On Nov. 2nd, Maj. Gerald M. Bloomfield II and Capt. Michael D. Martino were providing covering fire for a group of Marines caught in a battle with insurgents outside Ramadi when their helicopter was hit by enemy fire and crashed. Both soldiers were killed.
On the 11th, Bloomfield's body was laid to rest in Elkhart, Indiana. Unfortunately for family and friends, his funeral was besieged by religious fanatics—not Muslims angry at American intervention in Iraq, mind you, but members of the Westboro Baptist Church from Topeka, Kansas. They picketed the funeral, holding signs with wholesome Christian messages like "God Sent the IEDs," "America Is Doomed" and "God Hates You."
The church, founded in 1955 by "Pastor" Fred Phelps, is based on the following precept:
The only lawful sexual connection is the marriage bed. All other sex activity is whoremongery and adultery, which will damn the soul forever in Hell. Decadent, depraved, degenerate and debauched America, having bought the lie that It's OK to be gay, has thereby changed the truth of God into a lie, and now worships and serves the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed forever.
You can check out the Westboro Baptist Church website by surfing over to this charming domain name: godhatesfags.com (you knew someone had to own it, and now you know). According to the church mission statement, "GOD HATES FAGS"—though elliptical—is a profound theological statement, which the world needs to hear more than it needs oxygen, water and bread." It seems our brothers in Christ have spent so much time with their heads buried in the Bible that they haven't managed to crack open a dictionary any time recently. They should look up "elliptical," not to mention "profound."
Members of Phelps' church have been picketing military funerals around the country to drive home their point that every death in Iraq (plus Hurricane Katrina and the killer tornado in southern Indiana) are God's wrath visited on a country that deserves damnation because it tolerates homosexuality. They took a break for Thanksgiving (even bigots like turkey), but they're back at it today in Oklahoma City, picketing the funeral of Marine Cpl. Jeffry A. Rogers.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Matt Paprocki
That picture is flat out depressing. Their kids will never know anything else.
2 - Nancy
Pity we can't bomb these maniacs. That would be one IED well spent.
3 - JELIEL
I thought God was love... oh well.
4 - Marcia L. Neil
Some relationships which inspire homophobia in-clude those where unusual closeness is demonstra-ted as mutual mental retention of similar 'match-ing' memories of those deceased during conflict of different sorts. Likewise, there seems to be a caste orientation among populations which accord more respect to those soldiers who receive bountiful personal correspondence while stationed overseas.
5 - Pete Blackwell
Nancy,
They claim on their website that they were bombed and they call it an IED themselves. Of course, I support their right to speak their nonsense and I don't advocate the IED solution.... (I assume you don't either)
Lucky for them, base stupidity isn't a capital crime.
6 - Silas Kain
Fred Phelps burning in Hell being sodomized by seventy-five overly endowed Muslim terrorists would kill 76 birds with one damnation. The Westboro Baptist Church should be exorcised by a Papal Nuncio; stripped of all that is Godly within; and then torched to the ground with Fred Phelps being tied to a stake in the middle of the conflagration. Does that sound too harsh? Sorry, it's one thing to hate fags, it's quite another to inflict further pain on the innocent survivors of war.
7 - Nancy
Actually, Pete, I wouldn't say it if I didn't favor it. You're right: stupidity should be a capital crime.
8 - BG
I was born and raised in Kansas and know how homophobic the place can be from personal experience, but Rev. Phelps and his cronies shouldn't be taken as representative of the whole state. I suspect his antics are encouraging a certain amount of tolerance from Kansans embarrassed by his over-the-top religiosity. I believe a "live and let live" philosophy can be found in most Kansans, often as not. This is just a guess since I haven't been back there in about 20 years, but things seemed to be changing for the better during my last years there.
9 - Nancy
Well, I guess if it backfires by generating tolerance, it's not all bad. Maybe.
10 - Pete Blackwell
I understand that these nutjobs and the Intelligent Design folks don't represent all Kansans. Still, you guys seem to produce religious whack-jobs at a greater clip than the rest of us. What gives, Kansas? Stop making the rest of us look bad. You're well on your way to bing the next Arkansas ;-)
11 - Pete Blackwell
P.S. I don't think stupidity should be a capital crime. We'd all be in trouble every once in a while idf it were (though I've never been as stupid as the Westboro-ers...I hope).
12 - Sam Jack
I'm from Kansas myself, and I get mighty sick of the stupidity. Kansas has a history of attracting weirdos with crazy agendas, and I really don't know why. It must be because we're flat and empty: people figure they can impose their deluded fantasies on us. Most of the population just tries to ignore them, and I think that the Kansas media has pretty much resolved not to cover them.
I wrote an article for Blacktable.com a couple of months ago, called Six Things You Don't Know About Kansas, which discusses some of the history of loopiness in Kansas.
God, I wish Fred Phelps would go away.
13 - Silas Kain
Hey, Kansas can't be all bad. Dorothy of Wizard of OZ fame came from Kansas and we all know that any friend of Dorothy...
14 - Anthony Grande
Gee, I wonder what Jesus would say about this? Wasn't Jesus that claimed that everyone is God's children and should be accepted?
God is judging this person right now.
I believe these protests should be more louder and more frequent, but let's not try and refuse burial rights to anyone.
15 - Victor Plenty
It's unclear what you're trying to say, Anthony. Are you indicating your agreement with Fred Phelps? Are you saying the death of American soldiers in Iraq is a sign of God's wrath at America for failing to kill more of its own gay people?
16 - Anthony Grande
What I am trying to say is that a church claiming to be Christian needs to open its doors to everyone, the mentally impaired, the blind, the lame and everyone else.
A funeral is not the time or place for this protest. These godly people should be praying for this dead soldier.
American deaths in Iraq are the result for war. Isn't it strange that every war we participate in has casualties?
I do believe that STDs and AIDS are meant for the sinners. Needle sharers, adulters, people having pre-marital sex and gays are the ones who get them. Someone who practices abstince, is drug free and does not commit adultery will be safe from AIDS.
I also believe the AIDS will never be cured and if it is it will be replaced with a new disease.
17 - Victor Plenty
You think you're safe from AIDS, huh? I hope you learn how mistaken you are the easy way (through eventually getting enough education to pick up half a clue on the subject) and not the hard way (by getting infected yourself, through some means other than these actions for which you take it upon yourself to judge other people's moral worth).
18 - Silas Kain
Victor, just find the humor. There's so much in between the lines. Be confident in knowing that he who protests loudest usually has something to hide.
19 - RJ
A few months ago, I downloaded a "sermon" by Mr. Phelps.
Not only is the man insane, but he's a lousy public speaker!
20 - RJ
"I do believe that STDs and AIDS are meant for the sinners. Needle sharers, adulters, people having pre-marital sex and gays are the ones who get them. Someone who practices abstince, is drug free and does not commit adultery will be safe from AIDS."
Well, you are certainly right in saying that STDs are very rare in people who abstain from sex until marriage, and do not commit adultery or use IV drugs.
But I completely disagree with the idea that an all-powerful, benevolent God has decided to punish "sinners" (aren't we all?) by giving them horrific, deadly diseases simply because they had sex prior to marriage, or engaged in homosexual sex, or used drugs, or whatever.
21 - Anthony Grande
RJ, so you think it is just a coincidence that only the biggest sinners contract the AIDs virus?
22 - Pete Blackwell
AG, what was Ryan White's sin (apart from letting Michael Jackson into his house)?
23 - Pete Blackwell
Oh, and what about the wife of the big sinner who gets AIDS from her sinning husband despite doing nothing sinful herself? Diseases don't discriminate nearly as much as people do (hint, hint).
24 - Silas Kain
Tell that to the families of Elizabeth Glaser and Arthur Ashe, Anthony. For a devout Conservative Christian you have a remarkable amount of compassion. I can't use your young age or lack of education as an excuse. Your problems are far deeper.
25 - Winston Jen
I guess lesbians aren't sinning at all then, Anthony, as they have the lowest rates of AIDS among all groups, even lower than heterosexuals.