... And, that goes for conservatives that align themselves on the periphery of these types of movement, or act as apologist for these terribly abhorrent and loathsome malcontents.
According to The Miami Hurricane, protesters from the Christian (?) fundamentalist group, Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas, that operates under the URL GodHatesFags.Com, picketed the University of Miami's Law School graduation ceremony carrying signs with messages critical of gays, abortion, liberals and lawyers.
Zach Phelps-Roper, the 18-year old nephew of the church's pastor and founder declared at the protest that "Lawyers now blaspheme God and promote filth," and suggest that lawyers will be sentenced to hell on judgment day.
The religious group is primarily known for loudly protesting at military funerals, amongst the grieving families, with signs that read things such as, "Thank God for dead soldiers", "Fag troops", and "God blew up the troops".
On the groups website they show their followers carrying signs which call President Obama the anti-christ, contemning people for being Jewish because they killed Christ, and show them stomping on the American flag. And yet, I hear even the parents and family of military espousing many of the same issues and hate as this group.
This group has been known for synagogue invasions and picketing stating that the Jews killed Jesus Christ. They invade mainstream churches calling the pastors "whores".
There is still time to catch this for yourself, according to the group's website. On May 26, 2009 they will be protesting the Jewish Federation and the "filthy apostate Jews" that have "not repented of what [they] did to the Lord Jesus Christ". And, on the same day they will be at the Renner Funeral Home in Belleville, Illinois protesting the grieving family of a dead soldier with "God still sends IL brats home in bags". If you missed this, there will be a repeat performance on May 29, 2009 at the Jewish Federation of Rhode Island in which the group will declare "Just like their spiritual forefather, Saul, these Jews are rebels." And, then the same day they will protest at the Holocaust Museum in Providence, stating " The sorrow which some Jews experienced during the WWII Holocaust, at the hands of the vicious Germans, and other Gentiles is NOTHING compared to what the Lord Jesus Christ is going to inflict."
What gets me so badly are not these fanatics. They are homegrown terrorist that vary little from, except for the religious leader they claim to follow, those that attacked this country on 9-11. What gets me is that when you discuss these actions with otherwise conservative religious people, including lawyers, they do not contemn these them or find the actions too personally offensive as to speak against them. They want to talk about church invasions by gays, or abortion or the misguided issues of others. What they will not do is contemn for themselves this atrocious, heinous, loathsome, poisonous people and their vile and wrathful conduct. They become apologist for it because they feel offended by somebody else's actions or, more importantly, beliefs. Like sleeper cells they simply cannot deny that they do not disagree with this repugnant, pernicious behavior. It is not that someone else is doing something disagreeable or wrong, as that is not the point at hand. It is that these people are being wrathful and the sleeper cells cannot deny to that which they more quietly subscribe. Although for a different purpose or direction, this mindset is another Holocaust waiting to happen.
And, what personally gets me about the sleeper cells is that during the last administration, instead of just being content with disagreeing with opinions of others they took to saying that those with whom they disagreed "hated America". But, the point is that this group hates America. Their websites show a impressionable CHILD holding up a pre-printed sign stating "God Hates The U.S.A," and "God Is Your Enemy", and "American Is Doomed". And, now when the apologist repeat that they "want the President to fail", instead of merely disagreeing with issues at hand, they are rephrasing and taking up this cause. As this group will tell you, these statements are "pregnant with meaning". In the least, you would think, the apologist and sleeper cells would know where their behavior and opinions lead.
As for the arguments of church invasions, which I also find despicable, it is really just a matter for these people of which churches are invaded. After all, it is these Baptist that invade mainstream Christian churches declaring that "Your Pastor Is A Whore".
The problem with the Miami Law protest was that it was so out of context. Lawyers and law students being contemned for being lawyers. Not as bad as protesting funerals certainly, but trying to disrupt a moment of what should be a great deal of joy and feeling of accomplishment for so many families, now to be scared by such a thing.
Of course, I grew up being taught that God (and Jesus) is loving and merciful and promotes peace. Yet, when Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson preach that God punished America with 9/11, they are preaching the same philosophy that God and Jesus concerns itself with hate. They are singing from the same hymnal of hate. And, it is from this same hymnal of hate that Liberty University banned the otherwise innocuous young Democratic club on campus. That maybe their right as a private university, but that does not make it acceptable.
This really must stop.
As to the University of Miami Law School graduates and their families, I say congratulations and the best to each and every one of you.
I think you're getting a little sloppy with that tar brush. I'm a conservative and a Christian, and I don't hesitate to condemn these despicable hate-mongers that would go out of their way to compound the grief of a slain soldier's family. But that doesn't mean I run away from the argument that God deals with nations, including ours, and that national security may only come in the wake of a spiritual revival.
Posted by: Denis Kitchen | May 25, 2009 at 07:09 PM
I want to say that I have relatives that live in Topeka, Kansas, and I have friends and have done business in Topeka, and this group is in no way representative of the attitudes or the general values of Topekans as I know them. As far as I know the people of Topeka, Kansas, even my dear old 80 somethin' year old aunt who when to school with Rev. Phelps, find this behavior as loathsome and reprehensible as anybody else.
I just didn't want anybody to think this was a "Topeka thing."
Posted by: PerGynt | May 25, 2009 at 07:30 PM
Obama as the anti-christ is absurd and intolerable. We all know that Nancy Pelosi is the anti-christ. Hehe
Seriously though, these fanatics are whack jobs and horrible people.
Posted by: Eric the Brave | June 18, 2009 at 01:44 PM