Shock at 'God Hates Fags'
VIDEO: US Westboro Church's gay bashing plans in Vancouver.
http://www.signmovies.net/videos/signmovies/ghf.html
Vanessa Richmond: When I first saw this, I thought it was a spoof video. I actually laughed and contemplated sending it along to friends like a funny viral video. The real horror was realizing it's not a joke at all. And not only that, but in their planned protest of the Laramie Project play in Vancouver, they're targeting people in my own neighbourhood. (My jaw also dropped when I saw the announcement on their site that Barack Obama is Antichrist, and that they're planning to picket his grandmother's funeral.)
Elaine Corden: Whoa. I need a minute with this one. I honestly thought it was a wind-up. I suppose I just don't ever encounter people like this, so it seems like a joke. And then I remembered that Proposition 8 passed with a comfortable margin in California, as did similar anti-gay marriage propositions in two other states, and I realize that it's not a joke.
All things being equal, I suppose these people have the right to believe what they believe. Even if it is, as some members of the Facebook group dedicated to organizing a counter-protest point out, as absurd to most people, including most God-fearing Christians, as saying, "God hates bananas" or "God hates linear algebra." Personally, I wish God would direct some of his righteous anger towards wobbly tables, a genuine problem that you think His Grace would have allowed us to solve by now. Will.I.Am can be a hologram and we haven't licked the universal problem of wobbly tables? I smell divine intervention.
But dealing with this seriously (which is much, much harder than with outright mockery), what scares me the most here is the Westboro Baptist Church's instructions for the protest "We cannot make you behave," it says, "but we can tell you some words, to wit: Ps 9:17 The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God." It reads to me as an incitement to violence, especially in the context of the hate-filled website and text.
VR: Or the fact that they say it's a "satanic mission... that the wicked shall be turned into hell," that "they" (gay people?) are "really, really evil and hateful." I think the issue of incitement of hatred is why Mark Robins of Gay Vancouver says Phelps should be stopped at the border. On CBC's Sunday Night, he said (way more calmly than I could have) "I'm all for freedom of speech, but when that freedom of speech incites hatred that could potentially cause violence against another person, that's where I draw the line."
I talked to a few friends about the planned anti-gay protest after I saw the report last night, and one said even though he thinks peaceful protest is the only way to fight this kind of intolerance, and he'll be there peacefully, hearing Fred Phelps' comments about innocent people made him more angry than anything ever has.
EC: As long we're we're pulling passages willy nilly from the bible to support our individual viewpoints, let me share with you mine: Corinthians 13:13, which I learned in Sunday School at age five, and which stuck with me long after I left the church because there are so many hate-filled fellows like Mr. Phelps. As I declared to a pastor once, who asked why I left the fold: Jesus is like Led Zeppelin: love the band, can't stand the fans. Oh, yes, that passage: "And now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love."
In older versions of Corinthians, I later learned that the word "charity" was interchangable with "love," in many versions. I suppose I think, what greater act of charity than to show up at the simultaneous anti-hate protest and exchange ideas with these hate-mongering crusaders peacefully.
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BC Mary
10-11-2008
The Disappearing Male
CBC Newsworld showed a documentary on Sunday evening, November 9, called "The Disappearing Male".
The genetic make-up is undergoing dramatic change in babies being born in today's polluted environment.
This stark fact will have to become part of the discussion of family life.
S.YEE
10-11-2008
God Hates Fags?
Freedom of speech. Should freedom of speech be unlimited? But if you say this isn't ok, then who's to say talking about apples isn't ok as well?
Should there be a line in the sand that nobody should cross?
I used to believe in religious freedom, but not so much anymore. Let's say god does hate gays. So what?
So people who are gay go to hell, what's it to them? Why do they care so much?
They are using religion as an excuse for their hate, plan and simple!
They will say it's in the bible that god doesn't like gays, but then again, slaves & women being the property of men are also in the bible, but you don't hear the church talking about that, now do you?
So how did the bible get started anyways? Oh I know, god talked too a bunch of old dirty men! Now adays, your locked up if "God" talks to you!
So consenting adults will go to hell if they are the same sex, but they also say you can repent your sins.
Or is that only for priests who like to rape children? And what about the church covering it up for so many years?
If Satan had a church, and talked about gays being evil, women being the property of men, slaves being a good thing, covering up nuns beating children, priests raping them, & having holy wars, killing millions of people over the fact that they don't believe in your god, wouldn't you think the Church of Satan was nothing but pure evil?
If so, say hello to christianity!
snert
10-11-2008
No No
Say hello to organized religion.
zalm
10-11-2008
The Christian task
And Jesus calls on all Christians to love Fred Phelps and his believers as well. That's the hardest part of his message for me. I have no idea how to love a man so wrong-headed and spiteful, so willing to use others as tools for his own ends, so wholly devoid of the spirit of the New Testament. I'm afraid I fail at being a Christian, and that's not just because I don't believe any of the articles of faith.
Lord ha' mercy on me, a poor sinner.
jrb
10-11-2008
oh, and ...
what the heck does pollution in the environment have to do with all this?
i can't wait for the weird explanation.
dorothy
11-11-2008
Knowing the tree by its fruit, or??
“..All things being equal, I suppose these people have the right to believe what they believe.”
Oh, Aye, but there is a great difference between believing and attempting to harass other people to go along with your beliefs. Most people I work alongside have absolutely no idea what I believe. I suppose they may be able to infer some of it from my daily conduct, but I am no missionary for any set of paradigms. I do not believe in missioning, as the only way to teach others is to inspire by example.
“..Should freedom of speech be unlimited? But if you say this isn't ok, then who's to say talking about apples isn't ok as well?”
Maybe. If you talk about the benefits of apples and the merits of this great fruit, OK, I may listen and read your pamphlet. But if you stare at me maniacally and tell me I should eat apples, and if I don’t, I will be a target for all kinds of bad karma and perish miserably before my time, I will give you short shrift and maybe call a peace officer. I think the difference lies between offering information and presenting implied threats.
“..So people who are gay go to hell, what's it to them? Why do they care so much?”
Of course they don’t care. Or rather, they get a kick out of imagining the searing flesh kind of thing. These people have a cruel streak, make no mistake about it. They have a black void the size of Grand Canyon inside their own miserable soul, and they wouldn’t know God – any kind of God, if he/she/it walked up and bit them; recognizing God requires humility, and do you see that anywhere in their expressions? Their breed hasn’t changed one iota from back when they flogged, burned, dismembered, drowned and assassinated people. They would do the same today, if they dared. Instead, they just froth at the mouth, like our friend Margie, and sublimate the hate and the sadism. Schadenfreude reeks from every word that lady says. She is nobody’s friend, despite her claim to be ours.
Yes, organised religion is more than a pebble in our shoes. But it caters to the majority. Never forget that, or it wouldn’t still exist. If the last Liberal party convention hasn’t taught us, that a bunch of losers can gang up and bring down their betters, we know nothing. We should not forget that lesson, and we should teach it well to our children. Organised religion may look like a big, dumb monster, and it may well be one, but treat it with respect. it can hurt you, and will, if you challenge it alone.