THIS is NOT Christian. THIS is immoral.

[LibraLiz1973]

I am beyond disgusted.


http://www.godhatesfags.com/written/fliers/20080122_heath-ledger-brokeback-mountain.pdf

The "Reverend" Fred Phelps's Westboro Baptist Church announced plans to protest at the funeral of Heath Ledger.

Why?

The "God Hates Fags" hatemongers will picket the decease Aussie actor's funeral because he is a pervert who promoted homosexuality by appearing as a gay man in Brokeback Mountain.
(from perezhilton.com)

[ProdigalJunkMail]

1. why? because he (they) is a hateful and hate filled person

who has nothing better to do with his time than stir the pot and try to piss people off. Simply paying attention to him (them) fuels continued garbage spewing forth from his (their) midst...

sP

[LibraLiz1973]

4. I disagree. I think more people should pay attention

Living in denial doesn't work. These people are evil.
That shit should be illegal.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

9. you can't really make it illegal without trampling

on some pretty precious rights. The only reason these people have any power is because we give it to them...

sP

[LibraLiz1973]

22. Your 100% right... It is just so sickening

and makes me SO angry

[ProdigalJunkMail]

26. unfortunately the english language fails to have a descriptor

for how vile these people are. I wish there were a way to silence them...but the reality is they have a right to be that vile and I think the best way to deal with them is let them vanish...no one listens...no one feeds their ego/hate...they become irrelevant and go away... (but not really soon enough).

sP

[AndyA]

2. These people are mentally deranged. They should not be allowed in public

due to their mental problems.

These are the kind of people who will someday pull out automatic weapons and start killing everyone in site.

And when that happens, everyone will say, "Gee, they've always been angry and vindictive. How did they get weapons?" And the rest of the world will be outraged because no one did anything to stop them.

:eyes:

[Snarkturian Clone]

3. They're doing it because they know they will get hurt

and then they will sue the pants off those who hurt them and make mucho dinero. Asswipes.

[Labors of Hercules]

39. They won't just get hurt. They'll get pulverized.

and good thing too. :grr:

[Echo In Light]

5. These authoritarian, rule-crazy HATERS are unbelievable

[ThatsMyBarack]

36. Unfortunately, one of them....

....is still occupying the desk in the Oval Office! :mad:

[lapfog_1]

6. Good luck with that...

Maybe it will bankrupt them...

I'm guessing that the funeral will be in his hometown of Perth, Australia.

[dysfunctional press]

12. and australians and australian laws might not be so forgiving to them...

i doubt they'll make a trip downunder, if that's where he's going to be interned.

although there may likely be a memorial service on one coast or the other in this country, as well.

[Coexist]

7. can someone over there follow these instructions?

I think this diarist has found the solution to these idiots:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/1/21/16390/5077/706/440666

When I pulled up to the stop light in front of the funeral home I could hear them from across the wide road, singing their bastardized version of God Bless America, it’s the one where they sing “except fags” all kinds of other epithets. I remembered the documentary about Phelps from a few months ago where the bikers would rev their engines to drown out Phelp’s crews singing and chanting. 
It occurred to me, there were no bikers.

The Phelpsians we’re just too loud for my tastes. Then I remembered a couple of immutable truths I learned from ten+ years of touring in a rock band: (1) music can save a life and salve a soul and (2) the power of wattage is louder than any heckler.

So, I drove past and came back to a stop in front of the Phelpsians, still chanting their brand of hate, still too audible. There I was stopped just six feet from them, between them and the funeral home, and something WIERD happend to my car; all the windows rolled down, the stero turned up as loud as possible, and Minor Threat’s 1983 album Out of Step was BLARRING from my car. I couldn’t figure out what was going on, so I just turned on my hazard lights and waved people past me.

Then another thing happened, a guy driving a big box truck pulled up in front of me and parked. Blocking the view of the Phelpsian’s from the cemetary. He gave me a thumbs up from his window while Ian McCay sang “Think Again.” Then, I noticed the car behind me hadn’t moved. I was afraid he was upset at me for blocking the intersection. But I realized he had his hazard lights on too. He was waving people on around us. People drove by and layed on their horns, more noise. I saw the procession pull in to the funeral home from the other direction, and as the music in my car faded I heard something - the Phelpsians were silent. They’d stopped singing, stopped chanting and just held their signs for no one but me, the guy in the box truck and the guy behind me. Three people who I think already know, God doesn’t hate fags or dead soldiers, just Phelps does.

[LibraLiz1973]

24. THAT IS AWESOME.

Very cool.

[poverlay]

31. I'm so proud of that person... Whoever you are: Thanks so much. n/t

[TommyO]

33. A perfect example of how to use First Amendment rights

to challenge the Phelpsian hatred.

[blondeatlast]

34. Good on you, brother, whomever you are.

I'm betting He noticed your good deeds and wisdom as well. :thumbsup:

[RebelOne]

8. Well, since he is originally from Australia and his family is there,

I would assume that would be where his funeral will be held. I doubt that the Phelps clan will travel there.

[paparush]

10. Free Speech! Free Speech! Free Speech!

Its HATE speech and it isn't protected (in my non-lawyerly opinion)

[paparush]

11. PS - Religion is Killing the World /nt

[KharmaTrain]

13. Cameras Cameras Cameras

Amazing how people haven't caught onto Phelps real con here...his ego. Be assured some asshat will do a story on him and it'll be all over DU...then he's off to the next stunt.

[H2O Man]

17. Their tactics

should be viewed in terms of another Amendment 1 right, which has always had a different set of rules: the right to assemble in public. There are far more USSC-tested restrictions on public assembly than speech.

[SidDithers]

14. They're hateful, disgusting Christians...

but they're still Christians.

Sid

[BanzaiBonnie]

25. They are not Christians

They may call themselves Christians, but they are not followers of the Christ. If they were, they would not be doing what they're doing. It's a scam. It makes them feel superior to everyone else. But it also isolates them from everyone else.

I feel sorry for the kids. It's a system of extreme abuse that they were raised under.

[TechBear_Seattle]

28. Are they True Scotsmen?

Just because YOU say they aren't Christians doesn't make it so.

[SidDithers]

29. You're the final arbiter of who is and who isn't a Christian?...

The interpretation of what god wants is a purely subjective excercise. Who's to say which interpretation is the correct one?

Sorry, but Christians are no better, or worse, than anyone else. There are good ones, bad ones, heroic ones, and cowardly ones.

There are Christians like Dr. King, and there are Christians like Phelps and his clan.

Sid

[hobbit709]

15. I wonder how the Phelps family of lunatics would react

If people assembled across the street from their "church" and protested their behavior? Methinks the phelps clan would have enough cows to put on a major barbecue.

[Dorian Gray]

16. They are delusional mongrels

who worship at the alter of hatred.

[Greeby]

18. Phelps really has a death wish, doesn't he? nt

[trotsky]

19. Sorry but Christianity is what its followers make it.

ALL of them, even the ones like Phelps.

It's not right to simply throw out the bad Christians. We're all human, all capable of good & bad.

[Medusa]

20. Do they even know how to find Australia on the map?

Let's hope the Aussies put 'em where they need to be--in jail.

[spanone]

21. fuck him and his followers...one and all

[Lydia Leftcoast]

23. Phelps is an exhibitionist--he goes where he knows the cameras will be

His "church" consists mostly of the members of his family, and he has no theological training except attending (and dropping out of)a couple of fundie Bible "colleges."

If people didn't pay any attention to him for his absurd funeral demonstrations, he'd have to find another way to get on camera.

[DutchLiberal]

27. I know why they want to protest. They wanted to put Ledger to death themselves...

...like the Bible says they should!

[pleah]

30. I am for free speech, but funerals should be off limits.

[BreweryYardRat]

32. And with any luck, the fans will LITERALLY tear them apart.

Goodbye and good riddance, Freddie-boy!

[Labors of Hercules]

37. Oh they will, don't worry...

People loved Heath for that role, and they will defend it.

[Ian David]

35. It was pretty much a given that Phelps would be there.

He never passes up any excuse to be near gay people.

[MedleyMisty]

38. If they call themselves Christian, it's Christian.

Christianity is its followers. I don't get it when people say to not judge it by the people who believe in it. What are we supposed to judge it on, then?

It is valid to point out that not all Christians are like that, just like it's valid to point out that not all Muslims are suicide bombers. Still though, they do self-identify as Christian and thus are Christian.