The Down Range Forum
Member Section => Down Range Cafe => Topic started by: philw on January 10, 2011, 06:48:31 PM
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http://www.abc15.com/dpp/news/region_central_southern_az/tucson/westboro-baptist-church-to-picket-funerals-in-tucson
TUCSON, AZ - The controversial Westboro Baptist Church says it plans to picket the funerals of six people killed in a Tucson shooting over the weekend.
A flier posted on its website reads, “THANK GOD FOR THE SHOOTER-6 DEAD! WBC WILL PICKET THEIR FUNERALS!”
Authorities say six people were killed and 14 were wounded Saturday morning at a public event held by Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in front of a Safeway store.
The suspect 22-year-old Jared Loughner is accused of firing shots at people attending the event and is now held in federal custody without bail.
The WBC flier claims the shooting is God’s way of getting back at the political action taken against the church: "Congress passed three laws against WBC. So, God sent the shooter to shoot you!"
The church based in Topeka, Kansas, known for its extreme stances on various issues, picketed the funeral of Elizabeth Edwards in December.
these seem like a bunch of nutters
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WBC was supposed to be protesting the funeral of Dr. Kasper, the Millatd South High School principal shot to death here in Omaha last week. The only reason they didn't was the snow storm that hi Omaha today. I guess Arizona is warmer.
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Perhaps a national rally to "protest" them at their headquarters would do.....
Nothing like 50,000+ people showing up in your lawn.
Asshats
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Leave them alone this time, in fact, encourage them, it's their first amendment right after all.
See if the socialists are as quick to jump on fellow asshats as they were to jump on Palin. After all, when they fight among themselves they are leaving the rest of us alone.
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I thought the Brady Bunch won the prize for shamelessly capitalizing on this tragedy. I guess these guys couldn't stand to be out assholed. If they picket that little girls funeral? I wouldn't hold anyone there responsible for their actions.
FQ13
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I honestly hope they DO picket the Judges funeral.
Should make entertainment for real Americans. ;D
And there likely will not be enough of them left to bother the kids family.
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I guess they need the warmth of AZ is compelling. In my area it's cold and some of the towns around here passed ordinances to keep them 300 ft from any funeral. Now I know why they missed a GI's funeral about 100 miles from here.
Stick a Sugaro (sp) up their ass Tucson, Pecos
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I guess they need the warmth of AZ is compelling. In my area it's cold and some of the towns around here passed ordinances to keep them 300 ft from any funeral. Now I know why they missed a GI's funeral about 100 miles from here.
Stick a Sugaro (sp) up their ass Tucson, Pecos
Did you mean a saquero cactus? Dude, if I have to correct your spelling you're having a bad day. ;D Though I do agree on the sentiment. Enough of these people.
FQ13
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Yeah that's what I meant. Thanks to the ancient ones around here us seniors will get an education come hell or high water.
Pecos, who though he's having fun must say good night now.
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I still say bring them on, "God hates everyone" azzholes versus Dem Party azzholes.
Some one should sell beer and popcorn.
I will bet that the result is no more protests at soldiers funerals, which is something we have all said we wanted.
The down side however, with all the talk about "violent political rhetoric", coupled with Phils post about "internet ID" is that it will be used in an attempt to stifle the TEA Party and limit free speech.
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Stick a Sugaro (sp) up their ass Tucson, Pecos
Did you mean a saquero cactus? Dude, if I have to correct your spelling you're having a bad day. ;D Though I do agree on the sentiment. Enough of these people.
FQ13
Actually, Pecos, you can continue to ignore FQ - in correcting your misspelling he effed up and misspelled the exact same word. That's gotta be a new low for you FQ! ;D
BTW, it's spelled saguaro cactus and the G is silent.
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Actually, Pecos, you can continue to ignore FQ - in correcting your misspelling he effed up and misspelled the exact same word. That's gotta be a new low for you FQ! ;D
BTW, it's spelled saguaro cactus and the G is silent.
Actually no. There are two spellings. One with a G and one with a Q (I did look this up before posting. Even I'm not masochistic enough to make that error. Google it ;D).
FQ13 who can't spell worth a damn and freely admits it. ;) Still I'm with Pecos on his sentiment. I would like to hear a denunciation of these guys from the Presidents of The Southern Baptist Convention and The American Baptist Convention. We ask it of the Muslims, the Christians should do it as well. I'm sure they already have, but ts time to do it again while people are paying attention. As a Christian, I think that religious leaders should denounce these folks loudly and clearly so people don't think they represent us. Blaming the deaths of innocents on gays is beyond absurd and we should make sure that they know that they are far from the Word here.
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FQ13 who can't spell worth a damn and freely admits it. ;)
I blame the edumication system for that :P
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.................. Still I'm with Pecos on his sentiment. I would like to hear a denunciation of these guys from the Presidents of The Southern Baptist Convention and The American Baptist Convention. We ask it of the Muslims, the Christians should do it as well. I'm sure they already have, but ts time to do it again while people are paying attention........
As usual, a lack of facts and a day late...actually over 5 years late. Some people seldom seem to miss an opportunity to ignore looking for facts to impugn somebody they don't like. Lumping Baptists with Muslims who are pleaded with to issue a denounciation that either does not come or does come with caveats was a masterful stroke. It really gets the point across. Nice.
SBC president, chaplains denounce military funeral protests
Baptist Press/August 30, 2005 By David Roach
Nashville, Tennessee -- Fred Phelps, the Topeka, Kan., pastor who has been protesting at the funerals of U.S. troops slain in Iraq, engages in “hate-filled activities” and is not a Southern Baptist, SBC President Bobby Welch said Aug. 29 in a statement.
Phelps and his followers from Westboro Baptist Church -- notorious for their “God hates fags” posters -- have staged protests at soldiers’ funerals in several states. The group reasons that roadside bombs killing American troops in Iraq are God’s retribution against America for a small bomb that caused approximately $1,800 damage outside the Topeka home of one of Phelps’ daughters in 1995. The group also emphasizes that it opposes the U.S. military for allowing homosexuals to serve. The military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy prevents homosexuals from serving openly but also prohibits the military from asking soldiers about their sexual preference.
Westboro Baptist is an independent church not affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention.
Welch, the pastor of First Baptist Church in Daytona Beach, Fla., said Phelps and his followers “have gone far beyond reason in their efforts to use funerals of our fallen war heroes from Iraq to spotlight themselves.
“Southern Baptists have consistently condemned and officially distanced themselves from Phelps’ hate-filled activities," Welch said.
“It is incorrigible that any person for any reason would take such devastating advantage of broken hearted children, spouses, and parents, at a funeral of their loved one, to draw attention to themselves. Such an ignorant and uncaring disregard for people’s deep feelings will undoubtedly cut into raw nerves that will produce unpredictable negative results.”
Welch added that the SBC does not have “any connection whatsoever with Fred Phelps and his Westboro Church in Kansas,” noting that Phelps has picketed Southern Baptists “on numerous occasions.”
In contrast to Phelps, Southern Baptists hold a commitment “to bring Jesus’ love, hope, life and salvation to all,” Welch said.
Westboro Baptist is made up of 100-200 congregants meeting in the basement of Phelps’ home, which sits in a large fenced compound occupied by nine of his thirteen children and their spouses. Approximately 75-100 of the church’s members are related to Phelps by blood or marriage, according to research done by the Topeka Capital-Journal in 1994.
"Thank God for IEDs killing American soldiers in strange lands every day,” reads the group’s website. “WBC rejoices every time the Lord God in His vengeance kills or maims an American soldier with an Improvised Explosive Device (IED)."
The website continues, “This nation bombed and raided the Westboro Baptist Church, and now the Holy God that Inhabits Eternity is repaying those heinous acts with His retaliatory wrath,” adding, “WBC will picket the funerals of these Godless, fag army American soldiers when their pieces return home. WBC will also picket their landing spot, in Dover, Delaware early and often.”
The website features a list of people the group claims are in hell, a count of American soldiers killed in Iraq, the use of derogatory terms for homosexuals and a photograph of caskets draped with American flags along with the caption, “This is the picture that America deserves.”
Two Southern Baptist military chaplains denounced Phelps’ picketing of military funerals.
Barrett Craig, a Navy chaplain candidate and master of divinity student at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., noted that the fallen soldiers died to protect the very freedom of speech that Phelps exercises.
"Men and women of the armed forces have every right to be outraged at men like Fred Phelps for his unbiblical, irrational and hateful statements and actions against our country’s fallen comrades,” Craig said. “However, myself having served four years as a Marine and two years in the Navy chaplaincy, it never ceases to amaze me to hear young soldiers fighting on the front lines, fully aware of men like Mr. Phelps, say, ‘I fight for those types of men, to secure their freedom and allow them the opportunity to exercise their freedom of speech.’”
Jim Fisher, an Air Force chaplain and Ph.D. candidate at Southern Seminary, said Christians must minister to families of slain soldiers rather than take advantage of them as Phelps has done.
“Times of bereavement provide the privilege of ministering to those who have experienced loss by walking with them in their pain,” Fisher said. “Such ministry models the person-to-person concern of Christ Jesus. These bridges of opportunity must be crossed, not closed.”
Southern Baptist leaders have denounced Phelps’ "God hates fags" message multiple times.
In 2003 Phil Roberts, president of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, told Baptist Press, "Southern Baptists ought to take it as a badge of honor that he would boycott [us]. The gay and lesbian community needs to realize the difference in attitude and ministry between Southern Baptists and people like Mr. Phelps."
Roberts called Phelps' views on homosexuals "heretical."
Also in 2003, Terry Fox, pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church in Wichita, Kan., preached a sermon in which he denounced Phelps' ministry.
"I have a conviction ... that the lifestyle of homosexuality is a lifestyle unacceptable to God," Fox said. "But I also have a conviction that somebody that is involved in homosexuality can turn away from that and come back to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ."
Phelps and his followers have picketed the SBC building in Nashville at least twice in recent years.
In 1999 messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention passed a resolution that didn't mention Phelps by name but did say: "[W]e publicly denounce and deplore all violent attacks upon homosexuals, and that we express our abhorrence of the teaching that God hates any person on account of an immoral lifestyle." The resolution passed months after Phelps' church picketed the funeral of Matthew Shepard, the homosexual college student murdered in Wyoming.
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Rastus, please calm down. What I said was that the heads of the major Baptist Conventions should condemn them TODAY while folks were paying attention. I also stated that they had probably done so before. As for lumping Baptists with Muslims? I was merely pointing out the responsibility of religious leaders, of whatever faith, to try to tell the extremists that they are out of line and to do so as often as neccessary. Seriously, you need to read what I write, not what you think I write. Believe it or not, I am not your enemy.
Peace
FQ13