Westboro to picket Sandy Hook funerals.

[Jester]

Yes, that's right. Those fun-loving crazy kids from Westboro Baptist Church have announced plans to picket the funerals of the victims of the Newtown, CT shooting. In their own words, "Westboro will picket Sandy Hook Elementary School to sing praise to God for the glory of his work in executing his judgment." Because nothing says "God's glorious work" like 20 dead kids.

Seriously, what do these fucktards think they are accomplishing, other than looking like the biggest douchebags on the planet? Even hardcore fundamentalist Christians are wincing at this nonsense.

What....the....fuck?

Hopefully, good people will form a blockade to keep these hatemongers away from the funerals, as they have done before.

Better yet, hopefully these shitheads will just not even show up, as happened after they announced their plans to picket the funerals of the victims in Aurora, CO.

Best case scenario, hopefully they will all get into a bus and head to Newtown, and on the way drive straight off a bridge and burst into a giant fireball, killing all of these sociopaths in one fell swoop.

What? I can dream, can't I?

[Rageaholic]

I was really hoping these fuckers wouldn't resort so low, but I guess I was wrong. At this point, if someone were to just shoot these cretons, I would feel more sympathy for the shooter for having to waste a bullet on them.

[bara]

I was really hoping these fuckers wouldn't resort so low, but I guess I was wrong. At this point, if someone were to just shoot these cretons, I would feel more sympathy for the shooter for having to waste a bullet on them.

Agreed, a rope made of hemp is far more economical.
What really needs to happen is for the media to just stop making a big deal out of them. If they get any news at all it shouldnt be more than a side bar somewhere down below the Elvis, Tupac, and bigfoot sightings.

Have we learned nothing from the internet? Dont Feed The Trolls.

[Greenday]

Would it be God's work if someone showed up with a gun and mowed down the Westboro protesters?

[Seifer]

Why picket the funerals of dead children? Are they trying to say kindergarteners deserved to die? I just don't understand what point they're trying to make.

[bara]

Why picket the funerals of dead children? Are they trying to say kindergarteners deserved to die? I just don't understand what point they're trying to make.

Some people get off on adding to the suffering of others. Thats about all I get out of it.

[TheHuckster]

Are they trying to say kindergarteners deserved to die?

That's exactly what they're saying. Because, according to them, elementary schools are evil whorehouses and homosexual incubators and their teachers and students must be eradicated along with virtually everything else on earth that are not affiliated with their completely backwards and hateful church.

They have nothing better to do than travel to different funerals, sometimes internationally, and picket.

[Teysa]

I wouldn't wish death on the protesters. After all, they have people who love and would miss them too. However, I would pray that they turn away from their message of hatred that is doing so much to turn people away from the god they profess to serve.

Those little kids did nothing to deserve what happened. At that age the worst things they probably did was fight with siblings, whine about bedtime, and sneak the odd cookie or two. I'm pretty sure none of those things are death penalty offenses.

[Cat]

I am seriously considering going to the counter-protest.


If I can control my anger...

[HYHYBT]

Would it be God's work if someone showed up with a gun and mowed down the Westboro protesters?

Oh, I wouldn't say that. Partly because it seems to me likely that one of these days someone will do exactly that, and partly because I'm sure God would far rather they had a change of heart.

On the other hand, they seem to have gotten lazy lately, preferring wasting counter-protesters' time and effort than actually protesting themselves.

Those little kids did nothing to deserve what happened. At that age the worst things they probably did was fight with siblings, whine about bedtime, and sneak the odd cookie or two. I'm pretty sure none of those things are death penalty offenses.

Disobeying parents.

[Greenday]

I am seriously considering going to the counter-protest.


If I can control my anger...

ROAD TRIP! Seriously, I've got nothing better to do with my time and pissing off Westboro is on my list of things to do.

[MadMike]

They may not even show up. They threatened to protest at a funeral in the rural area where I grew up, for a family of kids who died in a house fire, but never showed up. If they had, it might have ended very badly for them, since a lot of people in the area own guns. They would have had trouble finding a spot to hold their protest anyway, since a lot of the land in that area is private property, and I can't imagine anyone letting them on their land. From what I read, the closest spot they could have done it would have been several miles away.

[Andara Bledin]

As far as I can tell, the WBC only pickets things in the hopes of getting to a point where they can sue someone and get a paycheck or further license to be assholes out of it.

They follow a Calvinist theology, which means that how a man behaves really has no bearing on whether he is saved or not until after God decides that he gets to be saved, and only then does it really matter what a person does.

From Wikipedia on Calvinism:

In this view people are at the complete and total mercy of God, who would be just in condemning all people for their sins, though God has chosen to show mercy to some, not all. Some are saved while others are condemned, not because of inclination, faith or any other virtue in people but because God chooses to have mercy on them (Romans 9:16-17) according to his own purpose which is unknown (Romans 8:28).

Basically, we're all damned sinners until God decides at his whim to give us Salvation, at which point we become saved and become capable of being not sinners.

It's a very exclusionist belief system and one that should appeal to people who want to be seen as the moral elite.

^-.-^

[Nekojin]

As Andara points out, the Westboro bunch have pretty much proven over the years that they're following a set path:

1.) Pick a high-profile tragedy.
2.) Picket said tragedy in as offensive a way as possible.
3.) Scream about the First Amendment if they're prevented from being obnoxious douchebags.
4.) Sue everyone around if someone actually confronts them.

Fred Phelps, the family head (and note that WBC is literally a family as well as a "church") is a disbarred lawyer. One of his daughters (Shirley Phelps-Roper, I believe) has taken over the lawyerly duties now, although I personally have little doubt that Fred is still calling the shots behind the scenes. Note that they'll go to any lengths, no matter how tenuous the connection, to find a cause to picket:

While being filmed by documentary film-maker Louis Theroux, they picketed a local appliance store because it sold Swedish vacuum cleaners, which the church viewed as supportive of gays because of Swedish prosecution of Åke Green, a pastor critical of homosexuality.

Keep in mind that WBC is the same group that created GodHatesFags.com. All of their protests, somehow, hinge on homosexuality, even their attacks on Hinduism. There's no reasoning with these people, regardless of whether you believe that they're sincere in their stated beliefs or not.

[Nyoibo]

I have a feeling that if they actually showed up to protest this they're going to get shot and no one is going to bother investigating.