Westboro Baptist Church celebrates Boston Marathon bombing

[anachronistic]

PLEASE SHARE:

We need bodies to keep WBC away from Kystle Campbell's funeral in Medford tomorrow (Monday, 04/22/13). Funeral is taking place at Saint Joseph's Church at 118 High Street, Medford, MA. WBC protest is from 9:15-10:00 AM. Everyone get there between 8:00-8:30.

PLEASE SHARE.

#HumanShield #BostonStrong #Boston

Just got the above on facebook. I really need to work tomorrow to make up for not being paid/working on Friday, but anyone in the area who can I strongly urge you to attend. The location is T-accessible. Maybe start singing to drown out their hateful voices?

[RosyDaisy]

Children have no place at an event that has the potential to turn violent. To me that's child endangerment.

[MamaJunebug]

(I hates my keyboard -- I have a post all ready to go and I brush one wrong key, and poof!)

OK, to the topic (again):

Reasons why WBC may not show up in Boston: Each member pays her/his own way - gas money, meals, lodging; Boston is a far piece from Topeka and obviously most of the family/church drive, not fly. So there's that.

Reasons why you might as well leave the kids in the protest: The WBC always have one member designated as a videographer at any event. They train themselves to be cool and calm in the face of any verbal abuse or threats, and they scream for the videographer as soon as any trouble begins to brew from outside their picket space -- and you KNOW they will call for justice in court, full of lawyers as the family is. IOW, banning young children from protests won't do a thing except arouse calls of censorship and more big-government intervention.

My favorite recent anti-WBC sign (right after GOD HATES FIGS) is "turn off your damn CAPS LOCK"

That said, forgive my caps when I hope against hope that the MEDIA IGNORE THEM! Yeah, WBC say they are there to let bystanders know that they are damned, but you know that media exposure is what keeps them going.

Media: PLEASE. IGNORE THEM if they do show! Its just the laziest journalism to get the same video as before, with the same pleasant-faced people singing vile parodies of hymns and anthem, with the same ugly-ass signs.

PS: all the above WBC info is gleaned from WBC refugee Lauren Drain's memoir, "Banished." Highly recommended reading.

[VaSportsMom]

If this was happening in the workplace it would be considered a hate crime but because it is a church it gets labeled religious freedom. This group is horrible and it is way past time to stop allowing them to cover their deeds by holding up a bible.

[salex]

WBC also said they were going to protest the Sandy Hook funerals, but I don't think they showed up. Maybe they're getting lazy?

Maybe they are running low on funds. Phelps is getting old. Who is going to hire the many attorneys in the family, outside of the family? They have very few outside members/contributors to their church. Most of their apparent income has been earned from lawsuits they file against others. When the kids were young, per the old Cap/Journal article, Fred had the kids out pedalling candy door to door to earn money. Shirley's heir apparent abandoned ship since the first of the year, along with a cousin.

An equality group bought the house across the street and painted it rainbow color.

Even if they are all still nutjobs, they may or may not realize that by now, they are a national joke and whatever "power" they thought they had has been dulled over time.

NOW, we need to take every comment made by FRC, Doug, any of the other fundies we follow here that basically agree with the phelps, and post the fact that they are saying the same things-- while hatred of the PHelps family is still high-- to show that the more socially acceptable fundies are really the same as Phelps-- just too lazy to protest funerals.

[mama22gr8boys]

I keep thinking WBC couldn't surprise me more..then they do.. :roll:

[anachronistic]

They didn't show, and maybe one part of why was that it is wicked, wicked expensive around here; gas, food and lodging are all probably much higher than what they're used to.

[bluecloud]

if you read 'Banished' by Lauren drain she states they will post they are going to picket somewhere, then not show up to waste other people's reasources.

[Salamander]

NOW, we need to take every comment made by FRC, Doug, any of the other fundies we follow here that basically agree with the phelps, and post the fact that they are saying the same things-- while hatred of the PHelps family is still high-- to show that the more socially acceptable fundies are really the same as Phelps-- just too lazy to protest funerals.

This reminds me of what pisses me off the most about the WBC. All the attention they get because of how extreme they are makes it easier for less homophobic people (straight allies sometimes included) to derail entire conversations by sweeping less blatant examples of homophobia under the rug: "Well, it's not as bad as [WBC antics] so [it doesn't count/stop complaining/you're oversensitive/etc.]."

The WBC is awful and causes real and present harm. So do the fundies we talk about. So do non-fundie homophobes. And the WBC gets a lot of attention that, unfortunately for those who are around the kind of people who use this derail, could go toward other issues affecting LGBTQ people, including the bigotry of other fundies.