God Hates The Westboro Baptist ChurchATTENTION SOUTHERN ILLINOIS (AND SURROUNDING AREA) READERS: A reader has alerted me that some mob of lunatics from the "Reverend" Fred Phelps' Westboro Baptist "Church" in Topeka, Kansas are coming here today to desecrate the military funeral of Army Specialist Brian M. Romines in Anna, Illinois. They're apparently planning to show up at 10:30 AM at the Anna Heights Baptist Church on Turner Avenue. Phelps' "Church" is nothing more than a cult commune, and this is a great opportunity to show up and counterprotest: If you aren't familiar with these wild savages, you can visit their website at, I kid you not,
godhatesamerica.com, or, alternately,
godhatesfags.com. (As you'll see, they don't believe there is a difference, and seem to believe that the military is under the control of some homosexual plot.) Here's
an excerpt from their flyer for this "epic" event:
"God is not mocked!" America bombed WBC with an IED. God in retaliation is killing U.S. soldiers like Brian with IEDs in Iraq.
...America is doomed, for persecuting Westboro Baptist Church because WBC for 14 years now has warned against the filthy, sinful fag agenda. God is retaliating against this evil nation for bombing WBC with an IED. God is saying to America: "You set off an IED attempting to terrorize my people; now I will kill thousands of your soldiers with IEDs." America's terrorist is God Himself. America is now a fag nation. America is now at war with God.
Do they sound more like Islamists, or leftists? Is that what it'd look like if the two finally merged? They get off on the misery of others, and have no recognizable Christian doctrine, and now they're coming to interfere with the memorial of one of our neighbors. This clan of nutcases travels the country disrupting military funerals and other events, creating scenes like
this one:
Thirteen members of an anti-gay church from Kansas who picketed a high school graduation Saturday were met with about 250 counter-demonstrators, 30 police officers and numerous residents annoyed to see divisive protest in this normally quiet town.
Carrying signs reading, "America is Doomed" and "God Hates Perverts," followers and relatives of the Rev. Fred Phelps traveled about 1,800 miles from Topeka to picket the high school graduation at Tracy High because they were upset that students at a different high school in Tracy gained administrative support for resurrecting their chapter of the Gay-Straight Alliance.
But some people who drove by or walked past were very offended when one of the anti-gay protesters was seen dragging an American flag along the sidewalk and the dirt along 11th Street outside the high school.
This isn't their first
military funeral, but Phelps is best known for protesting the funeral of Matthew Shepard. These creeps have disrupted everything from school ceremonies to a memorial for the Columbia astronauts (
when "God struck the symbol of your might and arrogance out of the sky") to the funerals of AIDS victims to
the second Bush inauguration (where they claim they were met by "violent beasts"), and aren't welcome anywhere. Remember
David Parker, the Massachusetts man who (quite rightly) demanded to be notified if his son was going to be taught about homosexuality? These guys took it as a welcome wagon, and
it wasn't:
The Westboro Baptist Church based in Topeka, Kan., is targeting communities it says are "accepting" of the gay lifestyle, including Lexington - a town pulled into the spotlight because of one father's demands he be notified whenever homosexuality is discussed in his son's kindergarten classroom.
But David Parker, 42, who was arrested on trespassing charges at the Joseph Estabrook School in April, challenged the group to move their protest to his front lawn. Parker said he does not share the Topeka group's views.
"Do they have the courage to face me instead of small children or will they take the coward's way out and ignore me," said Parker, who described the group as a "hate church."
Phelps has, he claims, organized 22,000 such "epics" in the last 12 years, but has stepped it up lately because he claims/believes that a conspiracy between the "fag-infested military" and the government ordered the bombing of his church 6 years ago. (Counterprotestors, it seems, only show up because the U.S. government forces them to.) It's the ultimate lunacy, and I don't think politics plays a role in realizing it has no place here.
I wish I'd had more than a few hours notice about this, or I'd have organized a reception myself, but I'm probably not going to be able to make it down. This notice may come too late, however, there will undoubtedly be plenty of spontaneous outrage to go around should you choose to come out and join the party, and these sacks of animated excrement deserve it. If any reader does decide to come out and provide moral support to the Romines family, you are encouraged to take photos and tell your story for fifteen minutes of fame here.
Update: A blog account of
the protest in Idaho:
At 1252, the blue-shirted protester, probably Phelps' son, shouted at a carload of soldiers turning into the parking lot, "Watch out for IEDs!" After this, he started shouting "French is in Hell" to everyone who passed. On two occasions, he shouted this to young women who appeared to be the right age to be Carrie's classmates. Their mothers had to restrain them; I talked to one who walked by afterwards, tears streaming down her face as she sobbed "Those bastards", and I told her that I'd do my best to tell the world what horrible people these are. The other young woman so accosted just yelled "F*ck you!" back at the protesters; the protesters just laughed.
Hopefully the Anna police will do at least as good a job containing these idiots as the Caldwell cops did.