Just recently a church in Kansas called Westboro Baptist Church held protests (just one of the many that they have held) at the funeral of a soldier who is said to be gay and it was simply shocking the way the entire thing was carried out. They held placards like “Thank God for dead soldiers”, “You are going to hell” and one of the worst was “Pray for more dead kids”. If they were real God loving Christians they will never hold placards like that and will never even think of harassing a family that is already grieving. Now I know that most of you who visit this blog know that I do not accept homosexuality as normal but what this church did is totally unchristian.
My heart goes out to those families which this church has targeted, since no one should have to tolerate such a thing during a time of grief such as loosing a loved one.
Maybe they have different views on homosexuality but protesting and passing judgement at the funeral is overstepping the line. When I checked on the credibility of this church there happens to be nothing credible about it. Almost all of the 70 members of this church happen to be relatives of the head and and it is not affliated to any denomination.
I am happy that they were fined and God will judge them for what they are doing to those families. They may be thinking that they are doing the right thing but they are wrong and there more decent and better ways of getting their beliefs across.
I hope that the members of this church will start reading the bible and specially read Matthew 22:37-39 ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’[a] 38This is the first and greatest commandment. 39And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself‘.
Nov 8, 2007 at 12:15 pm
Actually when the bible states “Love your neighbour as yourself”, the “neighbours” it is refering to are specifically jewish neighbours. Everybody else can just bugger off.
Read “The Weight of 3000 Years” by Israel Shahak, a prominent jewish scholar, for a better explanation.
Nov 8, 2007 at 1:26 pm
That is terrible!These people are just using religion as an excuse for their own bigotry.
To the commenter above, don’t be stupid. In the story of the good Samaritan, the neighbour did not only refer to Jews.
Nov 8, 2007 at 2:56 pm
It’s not a recent thing. Rev Phelps and his family – for his “flock” is literally his family and extended family – have been at it for sometime. They came to prominence following the events 9/11.
Michael Moore was so peeved off after hearing about Phelps that he commissioned the creation of a pink RV, named it the Gay Mobile (or something to that effect), loaded it with gays and lesbians, and followed Phelps where ever he went. The video is on YouTube. Fucking hilarious.
Phelps’ daughter looks like an inbred giraffe.
Nov 8, 2007 at 2:58 pm
The anchors on Fox news – the outspoken Sean Hannity in particular – publicly castigated them for their views on national TV. That ought to give you an idea of where these people stand on the social liberties spectrum.
Nov 13, 2007 at 2:46 am
Actually, the Westboro group did not protest that funeral because they thought the soldier was gay. It’s way worse than that. They claim that because the US people and government is so easy on gays, that God is making the US loose the war and is in fact, killing American soldiers to protest the fact that Americans don’t treat gays badly enough.
Seriously.
Dec 19, 2007 at 4:12 pm
Januis, when you’re asked to read something read it before you make stupid comment like that…
You are hardly a biblical scholar and the book I quoted was from a prominent one who had done the research. Read it and you will see for yourself.