GOD HATES FAGS.COM
Westboro church allegedly protests RU NB for fifteen minutes
OSCAR KILLIAN OPINIONS EDITOR
Issue date: 11/3/09 Section: Observations
Earlier this week in New Brunswick the rainy streets flooded with students hours earlier than a college town usually wakes up.
They paraded anti-hate signs and posters with statements such as "God IS love."
They waved noisemakers to drown out the sound of their reason for coming out: an appearance by the Westboro Baptist Church.
This radical Christian fundamentalist church has earned the infamy associated with it by protesting the funerals of veterans and homosexuals.
They arrive to these somber events flying signs with messages such as "God hates fags" and "thank God for dead soldiers."
They preach the ideology that those slain by war or hate crimes were taken by God for their sins, much to the chagrin of the relatives attending.
In America it's anyone's right to believe anything and assemble and demonstrate in public, but protesting a funeral is offensive and problematic.
Historically, several techniques have been employed to deal with this nuisance. Legislation was passed placing more severe penalties on disorderly conduct near funerals.
At the funeral of on homosexual hate crime victim counter-protestors dressed as angels with giant white wings that they used to block the church members from view, as depicted in The Laramie Project.
This week Rutgers added the use of noisemakers to the world's fine repertoire of counter-protestation tools and techniques.
Good job.
In addition to protesting funerals the Westboro congregation has made several appearances on television, which are fun to watch on Youtube.
The media loves the church because they're so offensive and easy to target. They're a religious train-wreck and, and like any circus freak show they always get viewers because of it.
Attention probably just adds to the problem, though. If the media paid them no attention for all intents and purposes they would not be part of the public consciousness, beyond their obnoxious appearances at funerals. But we have noisemakers for that.
Instead they've chosen to use them as the easily demonizable scapegoat caricature of western fanaticism their persona is so conducive to.
Don't encourage them, is all I'm saying.
Anyway, they've had little success indoctrinating new members into their little cult. The church consists of about one hundred members.
About eighty percent of these belong to one family, as reported by Shirley Phelps-Roper, one of their most outspoken maniacs.
In the words of one of the counter-protestors, "well I'd rather be in hell with sinners than in heaven with y'all mo'f***ers."
There must be something in the water…
They paraded anti-hate signs and posters with statements such as "God IS love."
They waved noisemakers to drown out the sound of their reason for coming out: an appearance by the Westboro Baptist Church.
This radical Christian fundamentalist church has earned the infamy associated with it by protesting the funerals of veterans and homosexuals.
They arrive to these somber events flying signs with messages such as "God hates fags" and "thank God for dead soldiers."
They preach the ideology that those slain by war or hate crimes were taken by God for their sins, much to the chagrin of the relatives attending.
In America it's anyone's right to believe anything and assemble and demonstrate in public, but protesting a funeral is offensive and problematic.
Historically, several techniques have been employed to deal with this nuisance. Legislation was passed placing more severe penalties on disorderly conduct near funerals.
At the funeral of on homosexual hate crime victim counter-protestors dressed as angels with giant white wings that they used to block the church members from view, as depicted in The Laramie Project.
This week Rutgers added the use of noisemakers to the world's fine repertoire of counter-protestation tools and techniques.
Good job.
In addition to protesting funerals the Westboro congregation has made several appearances on television, which are fun to watch on Youtube.
The media loves the church because they're so offensive and easy to target. They're a religious train-wreck and, and like any circus freak show they always get viewers because of it.
Attention probably just adds to the problem, though. If the media paid them no attention for all intents and purposes they would not be part of the public consciousness, beyond their obnoxious appearances at funerals. But we have noisemakers for that.
Instead they've chosen to use them as the easily demonizable scapegoat caricature of western fanaticism their persona is so conducive to.
Don't encourage them, is all I'm saying.
Anyway, they've had little success indoctrinating new members into their little cult. The church consists of about one hundred members.
About eighty percent of these belong to one family, as reported by Shirley Phelps-Roper, one of their most outspoken maniacs.
In the words of one of the counter-protestors, "well I'd rather be in hell with sinners than in heaven with y'all mo'f***ers."
There must be something in the water…
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