The National Association for the Prevention of Defamation of Chiropteran Guano has protested the use of the phrase “batshit insane” to describe Fred Phelps, claiming that it casts an improperly negative light on the excrement of flying mammals. 
By the way, something which came out in discussions about the Southern Baptist Convention here a year or two ago:
All Baptist churches are congregational in nature – that is, each is its own final and supreme authority, answerable to nobody (except putatively God). Many of them are organized into voluntary associations called “conventions,” of which the Southern Baptist Convention is the largest, for purposes of running theological schools, supporting missionaries, publishing hymnals and Sunday School material, etc. Fred is free to call his family/church “Westboro Baptist Church” but it implies no connection to any of the other Baptist churches in the world – most of which have distanced themselves from his ranting.
Sounds like he’s giving in to the demands of someone who he doesn’t really want to grant the demands of because they made some threats. Isn’t that kind of like terrorism?
I’m surprised that long time member Jinx has never heard of Fred Phelps. (He gets “pitted” very often). Yes he is batshit insane and I’ve argued that he probably is a homosexual.
This is the psychological concept known as “projection”. Somewhere deep down you realize you are something you don’t like - alcoholic, drug addict, homosexual, etc and so you counteract this by showing just how non-alcoholic, non- drug, or un-gay that you are. In the final analysis, everyone just thinks you are batshit insane.
And I think Mike Gallagher is wrong to give this shithead 3 hours of airtime. Most people never even heard of this weirdo and so with 3 hours of airtime, he might find like-minded individuals - skinheads, neo-Nazis, high school dropouts, Andrew “Dice” Clay fans, etc.
Since there really wasn’t an OP for General Questions, let’s move this to MPSIMS.
samclem GQ moderator
I wish more people felt this way. I know the offers of airtime are good-intentioned, but they’re counterproductive in the end. It would be better if someone arranged to hold the funerals at a location where Fred Phelps could be kept away from the mourners rather than doing something like this. The only thing that giving him all this attention is doing is giving encouragement to any copycats out there who might decide it would be fun to have all that drama and attention too. “Hey, cool, all I have to do to get on national TV is act like a horrible jerk to people!”
This was following the action at Matthew Shepard’s funeral, where the hateful Fred Phelps protesters were blocked from view by friends of Matt, who dressed in white robes with giant angel wings to protect the mourners from the view of the protesters.
No it isn’t. They are “threatening” to protest. Not to do anything illegal. Whatever they do is protected by the 1st amendment. They are very careful to stay just a hair over onto the right side of the law. A shitload of the Phelps relatives are lawyers and unfortunately they are not stupid.
Yes, and their pattern lately is to announce that they are going to protest at some funeral or event, and thus get all kinds of local publicity (and cause pain for the mourning family & friends). But then they do not actually show up, thus saving the cost of plane fare, hotel rooms, etc.
They’ve already got the publicity they wanted, so no need to spend the money to actually show up and protest. Yet the news media continues to be sucked in and give them all the publicity they seek. And this Mike Gallager is just another gullible media fool.
Right. Gallagher should not make the offer. Phelps should be allowed to put up or shut up, and the various communities or congregations threatened with disruption (and their neighbors) should mobilize to protect the grieving families. It’s a common practice of him to not show up if it looks like he’s going to be countered.