Warning: Undefined array key "rbname" in /data/rantburg.com/www/rantburg/pgrecentorg.php on line 14
Hello !

Home Front: Culture Wars

Westboro Baptist Cult Nutters Join NFL #TakeAKnee Protest Nutters

2017-09-30

[PJ] This can't be the kind of unity the NFL was hoping for. It appears that the mentally unstable Westboro Baptist clan is thrilled with the NFL and is publicly supporting their decision to trample all over our flag during their pre-game protests. Contrary to the NFL's constant denial that the #TakeAKnee protests are unpatriotic or disrespectful to our nation, the Westboro cult members, who are known America-haters, see it differently and have found their soulmates in the NFL. Sending a message directly to the NFL and Jerry Jones, the cultists encouraged the continued degradation of our country on prime time. "Westboro Baptist Church takes a seat for the entirety of the national anthem!" they cheerily posted on Twitter. It's fitting that the most hated cult in America is now supporting the most hated sport. Serendipitous.

Link

Government

Westboro Baptists provided Mobile Training Team (MTT) to Bureau ?

2015-12-19

[Debbie Schlussell] Incredible but true. The FBI worked with the crazy, inbred, anti-Semitic, anti-gay, anti-American Westboro Baptist Church cult in order to train to engage community activists. . . or something. How completely, totally insane is this? On the other hand, it's right in line with the FBI's Islamo-pandering to the equally hateful, extremist Muslim community. The F.B.I. said that members of an anti-gay church took part in training of police officers and agents, a move the F.B.I. says it will take steps to remedy. The church, Westboro Baptist of Topeka, Kan., contends God is punishing the military for tolerance of homosexuality and has protested at military funerals. An F.B.I. spokesman said the group was invited "to establish open dialogue in an academic setting to train law enforcement on how to more effectively engage with the activist community." Now you know why I call 'em, Famous But Incompetent. The name fits.

Link

Home Front: Culture Wars

Panic! At The Disco Brilliantly Neutralize Westboro Baptist Church Protesters

2014-07-21

Westboro Baptist Church, the collection of hate-mongering protesters who have targeted everyone from Lorde to Brad Paisley, recently set their sights on Panic! At The Disco, announcing plans to picket the pop-punk band's Sunday night show in Kansas City, Mo. They even recorded an extremely offensive version of the group's signature hit, re-titled "You Love Sin What a Tragedy." But instead of letting the homophobic slur-slinging protesters take the spotlight, Brendon Urie, who is married to a woman but speaks openly about bisexual experiences, and co. hatched a brilliant plan to neutralize the WBC protesters before they even arrived. Today @WBCSays is going to picket us. For every member of WBC that actually shows up we will donate $20 to @HRC #pride2014 , Panic! At The Disco (@PanicAtTheDisco) July 20, 2014 Given the Human Rights Campaign's mission statement, assuring equality at home, work and in the community for the LGBT community, this is pretty much the perfect way to render the protesters' hateful intentions moot, and raise money for a good cause. When Sunday night came, it seems only 13 members of the Westboro Baptist Church showed up to picket P!ATD. But being the good guys they are, the band pledged to donate more than just $260 to the Human Rights Campaign. Thank you @WBCSays for the update on the total amount you donated to @HRC today. $20X13= weak. We're going to make it an even $1000. Panic! At The Disco (@PanicAtTheDisco) July 21, 2014 We will also be donating 5% of our total merch sales from this show to @HRC Panic! At The Disco (@PanicAtTheDisco) July 21, 2014 Panic! At The Disco: They write sins and checks for worthy causes.

Link

-Obits-

Fred Phelps Sr, ex-pastor of Westboro church, 'close to death'

2014-03-17

Fred Phelps Sr, once pastor of the infamously intolerant Westboro Baptist Church, is close to death, according to his son. God's striking him dead, eh? Nathan Phelps, who has been estranged from his father for 30 years, posted a statement on Facebook which said: "I've learned that my father, Fred Phelps Sr, pastor of the 'God Hates Fags' Westboro Baptist Church, was ex-communicated from the 'church' back in August of 2013. He is now on the edge of death at Midland Hospice house in Topeka, Kansas. "I'm not sure how I feel about this. Terribly ironic that his devotion to his god ends this way. Destroyed by the monster he made. "I feel sad for all the hurt he's caused so many. I feel sad for those who will lose the grandfather and father they loved. And I'm bitterly angry that my family is blocking the family members who left from seeing him, and saying their goodbyes." The Guardian quotes the good reverend's estranged son as claiming dad was excommunicated from his church last August. Interesting, if true.

Link

Fifth Column

Westboro Baptist Church To Picket Boston Funerals

2013-04-17

In a tweeting binge following the explosions at the finish line of the Boston Marathon on Monday, the Westboro Baptist Church celebrated the carnage and announced its intention to picket the funerals of victims. The tiny Topeka, Kan., fundamentalist group urged the U.S. government to "reinstate" the death penalty for homosexuality and warned "violence will fully consume u [sic]" if that doesn't happen. Most of the church's tweets said same-sex marriage caused the bombing, but others mentioned abortion and supposed mistreatment of the church. Come on down to Beantown, a-holes, I'll be there with an axe handle or two...

Link

Home Front: Culture Wars

Texas A&M Students Block Westboro Baptist Protesters With Human Wall

2012-07-08

[buzzfeed.com] On June 28, Lt. Col. Roy Tisdale, a Texas A&M alum, was killed during a training exercise at Fort Bragg by another solder who then shot himself. The Westboro Baptist Church, known for protesting soldiers' funerals with anti-gay messages, posted plans to show up at Tisdale's funeral on their website. A fellow "Aggie", Ryan Slezia, came up with a plan to create a human wall to block any protesters from getting near the funeral, and invited fellow Texas A&M students and alum to join. One participant tweeted that over 650 people showed up in maroon shirts to create a "maroon wall". It appears that the Westboro protestors never showed up.

Link

Fifth Column

KKK joins counter-protests against Phelps cult (Westboro "Baptist" "Church")

2011-06-01

As President Obama honored fallen soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery on Monday, three members of the Westboro Baptist Church protested the ceremony, holding signs that read "Pray for more dead soldiers" and "God hates your prayers," as the controversial group has become known to do. They were met by about 70 counterprotesters, including members from a group just as contentious as the church: the Ku Klux Klan.... Is there any way to arrange it so that they start fighting and both sides lose? I recall the KKK and the Stalinists once did that somewhere in the south a few years back. Greensboro maybe? Anyways, both sides suffered casualties and my thought was, "good..."

Link

-Short Attention Span Theater-

Fred Phelps' Westboro Church Goes To Mississippi And Gets Skunked

2011-04-21

On Saturday USMC Staff Sgt. Jason Rogers, who was killed in action in Afghanistan April 7, was buried in Brandon, Mississippi. That, by itself, is a sadly unremarkable -- though certainly noteworthy and solemn -- occasion for us to mark. And in fact when Sgt. Rogers' body returned to Brandon it was greeted by hundreds, or perhaps even thousands, of well-wishers who gathered at the roadside to honor the fallen American hero. What is most notable about Sgt. Rogers' funeral in Brandon, however, is what didn't happen. You see, the troglodytes from Westboro Baptist Church had threatened to spew their poison at Sgt. Rogers' funeral. But the Westboro mob wasn't on the scene, and Sgt. Rogers was laid to rest without incident -- thank God. Why weren't there protestors? Planning ahead by the locals, as it turns out. A couple of days before, one of them (Westboro protestors) ran his mouth at a Brandon gas station and got his arse waxed. Police were called and the beaten man could not give much of a description of who beat him. When they canvassed the station and spoke to the large crowd that had gathered around, no one seemed to remember anything about what had happened. Rankin County handled this thing perfectly. There were many things that were put into place that most will never know about and at great expense to the county. Most of the morons never made it out of their hotel parking lot. It seems that certain Rankin county pickup trucks were parked directly behind any car that had Kansas plates in the hotel parking lot and the drivers mysteriously disappeared until after the funeral was over. Police were called but their wrecker service was running behind and it was going to be a few hours before they could tow the trucks so the Kansas plated cars could get out. A few made it to the funeral but were ushered away to be questioned about a crime they might have possibly been involved in. Turns out, after a few hours of questioning, that they were not involved and they were allowed to go on about their business. Haw! Three cheers for Mississippi!

Link

Home Front: Politix

Fallen Marine's father says anti-gay pickets will draw gunfire

2011-03-04

A day after the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed Westboro Baptist Church's right to protest against homosexuality at military funerals, the fallen Marine's father, who unsuccessfully sued the controversial Kansas congregation, warned that the church's protests will eventually spark violence. Karma does that. Too bad we can't predict when it will strike. "Something is going to happen," Albert Snyder told CNN Thursday. "Somebody is going to get hurt." Or maybe better. "You have too many soldiers and Marines coming back with post-traumatic stress syndrome, and they (the Westboro protesters) are going to go to the wrong funeral and the guns are going to go off." "And when it does," Snyder said. "I just hope it doesn't hit the mother that's burying her child or the little girl that's burying her father or mother. It's inevitable." Very, very unlikely because I doubt the WBC folks will come armed.

Link

Home Front: Culture Wars

SCOTUS rules for Westboro Baptist

2011-03-02

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that the First Amendment protects a fringe religious group that protested at the funeral of a U.S. Marine killed in Iraq. The court, on an 8-1 vote Scalia being the only justice to rule in favor of decency, something to which we do not have a right., ruled that the soldier's father couldn't sue Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan., for celebrating his son's death with vulgar funeral pickets and an online attack.

Link

Home Front: Culture Wars

Supreme Court sides with Phelps

2011-03-02

The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that the First Amendment protects fundamentalist church members who mount attention-getting, anti-gay protests outside military funerals. The court voted 8-1 in favor of the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas. The decision upheld an appeals court ruling that threw out a $5 million judgment to the father of a dead Marine who sued church members after they picketed his son’s funeral. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the opinion for the court. Justice Samuel Alito dissented. "What Westboro said, in the whole context of how and where it chose to say it, is entitled to ’special protection’ under the First Amendment," Roberts wrote, "and that protection cannot be overcome by a jury finding that the picketing was outrageous."

Link

Home Front: Culture Wars

Westboro Baptist Church members decide not to be beaten and call off 9yo girl protest

2011-01-12

A controversial Kansas church has decided not protest at the funeral of a 9-year-old girl killed in Saturday's shooting rampage in Tucson, Ariz. Shirley Phelps-Roper of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan., says church members will skip Thursday's funeral of Christina Taylor Green. Phelps-Roper was interviewed Tuesday by a station in Toronto, Canada, and is scheduled to be on a morning talk show Saturday. She says Westboro Baptist Church decided not to picket in exchange for the airtime. Phelps-Roper says the group will picket the funeral Friday for U.S. District Judge John Roll and at the intersection where Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and others were shot. The Arizona Legislature unanimously passed a measure Tuesday banning protests at or near funeral sites. The Topeka Capital-Journal first reported the church's decision to skip the girl's funeral.

Link

Warning: Undefined property: stdClass::$T in /data/rantburg.com/www/rantburg/pgrecentorg.php on line 132
-12 More