These people surely must be the most extreme of all American Christians. I pray that they will not find many followers.

http://www.montereyherald.com/ci_9599958?source=most_viewed

It makes me sick to my stomach that such hatred is coming to my city.

Maggie

I knew that it had to be the oh so wonderful Phelps klan  by the title of this thread. People like this are an utter disgrace to the concept of freedom of speech.

Its a free country, so make sure you give them the welcome they deserve.

I find it terribly odd that people who are so focused on 'the next world,' as they see it, are so tied to this one that they perceive death as a punishment. Rather than 'going home!'

Does their god so wish to distance himself from them that he never allows any of them to die? That seems most odd. Of course, that they would have any rational belief about that sort of thing would, perhaps, be more strange than what they do already.

With the two gates at Presidio that were actually opened in the 70s when I was there for two years and given the distance between them I would think that less than 10 people will not cause much of a ripple. Unless, of course, they manage to piss-off the residents in the area at the top of the hill. That might be fun to watch if they do.

Nichole

Just undeveloped, bratty, childish people doing *anything* they can to get attention. I don't think they're religious extremists so much as "attention seeking extremists," ironically hijacking religious extremism to get people to look at them. I can so easily picture them sitting around in brainstorming sessions, trying to come up with THE most outrageous things possible to say, laughing their butts off at how easy it is to push people's buttons and get a reaction.

~Kate~

I think that WBC and the people who think like them are very dangerous and you would underestimate them at a great risk to all of us.

In the beginning lots of people wrote off Hitler and the Nazis as a joke.  But by the end, no one was laughing.

What concerns me about this group is that with all the negative stuff happening in the US, people are susceptible to find scapegoats. This group has money enough to travel around the country and stir up people's emotions. Hitler used the horrible state of the German economy as a reason to blame the Jews. It brought him into power. Will this happen here? Who knows! How many would have predicted Bush's policies and incompetence would desolate the US? Very troubling.

Maggie

Everything is very troubling about them.

Quote from: Maggie Kay on June 16, 2008, 11:17:46 AM
These people surely must be the most extreme of all American Christians. I pray that they will not find many followers.

http://www.montereyherald.com/ci_9599958?source=most_viewed

It makes me sick to my stomach that such hatred is coming to my city.

Maggie

Take heart, Maggie.  These clowns came to my city last year to protest at the funerals of veterans that were killed in the Iraq war.

Their claim was that they were killed because America allows ->-bleeped-<-gots to roam about without leashes, breed, and worst of all breathe!

Their attorney claimed first ammendment rights to protest the funeral.  And were granted the right to protest.  The police however cited safety concerns and designated a spot for them to publically protest which was miles away from the cemetary.  The protested in the parking lot of the local middle school which was at the intersection of two lonely highways.  Since the funeral was during spring break, the school was closed and hardly anyone came by.  Though I'm sure the birds and squirrels were very glad that they could not claim those humans in their genetic pool!

Yes, they should never be underestimated, but just about everyone knows that they are crackpots.

-Sandy

They make money by filing lawsuits.  They need to be met, not with state restrictions, but as they were at Gwen's funeral.  By ->-bleeped-<-s in wings and Hells' Angels, who also have wings of a different sort.  We asked them to cross the street.  Somehow they didn't think that the lords protection would cover them that far.


Araujo had guts. She went to her East Bay high school still dressed as a boy, wearing lipstick and earrings. She did not, could not, would not, pretend to be anyone other than who she was. She touched people's lives. A momentary act of kindness to a Hell's Angels biker results in the man's entire fraternity showing up at her funeral to escort her casket, keeping the Fred Phelps crowd at arm's length.

http://www.ebar.com/arts/art_article.php?sec=television&article=44

I was out at lunch to chat with my SO at her office nearby in downtown Monterey and afterward was the time for the protest. I started to drive over but decided that I have enough tragedy in my own family to fill my plate. Plus, I was not sure that I would be able to contain myself when I looked into the eyes of these creatures.  So I drove back home. I suspect that they are really here in California to raise a stink about the Gay Marriages that start tomorrow.

Maggie

I like them.  I want them to be on the news every night.  I'm with Petrelis on this one.  We can't pick a better enemy.

Phelps' hateful messages targeting gay people and American soldiers are repulsive and I believe many voters who are on the fence about the fall initiative can't emotionally associate with his rhetoric, and he can push voters to do the right thing at the ballot box for us. I'm very much anticipating dueling photos of his clan's twisted blood-lust versus images of public love from the gays streaming into City Hall to make American history.

http://mpetrelis.blogspot.com/2008/06/rev-phelps-to-protest-sfs-first-lesbian.html

Has anyone noticed that they don't seem to do very much protesting in the deep south?  While traditional southern attitudes my be homophobic, they are also very patriotic.  Showing up at a funeral in rural Georgia or Alabama with signs telling a parent their soldier son or deceased Boy Scout is burning in hell would be detrimental to their health.  Not to mention their continued breathing.

Beverly

They tend to show up in major media markets, but they go down South too.

wow! these people are wolves in sheeps clothing... fangs showing and all.

the really sad part is that these people do more harm to god then to the evil that they claim to fight.

i have heard this argument before... that homosexuality is destroying our nation. funny how homosexuality is hardly mentioned in the bible and isnt even in the top ten commandments. the things that really piss god off are clearly seen there. not loving each other.  lying. stealing. murder.

this nation is in ruin because the people we trusted to run it have run it into the ground. all in the name of money. "they" lied,there are no WMD'S, "they" are killing people everyday... both ours and theirs, all because "they" are stealling  oil.

there is an evil in this country that is destroying it. it is not however, the homosexuals or the transgendered, who only want to be able to live life in safety and equality. it IS those who have sold the US of A right out from under its citizens. they have ruined our money, our health care, our jobs... our whole nation.

AND.. if these protesters were really agents of god they would be ministering unto the sinful the sick and the needy. instead their tactics turn people from god... not to him. 

Quote from: tekla on June 16, 2008, 12:49:43 PM
I think that WBC and the people who think like them are very dangerous and you would underestimate them at a great risk to all of us.

In the beginning lots of people wrote off Hitler and the Nazis as a joke.  But by the end, no one was laughing.

I will ABSOLUTELY second that sentiment. These are the kind of people that shoot drag-queens, stone women for wearing pants or shoot doctors who do abortions. We would do well to watch them carefully and oppose their ideaology when and wherever we can.

~Simone.

http://www.montereyherald.com/local/ci_9609936

They didn't come but 100 counter protesters did and showed them their ideas aren't welcome here!

Maggie

Quote from: tekla on June 16, 2008, 12:49:43 PM
I think that WBC and the people who think like them are very dangerous and you would underestimate them at a great risk to all of us.

Yes, well, according to the original time line Nehemiah Scudder is supposed to be elected in only a few more years. Heinlein was scarily close in this...

  Nfr

Heinlein wrote fiction, real life is much worse, much scarer, and a whole lot weirder.

Melissa Etheridge sang about that guy on her latest album, at the beginning of the song "The Kingdom of Heaven":

A suffering soul on the way to the kingdom of heaven
Held up a sign that said "God hates America"
A child has been lost, a mother is shocked and is grieving
And turning away, turning away,

He said "There is a love that is so hideous and destructive
We must drive it from Earth to save all of our children"
He must know it well--in the night it's the hell that he speaks of
It keeps him awake, keeps him awake

My God is love
My God is peace
My God loves you
My God loves me

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It's such a great song, one of the best she's ever done. Check out that guitar solo.