More Falwell Follies and Foibles

Got this from Straight, Not Narrow:

May 18, 2007
Fred Phelps Tops Himself This Time

When you’re a whack job like Fred Phelps and his family/congreation at Westboro Baptist Church, you’ve set the bar so low that you’re the only one who could possibly lower it.

Amazingly, I believe they’re getting ready to do just that.

According to the church’s website, they plan on protesting outside Rev. Jerry Falwell’s funeral next Tuesday. If you’re like me, you probably find that surprising. I surmised they would have had more views in common than those on which they disagreed, but apparently Falwell wasn’t quite stringent enough in his bigotry to satisfy the folks at Westboro:

On its Web site, Westboro says it will “preach” outside the funeral “of the corpulent false prophet Jerry Falwell, who spent his entire life prophesying lies and false doctrines like ‘God loves everyone.'”

In attacking Falwell the church says he “warmly praised Christ-rejecting Jews, pedophile-condoning Catholics, money-grubbing compromisers, practicing fags like Mel White (of Souflorce), and backsliders like Billy Graham and Robert Schuler, etc.”

We all should aspire to being a “backslider” like Billy Graham.

Here is a related story from the Fort-Worth (TX) Star-Telegram that tells the story of the funeral the Westboro cult skipped so they could get to Falwell’s.

link to article

The Fort-Worth Star-Telegram article has a quote in it I just had to share.

The group’s message is that U.S. soldiers are dying in Iraq because of America’s tolerance of homosexuality.

Information on the funeral of Bradshaw, a 21-year-old Army specialist killed by a roadside bomb in Baqouba, Iraq, was recently posted on the group’s Web site.

But the protesters were a no-show in New Braunfels on Wednesday because they chose to travel to Virginia in preparation for demonstrating at Falwell’s funeral, said member Shirley Phelps-Roper, who is also an attorney for the church.

“There are dead soldiers everywhere,” Phelps-Roper said. “You don’t have a very high-profile, cowardly, lying false prophet like Falwell dying every day.”

Phelps-Roper said the group plans to demonstrate at Falwell’s service because members believe he was never harsh enough in his declarations that homosexuality was the source of America’s problems.

link to full article

Fred Phelps is an angry man. Inside of him must be acid that is eating away at him, taking away what was once human and replacing it with something else. How can someone be that angry all the time and not lose himself? Phelps and his people are the best example of the phrase “attract more flies with honey than vinegar”. How can he expect to convince people of his message with so much hatred and anger behind it? I’ve never understood Phelps’ need for such emotionally charged messages. The physical and mental drain on him must be enormous. Think of how much he could have accomplished if he’d focused that energy elsewhere? Hungry children in the US? Homelessness? AIDS in Africa? Education? Literacy? No, he chose hatred of homosexuality. Hatred of gas-guzzling SUVs I can understand. But hatred of people because of what type of consenting adult they choose to have sex with? How narrowed is that?!

I feel sorry for Phelps and his followers. I feel sorry for their souls. The taint from that hatred, that bitterness, has to have left its mark. How cold it not? What will they say when they stand before God with their record in their hands. What have they done to further God’s believers and God’s ultimate message? They’ve spread anger and hatred. Is that God’s message? Hatred? Anger? If it is, then I’ll declare myself a non-believer here and now. I can’t follow a deity who uses either of those as a method of education.