Why do people keep opening up threads to Pit the likes of Phelps, Chick, or Robertson? We all know they’re not good people. Are any of you really surprised when they say something repulsive? I could get upset about what they say but then I’d have to think to myself that they actually matter. They really don’t matter.
Marc
Well, not everybody does know; I would not have learned about the repulsive things these people do unless someone had opened a thread on the subject, but for the most part, it is probably a case of adding your voice, which is not unreasonable.
…and I think they do matter in that the views that they promote perpetuate hate and possibly harm to innocent people.
All that is required for evil to prevail is for good men to fall silent, or something like that…
Well, maybe there’s a benign motive to it, but I see a couple bad points about doing so.
1.) The more influential and well-reasoned the person who responds to Phelps, et. al., the more credibility is lent to them. It’s analogous to why Gould refused to debate creationists and ID theorists, because he feared that to do so would lend those people and their (IMHO, and in Gould’s NSHO) looney and nonscientific theories credibility. If we take Phelps seriously, that is to show that Phelps has a serious position. If we take time out to mock him or get angry, that shows him that he has the power over us to tick us off.
2.) Sometimes the process of expressing outrage at these people brings out the worst in us. I’ve seen some of the most hate-filled vitriol ever encountered on this message board done in the name of pitting Chick or Phelps. Do they deserve it? Maybe. Should we allow them to make us so angry that we respond with hateful invectives? I don’t think so. Life’s too short to spend too much time filled with hate and anger at anybody. If Phelps and Chick don’t realize that, all the worst for them. For us to become filled with seething hatred at them is to make the same mistake, even if the only people harmed by our actions are ourselves. Yeah, they’re worse, but I’m sure their lives can’t be that great if they spend most of it holding onto anger. Let’s take a lesson from that, and realize that our own anger isn’t doing us any good either.
IMO, the best way to fight these people’s influence on those who are yet ignorant on the subject is with cold, reasoned, simple arguments in GD. Pitting them might make you feel good in the short run, but it only gives them more power over you when you succumb to your anger, and it does nothing to fight their messages.
It has to do with the fact that, for the most part, people like them are currently and probably going to continually spew they’re shit on to everyone.
Sometimes, it’s funny, and for our own amusement?
I think part of it’s because everyone knows they’re scum. It’s something just about everyone on this board can agree on.
Also, it does educate other people. I’d never heard about Jack Chick or Fred Phelps before I started reading here. And, who knows, maybe it’ll bring someone to the light. Which is nowhere near Chick and Phelps’s light.
I just found a cite that was absolutely revolting. I actually felt sick when I was reading it. Stand clear of landoverbaptist.
Please try to keep in mind that many cites, like the Phelps one are not Christian.
I think what scares me is that many people looking for answers, while not having any previous knowledge of God, look on the internet. This is very dangerous. Some of these cites may look like legitimate “Christian” cite, when in fact, they are not.
I think that Chick and Robertson can be a little over the top at times, but they should not be in the same sentence at Phelps.
Also, we need periodic reminders of why someone’s evil. If things aren’t periodically thrown in our faces showing why something’s evil, we tend to become casual about it. That’s why we have things like the Holocaust Museum and Pit Threads about Phelps & Co.
JerseyDiamond landover is a parody site of people like Chick. Sort of the Onion of religion, at least as far as I remember it is possible I’m getting names crossed.
Chick is definitely a different sort of beast than Phelps. Phelps admits that he hates and claims that god hates. Chick at least claims to love, and maybe in his own twisted way he does. Phelps doesn’t think that everyone has a shot for redemption but still finds it necessary to spew his crap all over the place. Chick thinks that everyone can do it. Still Chick is fairly nuts. He happens to occupy a place on a continium that includes reasonable Christians and ends up in a la-la land of paranoid fantasies and unpleasant allegations. Phelps exists in as a category unto himself with beliefs and practices that bere resemblence to Christianity in the loosest sense.
As for Pitting them sometimes it is amusing to mock them as long as you don’t get too into the hating part of it. It is good to remind ourselves that these people are real and not just engaging in a sick joke. When they don’t exist anymore and their ideas are gone it’ll be a good thing.