Some time ago a billboard was put up here in Topeka, Kansas. Lovely pastels, a rainbow, and the words “GOD LOVES GAYS”
Just to prove that the ideals of their [del]Glorious Leader Kim Jong Fred[/del] I mean, the “Rev.” Fred Phelps, aren’t gone, the church has gone and put up four billboards of it’s own! Not one, but four! It might have been five, but the advertising company actually turned down one of their statements.
Shirley Phelps-Roper is back as a spokesperson again? I thought she was demoted when Fred was supposedly ex-communicated. I recall an article saying that the new leader thought she was overstepping her position of authority and they wanted a man to be the face of the church. The political manipulations that happen in their upper echelons are very interesting and unhealthy. I can’t imagine without Fred at the helm that the WBC can maintain any level of cohesiveness for the long term. Come to think of it, this is the first time I’ve seen them surface since Fred died. Are they still as active as they once were and the news just isn’t reporting them as much, or are they staying on the down low? Are they starting to fracture into splinter groups yet?
I drive by their compound five days out of seven, on my way to take my dog to the local dog park. I’ve watched them since the early 90’s, when the anti-gay thing started.
I don’t think they are as publicly active. I don’t see them picketing much anymore, although they do put in a few appearances. It used to be that my church got picketed at least once a month, sometimes more. But I haven’t seen them there in months. I rarely see them on street corners. Fred isn’t there to push them anymore, and with many third generation young people leaving, there aren’t the bodies to go around.
The latest male spokesman, Steve Drain, isn’t even a Phelps family member, but is one of the few non-Phelps church members. I’ve only seen him on TV once lately, when the first billboard about God loving gays went up.
The compound does keep up a large church sign that changes weekly, with various messages about their beliefs.
Curious - how large is the congregation these days? How about local support? They seem to have fallen off the national radar these days, which is a good thing. I keep hoping everyone will ignore the WBC and they will simply go away but that hasn’t happened yet, dammit.
What’s funny to me is that 2 of those would be contradicted by Jewish scholars who have never (at least from what I’ve studied of the Talmud and such) held that homosexuality had anything to do with Sodom.
He was the one I was trying to remember. I find it interesting that Shirley is the spokesperson in this article which implies he may not be in as strong a position as he was shortly before Fred died.
It’s very hard to keep a message of hate going for any length of time. Picketing generated enough anger from the public that the WBC could feed off of that to hate the general population. Without that, how can they pass the hatred on to their kids? Based on the amount of stories of kids who have fled the group it’s pretty clear they can’t. None of the current batch of leaders have Fred’s charisma.
Actually, those billboards seem harmless to me. Silly but harmless. To laugh at. So Fred done kicked the bucket did he? Do they still picket funerals? That’s the part I couldn’t tolerate.
They were promising to go to Iraq and picket the ISIS/L fighters not that long ago, since an Australian (?) DJ said he’d pay their airfare if they’d actually do it.
Did anything come of that, or are they hoping if they leave it long enough people will forget?
On the one hand, good use of the money. On the other hand, too bad. He had a chance to wipe out a significant portion of the church. On the gripping hand, I suppose there was no way to guarantee they’d actually go, and he might not have wanted to deal with personal guilt and other repercussions.
<has dreams that someone makes a Kickstarter or Gofundme for the same purpose>
But loudly offering to pay for something as a form of challenge then backing down when the challenge is accepted is pathetic as hell, by all standards.
His challenge was basically unwise, though perhaps he might say the kudos he received for the initial challenge was worth the (relatively unpublicised) subsequent climbdown. Westboro were always likely to (nominally) accept and then quietly find a way to back out. And Hills would have looked bad if Westboro had gone and been killed, to at least many people. He would have made them seem like martyrs and victims.
The “donating the money to sick children” was presumably a calculated strategy Hills and his team came up with to avoid criticism for their climbdown (no one would want to be seen to be criticising someone for donating to sick children).
