Like many places these days, Duluth currently has an issue with the stone copy of the Ten Commandments on the courthouse lawn.
Naturally, the local paper has been running the usual stories, “The Mayor says this,” “The City Council Says That,” “The Local Clergy Says they gotta stay,” “The MCLU Says They Gotta Go”
Etc, etc, etc.
Until last week.
A local fuckwad reporter decides to Call the Good Reverend Phelps
WTF? Phelps didn’t even know about the issue until the reporter called him.
Jesus Tappdancing Christ, this attention whore was here once before, stirring up his hatemongering followers. Was it really necessary to call him in again? Arte you going to call up the Grand Pubah of the KKK next? Surely his opinion is just as valid as Phelps?
Gawd, what a doorknob.
I saw Jesus when he was playing the lead in Jelly’s Last Jam and he did a good job, but his robe kept getting in the way, and he fell a total of three times. IMHO, he should have dropped that hunk of wood he was carrying around, though.
The reporter wished to inject his pro-fundamentalism bias, and did not feel any of the other speakers were sufficiently rabid on this point.
The reporter wished to inject his anti-fundamentalism bias, and wanted an interview with a raving whackjob so as to discredit that side.
(the most likely, IMHO) The reporter belongs to that school of journalism that believes that for a story to be a balanced presentation of the view of all, it is necessary and sufficient for there to be a pro- side and an anti- side, regardless of who those are or how important they are. If there were a story on a kitten who got run over by a car, he would call up the American Association for Running Over Kittens In Cars for a reaction, even if it was one guy in his basement.
Fred does have a letter to the mayor of Duluth up on his website. It’s more or less a form letter that he’s written to the mayors of a number of other cities. Once he finds a place that has the Commandments on public land, the WBC applies to also place a religious monument to Matt Shepherd. It would be a 6’ granite slab with a bronze plaque, about how(according to Phelps) Shepherd is now in Hell.
I don’t have the link, as I am at work now, but I can put it up later. Phred was at my church again last Sunday. God help us, we are in Topeka. They were singing “hymns” about how evil we are. Ugh, what a loon.
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(Similar to #2) He wants Phelps to try to get the bigotted monument in town so the town will be rightly forced to take down the 10 Commandments to comply with SOCAS.[/list]
Perhaps said reporter wants people to buy the issue of the paper to see what the wingnut/righteous man of God (depending on one’s perspective, of course…) had to say. Something akin to namedropping: “Buy this and find out what Rev. Phelps had to say!”
