I first learned of the existence of this site after reading one of Scott Pepper's posts.
I'll just offer a little sampling of what these scum have to say. You can check out the rest, if your stomach is strong enough...
From here:
When Matthew Shepard died on October 12, 1998, every pervert in this country (from Bill Clinton on down) used his death as a soap box to promote so-called "gay rights." These same perverts ignored the vicious murder of 13-year-old Jesse Dirkhising by two fags. In religious protest of this, WBC picketed the funeral of Matthew Shepard, to inject a little truth and sanity into the irrational orgy of lies consuming this world. And WBC held a memorial service for Jesse Dirkhising at his lonely grave. WBC does not support the murder of Matthew Shepard: "thou shalt not kill." Unless his killers repent, they will receive the same sentence that Matthew Shepard received - eternal fire. However, the truth about Matthew Shepard needs to be known. He lived a Satanic lifestyle. He got himself killed trolling for anonymous homosexual sex in a bar at midnight. Unless he repented in the final hours of his life (not likely since God had given him up! - Romans 1), He is in hell. He will be in hell for all eternity, "where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched." Mark 9:44. For each day that passes, he has only eternity to look forward to. All the candlelight vigils, all the tributes, all the acts of Congress, all the rulings by the Supreme Court of the United States, will not shorten his sentence by so much as one day. And all the riches of the world will not buy him one drop of water to cool his tongue.
Here they display a "monument" to the late Mr. Shepard. You truly have to see it to believe it.
Article comments
1 - jack e. jett
mmmm
now isn't that just special?
jack
2 - jack e. jett
btw:
these are the same fuckwads that stood outside of my best friends funneral holding up banners..one that said.."your son is burning in hell"
jack
3 - boomcrashbaby
RJ, the Reverend Fred Phelps and his 'congregation' are pretty well known, I'm surprised you haven't heard of them.
Here's a quick breakdown on their history. Fred Phelps is a disbarred lawyer. He practiced law unethically and intimated clients and witnesses, so he lost his job.
He became a Reverend and opened the Westboro church in Topeka Kansas. (And Topeka is absolutely dismayed he is there, but there he is). His 'congregation' consists of about 20 people, who are all related to him. Most of the adults are disbarred lawyers as well.
One year after he was disbarred, he forcefully gave his wife a crewcut in a drunken rage. source.
He protested the rescue efforts at 9/11, picketing the firemen and police officers with signs depicting them engaging in sodomy acts. (same link).
"The District Attorney in Shawnee County (Topeka) has filed several criminal cases against members of the Westboro Cult ranging from disorderly conduct and battery to felony charges of aggravated intimidations of victims and witnesses. Prosecution of these cases are delayed pending the outcome of the second of the lawsuits filed in federal court by Phelps Chartered. Fred and his lawyer offspring and in-laws continue to abuse the judicial system much as Fred did before his state and federal disbarments." source
He attempted to put his Matthew Shepard monument in a city park in Matthew's hometown of Wyoming. In response, the city asked the Eagles to take back a statue of the 10 commandments, that they had in the city park. This way, they could forbid all statues. (Fred Phelps was suing the city to put the hate statue up under the same laws/requirements that allowed the 10 commandments to go up). The Eagles took their 10 commandments back, and now the town forbids all statues in it's parks.
For some reason, Phelps has now focused on putting the statue up in some public park in Idaho.
There are numerous online accounts, of Phelps abusing his kids when they were younger, but they are grown now and members of his congregation. There was a book released by a 'former' Phelps person, about what life in the family was like. I don't remember if it was a blood relation or by marriage, but the person who left described their situation as extremely cult like.
I'm surprised you haven't heard of them, they first gained notoriety when they protested the funeral of Randy Shilts. Their church receives money to keep going, by their continual abuse of the legal system, as well as numerous anonymous donations, which I'm guessing are done under the same principle as when Republican right-wingers like Ben Stein fund Naders 'work'.
The gay community hears stories of them, as well as many others, including those in politics, who have the same philosophies, if not the same tactics, ALL the time in the gay news. When you hear reports of this your whole life, it can influence your opinion of those who are on the same side of the political spectrum who are very tolerant of them, if not openly accepting of them. It's something one needs to constantly work on, to remind themselves that not everybody 'over there' is like that. But being tolerant of hate to many people is the equivalent of endorsing the hate.
To give you an example of what I mean, here are some headlines from 65gay.com, the world's largest gay news agency. Now keep in mind, these headlines only cover the last seven days.
Gay Teen's Brutal Slaying Nets Killers 65K (Alabama)
Gay Cyclists Escape Arson attack (Michigan)
Anti-gay attacks reach crisis point in northern ireland.
Gay singer beaten in Montreal (by a half dozen men)
Life sentence in gay dismemberment slaying
Kill Gays' singer to begin US tour (Jamaican pop singer who advocates executing gays in his songs). There is a related link there about a related story just last month in which Jamaica's most notable gay civil rights leader was brutally murdered.
That's one weeks worth of the most eye-catching headlines that I bothered to grab. Maybe now you can see why a lot of gay people can be intolerant of conservatives who want to make gay people second class citizens. This type of condescending behavior has a carry over effect to morons who will take violent action with it.
4 - Mike Kole
Al Barger, alleged neo-con, has long had a link on his blog under "Scoundrels and Damn Fools" heading.
5 - Al Barger
Yeah, ol' Fred Phelps is a real piece of work. I'm all in favor of Christians, but there's nothing remotely Christ-like about this guy.
If he were smart and good looking, maybe he'd aspire to being Harry Powell, the evil serial killing "preacher" from Night of the Hunter.
It's a damned shame that the park in Wyoming had to boot a Ten Commandments plaque. They would have been within reasonable rights to have kept it and just flat shut Phelps down, in my judgment. I'm all in favor of equal treatment of religions, if it were Buddhists or Muslims or Hindus wanting to also add some little plaque.
This thing from Phelps, though, was not a general religious statement, but an incredibly nasty personal attack about Matthew Shephard supposedly being in hell.
I'm all in favor of free speech and unpopular opinions, but when this buttmunch goes picketing private funerals, that's edging from free speech into plain goddam harassment.
Fred Phelps just severely needs a big number 12 pair of boots in his dumb ass.
6 - boomcrashbaby
here is a report on Boise, Idaho's fight to keep the monument out. He went after another park that had another 10 commandments statue by the Fraternal Order of Eagles. He's using the same principle. If the state allows one religious belief on the property, then it should allow his religious belief as well, is his argument. This was a tactic used by Judge Roy Moore in his Alabama case. But people find themselves in an awkward situation when someone like Phelps comes along and uses their arguments in a way they never imagined possible in this day and age.
He makes a living abusing the legal system. So taxpayers are funding everything he does.
Here's a question for you, Al:
I'm all in favor of equal treatment of religions, if it were Buddhists or Muslims or Hindus wanting to also add some little plaque.
This is the argument he is using. If you allow the 10 commandments, you must allow equal treatment of his beliefs. This is why they are taking the 10 commandments out of parks or are considering it being put in others all over the place, it's actually NOT because of overzealous church and state separatist fanatics. It's because people make statements like you just did there, but then find themselves caught in a court of law by Fred Phelps, who plans on holding you to your word. If you are okay with a Buddhist to put up a plaque, then why not him and his religion?
7 - Al Barger
Him and his religion, fine, but he's crossing the line with the personal nature of this. A plaque about how great his god is, great- but this is not a religious statement, but rather an attack on a specific individual with a mother and friends and family.
Matthew Shephard wasn't even a public figure, but simply a murder victim. This is not worshiping God, the goddess, or nature. It's not any kind of worship. What, Phelps has a religion dedicated specifically to the hatred of Matthew Shephard? Leave him and his family out of it.
Pushing it to the limits, I don't care if this schmuck wants to stand at the pulpit in his own little putrid church and talk crap about this poor kid. Free speech, fine.
I might even be willing to bend over backwards to the point of accepting him asking for a public park to display a little plaque with some Biblical proscription against sodomy. Or I might would vote to pull the Ten Commandments rather than give this guy space.
This is over the line, though, demanding public space to berate one specific mortal human, and to picket his funeral, and harass the mourners. I feel reasonably comfortable making a pretty clear distinction.
8 - Shark
...Just another 'faith-based initiative'.
9 - Andrew Ian Dodge
This guy is as bad as some of the Mullahs preaching hate in the Islamic world. He is an extremist and should be seen as such.
10 - boomcrashbaby
I haven't been following the details of the court cases, just the results, so I don't know HOW he is 'winning'. While he might not win the right to put up the statue, he is apparently winning the case that it is representative of his belief, which would be the reason why other statues have to come out, rather than give in to him.
Emotionally and logically, we know you are right on number 7, Al. That it is not actually a statement of religion as much as it is hate. Apparently much harder to prove in a court of law.
This is why religious symbols should be kept out of public arenas in my opinion.
In regards to your being okay with a plaque in a public park, (perhaps near the kiddie swings?), condemning sodomy, should we put up a sign there, condemning women who do not wear veils and who are not submissive to their man, as an affront to Allah? Or should we put it over by the picnic benches where the moms sit?
11 - Dirtgrain
GodLovesFags.com has a "Phelps Watch" which shows where Phelps and pals will be in the future (coming to a street corner near you. . .). The guy gets around.
I wrote about him in a piece a while ago. My conclusion is that we have to tolerate him if we want to live in a free society. When his speech threatens violence, though, he should be dealt with by the legal system.
12 - Al Barger
Boom, I'm not particularly 'OK' with him putting up an anti-sodomy plaque, but I might be willing to tolerate such a thing - or I might vote as councilman to take out all symbols.
It's not just that Phelps is being hateful - religions are totally capable of that - but the real specifically personal nature of it. He might game the system with something a little more general and cause others to have to remove their stuff, but this direct personal thing I would reject and leave other stuff alone. It is different enough in kind that I would feel perfectly comfortable making a reasonable distinction.
Best I can tell, the park in Wyoming is not under any court order about the Ten Commandments plaque. They are just removing it pre-emptively. They probably don't feel like spending a hundred grand on attorneys and having all the publicity.
13 - boomcrashbaby
Boom, I'm not particularly 'OK' with him putting up an anti-sodomy plaque, but I might be willing to tolerate such a thing - or I might vote as councilman to take out all symbols.
Okay, this has about run it's course in terms of what I can add, but I just want to point out to you that if I were a voter in your state, I would take your noncommittal answer this way:
You would be more likely to be tolerant of an anti-sodomy plaque, and more likely to take all plaques out if it were to be against veilless women. i.e. what you would allow in a park would be more in line with what YOU consider religious tolerance or not, rather than your melting pot of constituents.
14 - TDavid
I remember listening to this Phelps clown on a radio show where the host of the show was a gay gentleman. Phelps has some very inflammatory views. Personally I think this crosses the hate speech lines and that he and his ilk shouldn't be protected by the First Amendment for much, if not all, of what they are doing.
The fact that they are hiding under Third Person (God) is a shoddy foundation at best for their right to contaminate others with their spiteful, intolerant views.
15 - Al Barger
No Boom, I'm not making any distinction between anti-woman and anti-gay expression. Both have to be tolerated.
I tend to strongly favor more speech rather than less, so I'm inclined to be tolerant of even religious expression in a public place. I'm not a believer, but I don't have any big problem with something like a Ten Commandments plaque - as long as anyone else gets equal consideration for their religious views.
If same jackass like Phelps pushes the point, he might just ruin it for everyone else by making it necessary to ban ALL displays. That's unfortunate.
I'm not saying that anti-gay or anti-woman expression is cool, but just that I would consider accepting some of it as the price for letting others have their say.
Just how far that goes before a Phelps character would cause me to pull the plug on all of it would probably be on a case by case basis.
This would be, however, an issue for a local county commissioner or parks board, not the US Senate.
16 - lizard66
read romans7-8. I am definitely not a lesbo, but God loves and forgives everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
17 - Silas Kain
Does Fred Phelps get tax benefits? Are the members of Fred Phelps' congregation political contributors? And, if they are, do we know what political candidates they contribute to? Personally, Fred Phelps is a gay's best friend; because the more hate he spouts out, the more Christians he turns off. Let Freddie and his homophobic, sexually repressed closet Sodomite cult tell the world that God Hates Fags. He will get his. That you can count on. Oh, and by the way, I wonder how many men in Freddie's congregation have had sex with another man. Hey, Freddie, care to take a poll? Or is that pole? I have a theory that has yet to be unproven and that is that any man who protests against homosexuality to the point where it becomes obscene is, in every probablility, hungering for man-on-man sex.
18 - RJ Elliott
Now it's gone to the point of protesting military funerals...is there anybody in America who doesn't hate this piece of garbage?
19 - david p mc call
God loves every human being that God created
in God's Image & Likeness.
Glory to God in the Hightest for all eternity!
20 - ficwriterpaul
I think you're being a little too hard on him. He genuinely believes this is going to happen. Now, I don't think anyone can argue with that, if he is deluded that is something to cover somewhere else and could easly fill several books. No, I don't believe him! I just think you have to realize that since he believes this he would be in the wrong only if he did nothing about it. He is trying to help and his limited mind does not allow him to see that he could be wrong. We would be wasting our time trying to prove otherwise. As with most problems of this sort all you can do is ignore it.... Every post of this nature gives them more free advertising and in the eyes of the believers makes us the bad guys.
21 - dj thomlin
Jesus died for everyone ever born. He taught us to love by being the ultimate example of love. As a Christian, I am of the opinion the homosexuality goes against God's plan for people...however, I believe it is not my place to judge. The Bible teaches us to Judge not lest ye be judged also. It also says Love one another, Love thy neighbor as thyself.
Straight people should "clean up their own backyards" before pointing a finger at someone who is gay.
Only God can judge us. Period.