Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie

Westboro Baptist church ("GOD HATES FAGS")

Options

Comments

  • Options
    #2
    shay_562
    Registered Users Posts: 1,764 ✭✭✭shay_562


    Yeah, that's been up for quite a while - appeared over a year ago when the L&H debating society invited Phelps to attend a debate on gay rights, if memory serves. There used to be excerpts from the letter along with Phelps explaining how it was a plot to lure him over here so he could be arrested, since Ireland has no freedom of speech laws. Are those pages (and the main link, godhatestheworld.com) completely genuine or a very elaborate joke? Either way, it's not something I'd care about too much - the cartoony hatred of Phelps and his ilk is so OTT that I can't even find it threatening. It's just kinda sad, really.


  • Options
    #3
    Rev Hellfire
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,346 ✭✭✭Rev Hellfire


    Won't someone think of the children?

    The Phelps represent such a fringe minority they're not worth bothering about.
    It’s only through misguided individuals expressing their shock and indignation that they get any air time.


  • Options
    #4
    Boston
    Closed Accounts Posts: 17,163 ✭✭✭✭Boston


    Why draw attention to these nutbars


  • Options
    #5
    Goodshape
    Registered Users Posts: 8,488 ✭✭✭Goodshape


    Rev Hellfire wrote: »
    The Phelps represent such a fringe minority they're not worth bothering about.
    +1

    It's just some attention whoring nutjob family in the states calling themselves a 'church'.

    There's about 70 of them in total, 60 of whom are directly related to each other.

    Wouldn't worry about it too much.


  • Options
    #6
    david_the_great
    Closed Accounts Posts: 113 ✭✭david_the_great


    Goodshape wrote: »
    +1

    It's just some attention whoring nutjob family in the states calling themselves a 'church'.

    There's about 70 of them in total, 60 of whom are directly related to each other.

    Wouldn't worry about it too much.

    well i wouldn't say i was worried- i hardly expect they will take over the world but like- who even lets this nutjob man call his minority a church-

    secondly- as far as i can see it- he thinks he IS god!

    thank you for your comments


  • Advertisement
  • Options
    #7
    KnifeWRENCH
    Closed Accounts Posts: 11,148 ✭✭✭✭KnifeWRENCH


    I find the Phelps's to be absolutely fascinating people. They seem so self-assured and really seem to believe in the homophobic vitriol that they spread. Shirley Phelps Roper said on the (rather excellent) documentary with Louis Theroux that she and her family were trying to "help" gay people (i.e. make them ungay) She genuinely seems to believe that she and her family are doing the right thing.

    I personally don't think they are evil or insane. They are entitled to their views and to free speech. The picketing at funerals is taking it too far, however.

    At the end of the day, as has already been pointed out, they hold no influence or power whatsoever. There's only 70 of 'em ffs.


  • Options
    #8
    markw999
    Registered Users Posts: 202 ✭✭markw999


    square_igloo wrote: »
    She genuinely seems to believe that she and her family are doing the right thing.


    One bit of that documentary that stuck out for me ws when one of the young children says something NOT damning gays, and contrary to the Phelps' beliefs - which was nice - and was "corrected". Happened in the blink of eye, but that's what I remember


  • Options
    #9
    UU
    Closed Accounts Posts: 879 ✭✭✭UU


    Oh don't worry they are just insane! lol Sorta sad though that the kids are brought up like that actually some of the children left the church and they no longer keep in contact with their family.

    Sure even the most conservative Christian groups in America even dismiss them as OTT and insane and un-Christian. Says something, doesn't it?


  • Options
    #10
    PeteK*
    Registered Users Posts: 995 ✭✭✭PeteK*


    http://www.godhatesireland.com/

    You wonder why they're so bothered about it! They're at no loss!


  • Options
    #11
    fliptzer
    Registered Users Posts: 65 ✭✭fliptzer


    Chatmaster wrote: »
    http://www.godhatesireland.com/

    You wonder why they're so bothered about it! They're at no loss!

    Hmmm, not biased in any way...

    How is this legal?
    :mad:


  • Advertisement
  • Options
    #12
    Zillah
    Registered Users Posts: 17,371 ✭✭✭✭Zillah


    fliptzer wrote: »
    Hmmm, not biased in any way...

    How is this legal?
    :mad:

    You think it should be illegal for people to say things you don't like?


  • Options
    #13
    mikeruurds
    Registered Users Posts: 1,870 ✭✭✭mikeruurds


    I guess www.thephelpsfamilyhatefags.com doesn't quite have the same punch. I just can't believe that these people believe that what they preach could possibly be in line with Gods will.


  • Options
    #14
    Cactus Col
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,457 ✭✭✭Cactus Col


    shay_562 wrote: »
    Yeah, that's been up for quite a while - appeared over a year ago when the L&H debating society invited Phelps to attend a debate on gay rights, if memory serves.

    I think the plan was for Fred to debate Gay Marriage with Senator David Norris. Personally I would have been disgusted if the debate had gone ahead. When establishments like UCD invite people like Phelps to debate it basically means that UCD (or at least the L&H Debate society) regard these people as having arguments worth making and viewpoints worth listening to. It essentially goes some way to legitimising that person's/orginisation's stance.

    Of course what has actually happened is that the westboro church has exploited the situation so that they have gain long term recognition from the debate society's publicity stunt. The Godhatesireland website will be going around for years. It has already been highlighted on boards a ton of times, and it will no doubt be the source of hundreds of threads to come.

    Thanks a lot UCD.


  • Options
    #15
    fliptzer
    Registered Users Posts: 65 ✭✭fliptzer


    Zillah wrote: »
    You think it should be illegal for people to say things you don't like?

    No but hate speech is illegal.


  • Options
    #16
    shay_562
    Registered Users Posts: 1,764 ✭✭✭shay_562


    Cactuc Col wrote:
    When establishments like UCD invite people like Phelps to debate it basically means that UCD (or at least the L&H Debate society) regard these people as having arguments worth making and viewpoints worth listening to. It essentially goes some way to legitimising that person's/orginisation's stance.

    Word. The excuse people always use is that it's better to confront people like Phelps in public and show him that his views are wrong, but with someone as utterly insane and completely entrenched in his views as Phelps that's never going to work. Better to just shove him under a rock and wait for him to die.
    fliptzer wrote:
    No but hate speech is illegal.

    Actually, if I'm not wrong, only incitement to hatred is illegal, which is the key difference. Phelps saying "You should burn gay people" is incitement. Phelps saying "Gay people should be burned" is just a random comment. That's why there's so few convictions under any incitement to hatred laws - when people like Nick Griffin can avoid getting convicted under them, just about anyone can. Which is why I don't really believe in "free speech" (though I've been told before that this makes me something of a fascist... :/)


  • Options
    #17
    KnifeWRENCH
    Closed Accounts Posts: 11,148 ✭✭✭✭KnifeWRENCH


    Cactus Col wrote: »
    I think the plan was for Fred to debate Gay Marriage with Senator David Norris. Personally I would have been disgusted if the debate had gone ahead. When establishments like UCD invite people like Phelps to debate it basically means that UCD (or at least the L&H Debate society) regard these people as having arguments worth making and viewpoints worth listening to. It essentially goes some way to legitimising that person's/orginisation's stance.
    I disagree. I would love to see Fred Phelps give a speech/debate. It would be safe to assume that no-one agrees with him, but he is as entitled to his views as the rest of us.

    Earlier this year, David Irving was not able to attend a UCC debate because of threats being made to members of the UCC Philosophical society. There was even a student group "Students Against Fascism" set up to stop Irving coming! (They should have called themselves "Students Against Free Speech")
    I was disappointed, as I was looking forward to hearing Irving speak at that debate. The idea that we should only allow people to speak if they do not hold controversial views is ludicrous.


  • Options
    #18
    Cactus Col
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,457 ✭✭✭Cactus Col


    square_igloo wrote: »
    The idea that we should only allow people to speak if they do not hold controversial views is ludicrous.

    I agree.

    If Irving or Phelps want to rent a soap box and stand beside the molly malone statue at the top of grafton street, then let them go ahead. (assuming of course they mind their language)

    That is completely different from giving them a golden platform to spout their individual forms of hatred from.

    I think for the UCD society, their stunt has backfired, as they are no longer even a footnote on the god hates ireland website. People will rediscover that site generation after generation and we will get threads like this every few months.


  • Options
    #19
    Goodshape
    Registered Users Posts: 8,488 ✭✭✭Goodshape


    square_igloo wrote: »
    There was even a student group "Students Against Fascism" set up to stop Irving coming!
    The ironing is delicious.


  • Options
    #20
    Creadak
    Registered Users Posts: 70 ✭✭Creadak


    Never mind these people, they are completely deluded people who have been brought up to hate everyone outside of their "church" they twist everything and anything in the bible to make their point.

    Nevermind the fact that they say that John 3:16 or whatever doesn't prove that god loves everyone, these people will never be convinced otherwise.

    Furthermore that Shirley, or whatever their lead woman's name is I couldn't care less to be honest, is a complete hypocrite. The bible clearly says somewhere that a child born out of wedlock is a bad no-no. Her first born (I think) son was born out of wedlock, and whenever she is questioned about it she changes her views, vís a vís: "He is my son and I would love him no matter what" Does that then mean that if her children came out as gay, lesbian, bi, or whatever, that she would still love them?

    And if so, then the whole ethos of her beloved church and family falls apart, through bogus arguments, general bull**** and hypocrisy.

    Hope I stayed coherent through that :P


  • Options
    #21
    LegacyUser
    Registered Users Posts: 166,026 ✭✭✭✭LegacyUser


    You should check Infiltrative journalist Harmon Leon’s new book The American Dream. He spent a week with the Westboro Baptist Church and their group God Hates Fags. It’s a disturbing yet funny chapter. At one point they picketed Ron White from the Blue Collar Comedy Tour’s stand up comedy show cuz he wasn’t using his standup stage to preach the word of God.

    As Leon puts it, the WBC is like the ugly girl at the dance whose now happy to be getting attention. Check out the book on Amazon or Leon’s website freedomhaters.org.


  • Advertisement
  • Options
    #22
    Dr. Worm
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6 ✭Dr. Worm


    Heheh, I love these guys... Y'know, I think at one point they said that all Jews are gay Nazis. You've just got to appreciate the many layers of ignorance.
    Really, there's no point getting worked up about it; their aim is to get you angry.
    This, dudes, is probably the best way to get rid of them (apart from flamethrowers).
    http://www.arktimes.com/blogs/arkansasblog/2008/09/way_to_go_matie.aspx

    Hope that made sense.


Advertisement