I’m not paying attention anymore until Phred dies and then it’ll just be to see if the whole thing falls apart. Shirley seems to be the #2 leader in the clan but would they stand for her being top banana or would one of the other guys try to take over? I don’t know but when the fireworks start, I’ll be there with popcorn.
There are sometimes that I am embarrassed to be a human.
To share a planet with people who embrace hatred as an integral part of their faith.
Ashamed and afraid that this will go on long after these particular people pass from this mortal coil.
For every light, there is a shadow.
For every noon, there is a midnight.
Did such people exist before our ever-present media were there to chronicle this travesty?
Was our ignorance so vast that we knew not that such vipers dwelt within the fabric of our civilization?
They speak words as weapons and raise arms of discomfort to shame themselves.
Can this end?
I fear not.
So long as we fear The Other, humanity will remain dangerously inhumane.
Oh, is this open mic night?
Yep, apparently.
That would be one fucking scary-ass blanket.
The point of the pickets is indoctrination of the kids who are born into the cult. You send the kids out with signs, everyone yells at them, and the kids now have proof that everyone outside the church hates them.
How can they run away when there’s no where to run away to? The church used to just picket funerals of gay people. But that wasn’t divisive enough. After all, there are plenty of churches that hate gays. When you picket soldiers and random people, then you isolate your church from all the other run-of-the-mill gayhating right wing churches. And the isolation is the point.
Fred Phelps isn’t secretly gay. He’s an open sadist. He ruled his family by fear and violence, and the ones who were strong enough to leave have already left. His church consists almost exclusively of his children and grandchildren and their spouses. It’s perfectly clear that the God of their church is made in the image of Fred Phelps. The kids who grew up in the cult have no trouble believing in this sort of God, because that’s the way all authority figures in their lives behave.
Fred Phelps wants you to hate the kids in his church. This is his plan. This is on purpose, because it makes them easier to control, it makes it impossible to leave the church/family.
:sings:
Oh bury me not on the lone prairie.
I ain’t dead yet.
I think the WBC have simply misunderstood the bible passage. If you read Mark 11 Chapters 12-14 you will see that God actually hates Figs. Figs, not Fags.
You’re not fooling anybody, you know.
Naa, you see, you only use the vipers for the warp. You can use something cute and cuddly for the weft, so it cancels out.
You know, like hagfish.
As I mentioned in another thread quite some time ago, Shirley might be able to lead the picketing, but it would break a strong tenet of their beliefs for her to actually lead their “church”. According to them (as well as some other christian denominations) women can not lead a church. Something in the bible (I’m sure someone can find a proper quote for me) about how women are supposed to be quiet in church.
I wish this board allowed images
I really don’t even see the point of pitting them anymore.
It’s like pointing and yelling at someone who gets their rocks off when people point and yell at him. You’re just giving them what they want.
Goddamn it, stop trying to make them relevant!
Got some bad news for ya…
They did.
Cite?
I got mentioned in a fax of theirs once. It was many years ago though, not all that long after they first started picketing in the early 90’s.
Part of my email address is dedicated to them!
As part of my address I have the letters “chw” The letters stand for “crop headed whore”, an insult they once hurled at us counter picketers. We women cut our hair see, and they think that’s against God’s law.
Another good cartoon!
:shiftyeyes: Keep it quiet, but… if you use Firefox and Greasemonkey, not only can you have avatars on SDMB, you can have images too. I saw the cartoon displayed right in your post. 
You know, if I was gonna be buried*, I’d ask to have a package of marshmallows in my hands, instead of that stupid lily.
*I want to be an organ donor, and then have my body made into one of those synthetic diamonds, which my husband MUST use for an engagement ring for his next wife. So she’ll always remember that I was there first.