"God Hates Fags"

[Rushmore]

I cannot imagine how fast my hands would get around the necks of these people if they showed up at a funeral for one of my friends or family.

Anti-Gay Church Protests at GI Funerals


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Aug 28, 12:06 AM (ET)

By BETH RUCKER
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SMYRNA, Tenn. (AP) - Members of a church say God is punishing American soldiers for defending a country that harbors gays, and they brought their anti-gay message to the funerals Saturday of two Tennessee soldiers killed in Iraq.

The church members were met with scorn from local residents. They chased the church members cars' down a highway, waving flags and screaming "God bless America."

"My husband is over there, so I'm here to show my support," 41-year-old Connie Ditmore said as she waved and American flag and as tears came to her eyes. "To do this at a funeral is disrespectful of a family, no matter what your beliefs are."

The Rev. Fred Phelps, founder of Westboro Baptist in Kansas, contends that American soldiers are being killed in Iraq as vengeance from God for protecting a country that harbors gays. The church, which is not affiliated with a larger denomination, is made up mostly of Phelps' children, grandchildren and in-laws.

The church members carried signs and shouted things such as "God hates fags" and "God hates you."

About 10 church members protested near Smyrna United Methodist Church and nearly 20 stood outside the National Guard Armory in Ashland City. Members have demonstrated at other soldier funerals across the nation.

The funerals were for Staff Sgt. Asbury Fred Hawn II, 35, in Smyrna and Spc. Gary Reese Jr., 22, in Ashland City. Both were members of the Tennessee National Guard.

Hundreds of Smyrna and Ashland City residents and families of other soldiers turned out at both sites to counter the message the Westboro Baptist members brought.

So many counterdemonstrators were gathered in Ashland City that police, sheriff's deputies and state troopers were brought in to control traffic and protect the protesters.

The church members held protesting permits, and counterprotesters in Smyrna turned their backs to Westboro Baptist members until time expired on the protest permits.

"If they were protesting the government, I might even join them," Danny Cotton, 56, said amid cries of "get out of our town" and "get out of our country."

"But for them to come during the worst time for this family - it's just wrong."

[brazilio]

Fred Phelps is hilarious, you're just a party pooper who takes Phelps family kids with aborted fetus posters too seriously.

The guy's a badass. I don't know anybody else awesome enough to go protest the Matthew Shepard funeral. Now perhaps if you've never spent much time in Topeka you'd get all up in arms like it's the end of the world, but you're wasting your time and all that counterdemonstration is useless.

Google his unofficial biography which was published online by a Topeka reporter as his newspaper didn't want to print it for some reason, it's a good read.

[craig r]

[ QUOTE ]
Fred Phelps is hilarious, you're just a party pooper who takes Phelps family kids with aborted fetus posters too seriously.

The guy's a badass. I don't know anybody else awesome enough to go protest the Matthew Shepard funeral.

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't know if you are being serious. Part of me thinks you are being not. But, to protest at a funeral. Not to get into politics, but I do not believe in war. But, I would not go to a U.S. soldiers funeral and protest it or mock it. These are people's loved ones. And either way they are still human beings.

craig

p.s. Rushmore: If this happens again we can meet up and go to the funeral for some ass kicking. But, I want you to play Frank Booth, so you better learn the words to the Sandman Roy Orbison song.

[brazilio]

He's not a sane individual, and after awhile of seeing his extended family huddle en masse at the same protests for months at a time doing nothing other than demonstrate something so repulsive it just makes you laugh. He's been doing this for close to 20 years now. He's nigh unto invincible, when the man himself is protesting he wears Kevlar, and usually has multiple cameras in case the protests get violent. The guy protests anything he wants to in the most incendiary way possible. If you want to do something about it, take it up with the first amendment.

[Rushmore]

[ QUOTE ]
If you want to do something about it, take it up with the first amendment.

[/ QUOTE ]

And if he wants to do something about it when I wring his neck, he can take it up with the God he's so afraid of.

Are you serious?

[brazilio]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
If you want to do something about it, take it up with the first amendment.

[/ QUOTE ]

And if he wants to do something about it when I wring his neck, he can take it up with the God he's so afraid of.

Are you serious?

[/ QUOTE ]

Your posturing is awfully useful and productive.

[craig r]

[ QUOTE ]
He's not a sane individual, and after awhile of seeing his extended family huddle en masse at the same protests for months at a time doing nothing other than demonstrate something so repulsive just makes you laugh. He's been doing this for close to 20 years now. He's nigh unto invincible, when the man himself is protesting he wears Kevlar, and usually has multiple cameras in case the protests get violent. The guy protests anything he wants to in the most incendiary way possible. If you want to do something about it, take it up with the first amendment.

[/ QUOTE ]

See, I believe in free speech 100%. But, when that speech incites violence to hurt other people (the only two examples I can think of are this guy and skinheads and the KKK), then I think they should be stopped. It is more than "speech". Growing up in Houston, I at first had no problems with the Nazi's saying kick the sht out of the jews, niggers, etc...but once they started doing it, it became a whole other issue.

craig

p.s. Matthew deserved to die from AIDS. I take back the deal I was trying to make with Rushmore. We should kill the fags so we can bring our species back to where it belongs (along with the jews, spics, and niggers....and I guess any mongrel races).

craig

[bishopstrt]

[ QUOTE ]
He's not a sane individual, and after awhile of seeing his extended family huddle en masse at the same protests for months at a time doing nothing other than demonstrate something so repulsive it just makes you laugh. He's been doing this for close to 20 years now. He's nigh unto invincible, when the man himself is protesting he wears Kevlar, and usually has multiple cameras in case the protests get violent. The guy protests anything he wants to in the most incendiary way possible. If you want to do something about it, take it up with the first amendment.

[/ QUOTE ]


okay I just read your next post and I retract my former statement. You think he's nuts right?

[craig r]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
He's not a sane individual, and after awhile of seeing his extended family huddle en masse at the same protests for months at a time doing nothing other than demonstrate something so repulsive it just makes you laugh. He's been doing this for close to 20 years now. He's nigh unto invincible, when the man himself is protesting he wears Kevlar, and usually has multiple cameras in case the protests get violent. The guy protests anything he wants to in the most incendiary way possible. If you want to do something about it, take it up with the first amendment.

[/ QUOTE ]


okay I just read your next post and I retract my former statement. You think he's nuts right?

[/ QUOTE ]

I think he is sane. I just think he is very hateful. What is so strange is seeing these types of people in person. The look in their eyes are almost scary. Who knows, maybe they are psychotic.

craig

[brazilio]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
He's not a sane individual, and after awhile of seeing his extended family huddle en masse at the same protests for months at a time doing nothing other than demonstrate something so repulsive it just makes you laugh. He's been doing this for close to 20 years now. He's nigh unto invincible, when the man himself is protesting he wears Kevlar, and usually has multiple cameras in case the protests get violent. The guy protests anything he wants to in the most incendiary way possible. If you want to do something about it, take it up with the first amendment.

[/ QUOTE ]


okay I just read your next post and I retract my former statement. You think he's nuts right?

[/ QUOTE ]

He's a dedicated crackpot, and he always cracks me up when he protests in the free speech zone at KSU or KU and I get to see his 8 year old relatives carrying pictures of aborted fetuses. He forced his children into selling "donation" chocalate bars to neighbors so he could pay the lease for the Westboro church, and when one of his kids started growing heavier, he locked the kid in his room and allowed him water only while his wife and other kids tried to sneak him orange juice. He was addicted to barbiturates and hugely fat, so he went off them cold turkey and went on a 70 day water-only fast, and after that forced his children into running something like 35 miles a week, one of whom was 7 (I think). I lived in Topeka and Manhattan for 8 years and saw him probably 100 times protesting various areas. His and his family's antics are brilliant, there isn't a single person I've ever even heard of that is so detested by everybody they encounter. I give him an A+ for effect. I just get tired of all these people getting all up in arms about him and his family like they're going to do something about it or their counterprotests are going to strike a blow for moral righteousness, all they do is give him attention.