws, too. Sometimes hate speech is just another name for "truth."

@David Harper

I think that when Brenda finally pops her clogs. We should thank her family for all their splendid work and entertainment value and pension the older ones off, give Charles a small farm in Northumbria etc. I'd vote for that.

What do you mean I don't get to vote! Off with her head!

I think we need some DJ resistance against these whackos. Instead of merely standing opposite them and laughing, let's pump up some jams. I vote for "Heresy" by Nine Inch Nails or "God Thinks" by Voltaire. It'd be worth it just to see the look on their faces. You wouldn't even need to drown them out, just make it the background music for the speech. Maybe organize a gay dance party in front of them as well. Ask some of them to join in, kiss them on the cheek. We know all of these people are closeted violent psychos, let's get them to unleash it in public and if they think we're disrespectful now, let them taste what true derision and disrespect look like. Remind them that they're days in power are as numbered as the white supremacists.

So, what is this "Laramie Project" ?
And, where will it be playing ?
Specifically, when will the Phelps be picketing it ?

I want to make sure I can attend, and have enough fresh turds to go around. How many are there in the Phelps clan ?

The idea of counter protesting them in some fun way is appealing but useless. To them all attention is good. When people oppose them legally they claim censorship. If police arrested them they would claim oppression and if they were attacked they would claim martyrdom. Ignoring them and laughing at them is the best way to deal with them. Even laughing at them gives them too much of the attention that they crave. What I find amusing is that everything that applies to the Phelps clan applies just as well to every other anti-gay protester. The differences are only in degree not substance.

I think all those opposed should show up with boom boxes and see if you can get a radio station to donate 2 hours of time and play Disney's, "It's a Small World After All"....non stop.

We did that when the KKK came to town.....Was really funny and pissed them off to the point they packed up and left.

If you take all of the ANGRY ALL-CAPS words and phrases that populate Shirley Phelps-Roper's drivel and put them into one sentence, it will make as much sense as the whole thing put together.

Have you ever read any of Ian Banks' Culture novels? I propose that we react to these kinds of people as the far flung Culture would. We don't fight, we absorb, we digest and dilute them and like a giant organism we expel them as waste. If you can get past his quirky writing and dense faux technospeak, I recommend Banks' "The Player of Games" or less enthusiastically "Use of Weapons". As an individual, I just want to do less equivocating when colleagues or family say something I think is absurd. I probably won't change anyone's mind but I will disabuse them of the notion that we are in agreement.

Four lines in and I couldn't read any more. That was an F5 woonado, right there.

Dear Brits:

Could someone please give the Phelps clan the Chaser's War on Everything treatment again?

Thanx.

When I read (reed, not red) her rant, I wonder whether a typical human brain is prewired for such hate, or does the Phelps clan have a nanobot that imprints the neural pathways (horrific thought, that). It seems like footbinding of the mind, but she does it like an Olympic sprinter.

Why kind of medication does this woman need to be on? Sheesh.

Cyanide? Strychnine?

Although I've heard of an interesting new therapy involving C4.

update to clunky metaphor: she hates like an Olympic sprinter, well, sprints.

Another hypocrite for jezus. Shirley Phelps herself has an illegitimate son. Since bastardy gets you hell time 'unto the tenth generation' that's a lot of hell bound Phelps's.

A couple of years ago, someone claiming to be from this church spent a couple of weeks flaming Siouxsie Sioux's message board. They got bored first.

I believe the members of the Westboro Baptist Church (which makes it sound like a larger organization than the handful of Phelps spawn that it is) would gladly perform an abortion whilst being sodomized, as long as it was in the name of Jesus.

If they come over here and do that, they will get arrested, unless they're extremely mild with their message. I know the USA often prides itself on 'freedom of speech' but when it comes to the Phelps family and their ilk, I feel proud of Britain when it doesn't take that kind of bullshit and arrests the buggers.

You were right in another post about the fundie ranters:

They do love to say things IN UPPER CASE!!!!

No! Stay over there! It's a misunderstanding! A fag is something totally different here! People will think you're some church anti-smoking movement!

In regards to this woman and that last letter from your readers....

As Herman and his Hermits would say, "2nd verse, same as the 1st". Or, as I would say (and said about the LFYR, "what a f**king nutjob."

If we throw 'em into the sea they could always hitch a lift back to the US in the belly of a great fish - if it's good enough for Jonah...

"The antichrist is sitting now, in the Whitehouse, the time is SO SHORT - the Lord is coming and this generation is DOOMED! You see the destruction already before your eyes! As filthy america goes down, and The Beast Obama, That Son of Perdition, that Man of Sin gets his power grab on, you will all give over the power of your government to him and when you see that phony façade fall away, and he gets his war on and all your fawning over him turns to great fear, then you can remember these words."

Can we hold her to these predictions? Ask her about them four or eight years from now? What might she say then?

@David [#44]
Please do not defame the name of Weird Al by using him in an analogy with WBC!

.

@Evolved Dolly [#76],
Keith Allen's film is definitely worth watching, as is the Hatemongers doc on which they really opened themselves up. It's freely downloadable.

I would be happy to start a collection to pay their way ... as long as they were denied reentry.

Re:#76
"Haven't seen the Keith Allen one, is it worth looking up?"

It's well worth watching. Keith Allen is no Louis Theroux, he eventually blows his top at them and confronts them with a little secret that somebody had told him.
He goes tonto at Shirley and family and asks her son "Are you the illegitimate one?".
Yes, it turns out that the saintly Shirley is a sinner and a fornicator and has had a child out of wedlock. Looks like she's going to burn in the Big Fire with all the sodomists.

Ah my always favorite Phelps family. Honestly I actually quite like them. I think they play an important role in pushing the limits of free speech, and I'm quite disappointed that twice now they have been denied enterance into Canada. Sure, as a gay atheist, I 100% disagree with their message, but I also support their right to say it 100%. I prefer to look at the WBC as advocates of free speech, and a great example of what the bible really means...

"The cure for a fallacious argument is a better argument, not the supression of ideas."
-Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan

@SkepicOptimist: The cure for a fallacious argument is indeed a better argument but the cure for getting in the faces of the bereaved at a funeral is a family-sized can of whupass.

Ryk is correct-ish, the way to deal with these loonies is to laugh at them. On at least one, and I think multiple, occasions, people have dressed up as priates (think FSM) and counter-protested, being very careful to remain civil (to avoid the nutjobs habit of suing over the slightest provocation). The end result has (always?) been the passing public approves the priates and ignores the wackos. One example (which happened to be on Talk Like a Priate day) is http://www.venganza.org/2008/09/26/a-proud-day/

(Apologies for the unusually bad speling in this pots, I'm not using my usual interface….)

Man, she didn't say FAG once! But she did end with a marvelously chirpy "Thanks for asking!" That's so Big-Gay-Al of her.

Cerberus @ #85. For your counter protest soundtrack, how about "Opiate" by TOOL? Or "Be Aggresive" by Faith No More. Or what about the theme from "The Omen" as done by Fantomas?
Kobra @ #22 These people could help fertilize the soil too. They just need to be eased back into the nitrogen cycle.

"WHAT will you do when you get to the end of this road of your filthy disobedient manner of life and find that you have incurred the wrath of God and you find that his promises to make your people to be ALTOGETHER WORTHLESS, GOOD FOR ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!" [emphasis mine]
-Shirley Phelps-Roper

Am I wrong or does this mean that god's promise to make, what I assume she means, us altogether worthless is a empty promise? Does this mean god is limited in power? Or, perhaps more reasonably, there is no threat to begin with?

last time i was in the UK i was watching Louis Theroux and his documentary on the WBC.

when i expressed my disgust at the expression of their religious beliefs i was met with a horrid remark: "At least they believe in something"

so it's true. people in the uk would welcome these guys because they believe in ghosts and kiddies stories but they will deny Geert Wilders who has a totally plausible argument.

shock, horror.

well, I certainly would laugh if anonymous turned up and out-crazied the crazies the way they have the Co$. That would be the only fitting end, that their pathetically small-minded hate-mongering is just swallowed up by people out to have a good time and give away free cakes.

I've read many of the "I get email" series and had a good laugh, but nothing could make me actually read the drivel that poor, sad excuse for a woman disgorges. I am ashamed it actually made it to the newspaper, even though it only serves the purpose of exposing how hate-filled those people are.

@blf
The Phelps clan was planning to protest at a performance of The Laramie Project in Vancouver. The Pastafarians in that area planned to counter-protest, as did the area LGBT groups. WBC never showed up. I'm not sure whether it was due to their chickening out, or from the good sense of the Canadian Border guards turning them away.

There are certainly British Pastafarians, so if the UK actually lets them in they might find themselves upstaged by the Pirates again.

The Westboro Baptist Church is planning a protest at UChicago: "God Hates Chicago 5801 South Ellis Ave Now that the Beast has pretty much declared that Chicago will be his "home base" (or "Mother Ship") - it is time to do some teaching to these little Beast wannabes at this University of Chicago. That is a whole lot of young adults needing some words of truth, which they apparently have never received before"
We are debating several forms of counter-protest, including offering free hugs and selling t-shirts proclaiming "Little Beast Wannabe". Most likely they won't show. Evidently Chicago is cold in the winter. *snicker*

Shirley Phelps is so fundamentalist, she even talks in upper case!

If Phelps has his usual "God hates fags" sign with him, won't the Britons think he was protesting tobacco usage?

the fred phelps mob actually seem even handed - have a look at http://www.godhatestheworld.com/

These fuckers were in Oklahoma this week protesting a tornado. Apparently the 8 people that were killed here had pissed off God enough that he would change the weather to kill them.

Moral of the story: God is an ass-hole. Don't Fuck with him.

Please Fred - please pop over the pond to us!

http://rationalbritain.org/westboro-baptist-church-to-picket-uk-youth-p…

I think they really need to go where they will do the most good-the Swat Valley.

Ugh... Brain Bleech, please.

Also, why is that woman preaching? Didn't she ever hear about Paul? Doesn't she know that in a righteous biblical society, her only role is to shut up and pop out kids?

The only reason she can assert her basic human right to be treated equally (a right she wants to deny others) is due to the godless humanist influences on our doomed secular societies. Man, there goes another irony meter!

Too bad the irony will go straight over the heads of those bible-humpers. After all, cherry-picking lies at the core of all readings of "holy scripture"

How can these people afford to travel to Europe? Do they actually have jobs from which they have not been fired? If so, who is it that is willing to employ such people?

The antichrist is sitting now, in the Whitehouse, the time is SO SHORT - the Lord is coming and this generation is DOOMED! You see the destruction already before your eyes! As filthy america goes down, and The Beast Obama, That Son of Perdition, that Man of Sin gets his power grab on, you will all give over the power of your government to him and when you see that phony façade fall away, and he gets his war on and all your fawning over him turns to great fear, then you can remember these words.

heh... just checking if the blockquote class=creationist tag works in comments. Apparently not.

"I say we are dot connecters!"

I'M A GOD WARRIOR! I'M A DOT CONNECTER! GORGYLES!

"The God Smacks are HIS WORK! "

Really? That band SUCKS. Another point for Satan, I guess.

"It's sort of sweet... they've made special "KU Law Fags" and "Rock Chalk Gayhawk" signs just for that annual event."

If I ever throw any parties, I might just have to invite these guys. They're hilarious.

@Steve

Good point. I almost forgot that fag has a completely different and far less incendiary connotation over there in the UK.

Perhaps "God hates fruits," or "God despises whoopsies" would seem par for the course, eh?

I'm betting the local populace will probably mistake them for some sort of comedy troupe...or a PR pitch for Eddie Izzard's latest sketch

I grow absolutely fucking sick of the aiders and abetters of these terrorists who cry "FREE SPEECH FREE SPEECH FREE SPEECH!" every time someone advocates dealing with them properly. They, by their own admission, do what they do to incite violence against themselves so they can sue to fund their hate rallies. Clear and present danger applies, and they are NOT PROTECTED. And no, laughing at them and making fun of them won't stop the - it only reinforces their views. Nor does ignoring them work - they fully believe their garbage, and nobody, no other hatemonger, thinks of themselves as "like them".

They are inciters of violence, and so should be shut down. Say all you like that it's some horrible evil, but as long as they are allowed to spread hate and make money from it, they are a pox, a parasite, and should be dealt with accordingly.

Learn the truth about Phelps and his hate klan - google "addicted to hate". Fred Phelps is a brainwasher, child abuser, and wife-beater. He should be dead. I stand by that.

I love the jaunty sign-off, "Thanks for asking!" after that tirade of slavering, violent psychosis.

You'll have a nice day, now! Sheesh.

And if we're not going to think violence when dealing with them, then I wonder what kind of money it would take for a customs official to... uh, "lose" their papers?

Sad, but also funny. No point in getting too upset. These are morons who are not worth wasting energy on. Fortunately most everyone knows this and these views will never cause real people much problem. It's entertainment, like the old church lady rants on Saturday night live.

I remember that they were due to come out to Australia to picket Heath Ledger's funeral, since he played a gay character in a film and is therefore cast into hellfire or somesuch nonsense. It was pointed out to them, by a munber of people, that if they pulled the sort of shit here that they do at soldiers funerals then they'd never make the airport.

They didn't show.

"The God Smacks are HIS WORK! "

Really? That band SUCKS. Another point for Satan, I guess.

Unless, of course, she is referring to the Alice in Chains song.

favorite out-of-context quote from Shirley:

"God is a big fat liar"

Ditto on their many no-shows. They actually announced a plan to picket the Virginia Tech Massacre memorials and funerals. I live near there and I honestly do not think they would have all survived, but they ended up skipping it.
For years I have had students read their website and analyze some aspects of it, and boy does that site piss the Christian students off.

Isn't there some law against people like this coming back into the US? If not, could we make one up real quick?

Relax everyone. An Atheist bus will handle their transport.

I was driving in Topeka one day after a particularly heavy rainfall, and as I approached a corner, who did I see but the odious Phelps clan, protesting who knows what? Unfortunately, they chose a particularly poor location, right along the curb near a storm drain that was not really big enough to accommodate the runoff from the recent storm.
all it took was a slight swerve on my part to produce some very wet Phelps folk. Judging by the one-fingered salutes they gave me, God much hate me, too. I have to admit I felt a little bad about soaking a bunch of kids, even if they were Phelps spawn, but the enduring teenager in me laughed all the home. True story.

These people are publicity whores, so why bother paying attention to them?

hey XymbionicX #119 you are correct, the entities over at
at http://www.godhatestheworld.com/ are seriously fornicated in the brain by an overly large penis.

catgirl (re comment #23) -- I'm one of the coauthors of that site--we don't have an official organization (perhaps we should). However, we encourage anyone who wants to to use "God Hates Shrimp" paraphernalia in Phelps counterprotests. The most effective use I've seen to date was the folks who did it in pirate garb, grabbed all the media attention and the WBC folks fled. Just sayin'.

I'm confused.

They call Obama the anti-christ, but isn't he a christian?
Does that mean he's the wrong kind of christian?
Does he worship another god than other christians do?

How on earth can people have a religion where they not only go against other religions and gods, but where other people worshipping the same god as they do are also in the wrong.

I don't get it.

Say what you like about the Phelps - but they have a genius for slogans - I saw one on you tube saying 'Save the Gerbil'

I understand that IF Hampshire's finest police officers allow the picket to go ahead, they will be significantly out-numbered by anti-Phelps protests. Even members of the ARSSE British Army forum say they're going to show up.

It's on my way home from work. As a journalist, I may feel duty found to take a look and report back.

While we're here:

Margie Phelps sends hate message to local paper, gets the wrong country.

So, basically, the Phelps family are going to fly to Australia to picket a play in England. Can't wait.

How on earth can people have a religion where they not only go against other religions and gods, but where other people worshipping the same god as they do are also in the wrong.

I don't get it.

See, this isn't new, or unique. It seems to be quite universal in all religious denominations. Just look at how the catholic hated the protestant and vice-versa, how the shiites hate the sunni, and the wahabit, arguably the craziest nutters among the muslim world, hate both of them and say they're not true muslims.

My theory is that they hate them so much (other denominations in the same faith) because they're actually their worst competitors (a little like animals from the same species are the worst competitors for each other, having the same niche).

Since they have the same faith, they're pretty much interchangeable for ordinary folks. Their authorities have to make a lot of noise about their insignificant differences, including making stuff up if necessary, to keep their flock from moving to another church in case of desagreement. It's a question of using fear, hatred and division as a tool of power over the faithful.

THEY NEED TO BE IGNORED! They don't give a shit what anyone thinks of them. They are ONLY interested in the publicity. THAT IS ALL THEY ARE INTERESTED IN. The more they get -- bad is better than good, because it gives them more attention and more news time -- the better. PERIOD.

IGNORE THEM. STOP FEEDING THE TROLLS!

THEY NEED TO BE IGNORED! They don't give a shit what anyone thinks of them. They are ONLY interested in the publicity. THAT IS ALL THEY ARE INTERESTED IN. The more they get -- bad is better than good, because it gives them more attention and more news time -- the better. PERIOD.

The thing is, it's difficult to ignore them when they're there, at a loved one's funeral, shouting slogans and bearing signs that say things that have a high potential of attracting violence against them, which is what they ardently wish for. I'm not sure that, if I was hurt and grieving, I would have the strenght to refrain from bashing their skulls in with their own signs.

That's why I think the funny, peaceful counter-protests, whether with pirates or gays, are not a bad idea. Especially if they :

a) Get more media attention than the protest itself
b) Show our friendly, non-violent solidarity against them
c) Get them to leave in disgust

If it happens often enough, it might make them understand the uselessness of these disgusting protests. It might even get some of them to understand that the outside world is not as their leaders tell them it is, and to finally leave the krazy klan. One of the Phelp's son has left not so long ago, if I remember right.

It's likely they won't even get into the country. They said they'd come up to Vancouver to protest, (are we talking "The Laramie Project"?) but some of them were stopped at the border, and I'm guessing the rest of them just gave up. Other international protests of theirs haven't gone so well, either. I doubt they'll decide it's really worth it.

This protest against The Laramie Project makes perfect sense to me. It combines all of my favourite fictional characters.

The Westboro Baptist Church believes that "God hates fags". In Britain, fags are cigarettes, and advertising the sale of them is banned.

I find it despicable how Laramie Cigarettes would produce a play just to circumvent British anti-tobacco law. It smacks of cartoonish super-villainy.

They've been banned from entering the UK

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/hampshire/7898972.stm

Sorry, USA, we don't want them either. We have quite enough home-grown crazies without taking anyone else's.

I'm having an argument on my Facebook status comments about this. Clearly it is wrong to ban them from the UK. What next? Exile that nut Stephen Green of Christian Voice? Kick Richard Dawkins out for being a "Fundamentalist Atheist" (or whatever the Christian apologists like to call him)?

What are they scared of? That we're all going to join the Westboro baptists and sail to the US of A to protest at funerals?

Our government is getting trigger-happy and it's annoying me.

"There are members of WBC that are not named Phelps," she added.

Maybe, but I'd bet ten bucks that they have Phelps genetic material.

That's a bizarre way of saying that the WBC isn't made solely of her family. It's like she's unintentionally saying that it is.

What are they scared of? That we're all going to join the Westboro baptists and sail to the US of A to protest at funerals?

Our government is getting trigger-happy and it's annoying me.

Maybe they don't relish the potential for violence against those nutters. And the considerable expense of paying overtime to cops in riot gear to protect them.

Canada has refused them entry too. A government has the right to refuse entry to people it thinks will make expensive or violent trouble. The US, for example, refuses you entry if you have a criminal file, even for a non-violent crime. We've expulsed hate-mongering imams (who luckily did not have citizenship at the time) before. We've got enough on our hands with our own nutters.

Imagine the legal nightmare for your country if something did happen to them over there.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article5767077.ece

Heh - told you they'd never get in.

I can't see anything wrong with banning them. They intend to show up solely to parade their intolerance of a perfectly normal human right - to be gay - and encourage others to do so. Why would we want that?

Dawkins couldn't be banned because he's (a) English anyway, and (b) his message is completely compatible with human rights: let people be religious if they want, but stop religion from trying to order us around and subvert our children's ability to think and learn.

Kemist - You make good points.

The trouble is, they are quite compatible with my views on free speech.

Your reasons are good on practical grounds, but this is not the reason Jacqui Smith gave. She said that extremists have no place in the UK. Freedom of expression doesn't allow for cherry-picking the people who enter the UK based on their opinions or worldview.

I think that they should either give your (much more reasonable) reasons, or let the fanatics in.

cedgray,

Dawkins' views (pretty much all of which I wholeheartedly agree with) are against our official state religion.

The fact that he's English wouldn't matter if we accept Jacqui Smith's reasons to denying the WBC entry.

Imagine if, a century ago, a group making the audacious claim that homosexuality should not only be legal, but accepted were banned from the UK. What principle would allow us to permit these folks from entering our country and spreading their message? Surely the same principle that is being denied to the WBC!

On a side note, I hate it when freedom of speech is denied to people, because I have to leap to the defence of people like Phelps and Irving, when I should be spending my time criticising them!

Aww.

I know quite a few people were getting excited about this. I think an unofficial pride event might have been in the pipeline. Gays in Britain have forgotten how to protest, after all, and so we would have probably just put a fence around the Phelpses and charged people to have their photos taken with them, before going to join the funky-house frottage in the Gaydar dance tent.

Alas.