It’s about the Westboro Baptist Church, after all – which is, well, you know what they’re going to do. It’s rare that I see something in HuffPo’s political section that I can’t disagree with, but this is one of those times.
I hate to break from family-friendliness here, but it should be said that it’s only natural to read about the people of the Westboro Baptist Church and think, “Wow, these people are assholes.” But that is unfair to assholes, which serve a useful purpose.
Via
I am very excited for members of the Westboro Baptist Church to meet some Boston Bruins fans. That will be great. huff.to/17iybE2
— Jason Linkins (@dceiver) April 16, 2013
As a (rather bad) Roman Catholic I feel that I should point out at this moment that it is unkind, unjust, and profoundly un-Christian to go up to people still staggered by a sudden grief and tell them that your own ‘god’ rejoices at their suffering. And I, of course, deplore any… unfortunate consequences… that might result from such behavior.
It’s important to point out that the WBC is a completely independent entity. It’s not a member of any baptist organization or any other Christian denomination. Wikipedia’s entry states “It is headed by Fred Phelps and consists primarily of members of his large family”
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It’s a cult and I take great umbrage from the fact that Phelps’ delusional jackassery has harmed the image of actual Christians in the country.
It’s not just a cult, I don’t think it goes too far to call Westboro Baptist a nexus of domestic lawfare terrorism.
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Their schtick (and most of them aren’t just family, they’re lawyers) is to be as offensive as possible, and to sue any municipality or individual who tries to stop them .. and has deep pockets.
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Their continued existence tells me that there are flaws both in the legal system and in the religious equivalent .. *someone* ought to have been able to sue the name “Baptist” off their enterprise by now, eh?
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Mew
acat: I think the term you are looking for is bottom feeding, scum sucking con artist and I’d say you are right but I am afraid bottom feeding, scum sucking con artist would sue me for libel and sue Moe for it being on his website.
“Independent entity” is not strictly true. They’re closely tied to the Democrat party.
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They provide the “horrible extremist Christian right wingers” that the rest of the Democrat party professes to fear/loathe.
Yeah, I’d just deplore it all to pieces if they got the curb-stomping they so richly deserve… but only because the curb stompers would face criminal charges.
My wife is very glad that I didn’t hear about them coming to protest a local veteran’s funeral until it was already over. Some things are worth a battery charge.