So I am assuming now that all are familiar with Fred Phelps. I have another thread dedicated to him in Great Debates.
For those of you who don’t know him…DONT EVER LEARN. I know this is really wierd and your going to start a thread “virtual mental ward for torie” but i can’t sleep until I get it out.
When I ran across this site, I was profoundly sad and angry, but not afraid. Yesterday I was fortunate enough to be viewing the site with the mute on my Boyfriend’s laptop. Today I said to my boyfriend “hey boyfriend! You wouldnt beleive what I found! you should know about this! let me show you!” He said “ok girlfriend” and off i went to godhatesfags.com.
Now like I said, I had mute on yesterday but today boyfriend had turned it off. I was reading him the contents of the Diane Whipple “memorial” (key thoughts being “living like a beast she died at the hands of beasts, like a beast”) When a explosion of sound emmitted from the speakers. (is emmitted a word? oh well it sounds good) “AAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGHHHHHHH” it implored us “for god’s sakes listen to Phelps!!!”
Now i get serious. This. scared. the. dogshit. out. of. us. Boyfriend jumped about ten feet and I was in tears. I know it sounds funny to get so worked up, but something about this soundbite, in combination with seeing her picture engulfed in flames affected me in a way it didn’t yesterday. I did a search on her, learned the tragic circumstances of her death, and wanted to cry even more. That sound was so realisitc,like whoever recorded it was in real pain. It was chilling and the effect on me is suprising. I’m trying to go to bed (it’s 5 am) and that sound keeps running through my head, along with the questions. Where are we as a society? Why is this happening? What is this doing to the families of Matthew Shepard and Diane Whipple? Why doesnt he care? I know these questions sound so naive but…I guess i was naive. I knew intolerance still existed but hate of this magnitude? This is the first time I have seen it like this. Thank God for the internet, right??
It’s a scary message, hell. I can definitly see now how this could grip a person who may not have the personal conviction I have. I would sign up for anything this man wanted if I actually thought that it would save me from anything that sounds like that. This scares me. BAD.
Thanks for reading, I know it’s long.
Like I said in some other thread; Phelps is like a masturbating chimp at the zoo; you got a little too close to the bars torie and all you can do now is wipe yourself down and put the sorry incident behind you.
If you really wanted to take his assinine reasoning to its extreme, you could put up a web site called www.godhatesyou.com … make up a fake name like “Phred Felps” and put up a lot of garbage about how God basically hates everyone who is not, well, Phred and how only Phred is going to heaven and so on … If you take his crap seriously, it’ll hurt, but if you laugh at it you’ve done two very important things: (1) You’ve relieved your tension over the whole issue, and (2) you’ve taken power away from him.
Let me illustrate by way of a slight hijack. Back in the late 70’s when I was in high school some guys from the KKK showed up on campus to do some recruiting. Years after the fact I learned that in the early 70’s there had been some actual racial violence on our campus, but I was ignorant of this at the time. Anyway, these guys show up in their dumb-looking robes and stupid hats and were laughed off campus. They looked like fools. They sounded like fools. And everyone laughed at them. They were completely humiliated and no one ever heard from them again, at least in our town.
Don’t let Phred --er-- Fred make you cry. Laugh at his ass.
The first time I ever heard of that clown was when his group showed up here at NASA with signs saying that god blew up the space shuttle.
I was astounded that someone could/would say something so completely ridiculous and stupid.
I have since learned that mental illness know no bounds. He should be pitied for the sickness he cannot control and you should know than any clown can have a website. Delete it from your links.
The first time I ever heard of that clown was when his group showed up here at NASA with signs saying that god blew up the space shuttle.
I was astounded that someone could/would say something so completely ridiculous and stupid.
I have since learned that mental illness can strike anyone. He should be pitied for the sickness he cannot control and you should know than any clown can have a website. Delete it from your links.
Truer words were never said. Torie, if it helps you to learn this, Phred has no followers, no church. His entire congregation consists of his family, and their families. He had a whole slew of kids, and at least 2 or 3 of them have publicly disowned him. The family members who have stood by him are all his victims.
The point I’m trying to make here is, he really is insane, and he represents absolutely nobody except himself. There’s bigotry out there, sure, but nobody else is like Phred. Take comfort in that.
He’s enough to make me wonder if that entity he worships is a demon. He was on NBC Nightly News last night, and I watched my parents finding out about him for the first time. They didn’t know such hatred could exist, either. Even a certain virulent anti-homosexual who used to post here was appalled by him.
torie, I’m sorry, and you’ve got a hug from me if you want one. A Christian myself, I believe he will answer for his actions in this life, and I’m afraid he won’t like the answer.
This reminds me very much of a scene in Robert Anton Wilson’s Illuminatus! trilogy in which Hassan al-Sabah, historical Lord of the Assassins, terrorizes his followers with a “severed head” - actually a guy with his body hidden under the floor - that shrieks about how he is being eternally burned in hell. This was effective in scaring his followers into being loyal, but to Hassan it was just a sick-but-funny practical joke.
I’m starting to suspect that Phelps might be a faker, well versed in conspiracy literature, who for whatever reason is trying to discredit Christianity.
I live in Topeka, KS where his “church” is based. I’ve seen Phelps and his little band of nasty, pasty followers around town with their hateful signs more times than I care to count. This is, by far, the best way to deal with them. You laugh and you move on. Giving them a second glance, or thought, is more than they deserve. Please, don’t let him get to you!
And to Guinastasia-I never heard about him saying that! Just goes to show how batshit insane he is, huh?
Of course I agree with everyone who says he’s just a real-life troll. He does make homophobia look ridiculous, so I guess he’s inadvertently done some good. I don’t let him color my opinion of Christianity.
When I think about him protesting outside of Matthew Shepard’s funeral, I still get incredibly pissed off. So from now on, when I think of Fred, I’ll think of him claiing that Mr. Rogers is in hell. That’s pretty laughable.
The Phelpsies inadvertently accomplished something positive! They wanted to put up a “Matt Shepherd is Frying In Hell” plaque in some town square—I assume in Wyoming? Their reasoning was that the town square already had the Ten Commandments, so under equal speech or something, they were allowed, too. The mayor had the Ten Commandments removed, so as to prevent Phelps’ plaque from going up.
