Westboro Baptist Church Gets a Taste of Its Own Medicine

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Quigley_Sharps, Mar 21, 2013.


  1. Quigley_Sharps

    Quigley_Sharps The Badministrator Administrator Founding Member

    The most hateful church in America has some colorful new neighbors. This week, members of the Florida-based nonprofit Planting Peace unveiled a project months in the making: Equality House, an activism center located directly across from the Westboro Baptist Church outside Topeka, Kansas.

    From now on, the group known for picketing the funerals of everyone from military members killed in action to Mr. Rogers, in protest of America’s tolerance of homosexuality, will wake up every morning and stare at an LGBT rainbow—after Equality House members painted the building to match the gay pride flag.

    Project Peace director of operations Davis Hammet spoke to TakePart from inside Equality House. He tells us the idea for the project originated months ago, after Planting Peace members heard about the protest of Josef Miles—a 10-year-old who took it upon himself to hold a sign in front of Westboro that read “God Hates No One.”

    If 10-year-old Miles had the courage to hold a counter-protest—why couldn’t Planting Peace?
    “We walked around Westboro’s neighborhood on Google street view and thought: ‘It would be awesome to get a house right there and paint it rainbow,’ ” says Hammet.

    As it turned out, the house directly across the street from the church was for sale. After months of negotiations, Project Peace purchased the property for just over $80,000.

    “Shortly after I moved in, someone from Westboro almost backed over me in her car. It was an accident, and she apologized. But it was bizarre—this hate-filled person smiling and waving at me.”

    Hammet says he has been living in the house for several weeks preparing for its grand unveiling. The group was scheduled to start painting the building last month, but was forced to delay after a brutal Kansas snowstorm.

    Project Peace used the extra time to make friends in the local LGBT community.
    Hammet says during that time, he only had a few run-ins with Westboro members.
    “Before we launched, we tried to keep quiet. Shortly after I moved in, someone from Wetsboro almost backed over me in her car. It was an accident, and she apologized. But it was bizarre—this hate-filled person smiling and waving at me.”

    Since the unveiling, Hammet says Westboro has been similarly cordial.

    “[Westboro spokesperson] Shirley Phelps-Roper walked by and was taking some pictures yesterday,” he says. “She mentioned she really like the colors. Then she laughed and went back in the church. It seemed like she had a sense of humor about the whole thing. I’m sure in her eyes she just thinks we’re all going to hell.”

    Hammet says his group hopes to use the publicity from Equality House to help launch an anti-bullying campaign among other initiatives.

    “This is hopefully just the start,” he says. “We want this to be used to spark conversation about equality in every home. We believe the fastest way toward equality is by speaking out.”

    For now, Equality House will likely be used as an activist training center. Despite its new exterior decorations, the facility remains rather modest. After weeks of sleeping on the floor, Hammet says he finally has a bed and a desk to work from:

    “It’s pretty basic. But it could be barren and still be warm, because this place is full of love.”
    To help Equality House’s efforts, click here.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 25, 2015
  2. Moatengator

    Moatengator Monkey

    I have had to be in a "blocking Line" at a soldiers funeral after being KIA. The things they say just make my blood boil!! I believe that they try to provoke violence at these events in order to sue & raise some $$$ to further thier own agenda. To hell with this "church" these folks are just evil in my book.
     
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  3. DMGoddess

    DMGoddess Monkey+++

    I have never understood how a doctrine of love has created and fostered so much hate.
     
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  4. -06

    -06 Monkey+++

    Just glad they are not from around here. Would probably end up in a federal "grey bar motel".
     
  5. DMGoddess

    DMGoddess Monkey+++

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  6. chelloveck

    chelloveck Diabolus Causidicus

    [​IMG]
     
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  7. Cowgirl

    Cowgirl Monkey

    What a great response to the hate mongers! Thanks for sharing, I had missed this story in the news.
     
  8. chelloveck

    chelloveck Diabolus Causidicus

    Gotta love Shirley Phelps....cherry picks the bible to vilify gay folk....yet totally ignores Deuteronomy 22:21.
    I don't think Shirley was a virgin when she married Brent Roper. Having a child out of wedlock to some random before marrying Mr Roper is a stoning offence according to Deuteronomy...but only if the husband isn't cool with marrying a woman who didn't have her maidenhead intact prior to the wedding night deflowering.
     
  9. Ajax

    Ajax Monkey++

    I have never understood how anyone can honestly associate the westboro church with Christianity. Just because they claim they are Christians does not mean they are practicing Christianity.
     
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  10. chelloveck

    chelloveck Diabolus Causidicus

    Oh...they ARE practicing a form of Christianity....just that they take very literal, and are fundamentalist about the bits of Christianity that many contemporary Christians now treat as optional or irrelevant. The Westboro Church would not have been out of place in the Medieval era, just that much of mainstream Christianity has evolved somewhat since those times.
     
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  11. Ajax

    Ajax Monkey++

    No, they are practicing their doctrine of sin. Just because man does something in the name of God doesn't make it right.
     
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  12. DMGoddess

    DMGoddess Monkey+++

    Chell has it right, although they are ignoring those parts about loving their neighbors and enemies, like a lot of people who call themselves Christians, and then use the Bible to justify their hate. I think someone called it 'cut and paste'. Oh, I think that might have been Chell! [winkthumb]
     
  13. BTPost

    BTPost Stumpy Old Fart,Deadman Walking, Snow Monkey Moderator

    Yep, Just because a "Man" says he is GODs Prophet, does NOT make it so... and no other, than GODs Prophet, can make pronouncements in His NAME, that are valid for All Mankind... Preachers are NOT the same as Prophets, and any Preacher who tells you that he IS GODs Prophet, needs to PROVE to YOU, that he does have the "Spirit of Prophesy" before you believe a SINGLE Word he Says, or shun Him as you would a DEVIL Incarnate. My Belief..... YBMV.....
     
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  14. chelloveck

    chelloveck Diabolus Causidicus

    1. Every Christian sect has their doctrine of sin...indeed the doctrine of sin is one of several central elements of Christian theology...without the doctrine of sin, Jesus Christ's "sacrifice" would have no meaning. Christian doctrines of sin are based to a larger or lesser extent on their interpretation of the biblical scriptures. Westbro's condemnation of homosexuality has strong biblical justification: Just that the Westbro mob are embarrassingly and persistently showing the vestigal remnants of fangs that have largely been pulled from mainstream Christianity decades and centuries ago.

    2. BINGO! This concept applies more generally to Christianity....and most other religions also...not just to loony cultish sects like Westbro. The impulse is understandable to wave the flag and speak proudly of all of the beneficent things and good works that one's fellow believers achieve...and to distance oneself from all of the icky and baneful things that fellow believers do. But the Westbro Church today are behaving towards homosexuals and homosexuality as boorishly as their Israelite forebears did towards the Amalekites (and others)...both find their justification for doing so by appealing to divine command as recorded in their holy scriptures.
     
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  15. DMGoddess

    DMGoddess Monkey+++

    Exactly. One of the main reasons I stopped being a Christian. Too many people taking the credit and not walking the walk, as it were.
     
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  16. Ajax

    Ajax Monkey++


    One thing that has bothered me is seeing other Christians hate gays and other groups, I've heard people say they should be put on an island and nuked obviously they are joking but still to me that is crazy talk when you are trying to grow in God. In the past I have dealt with the same feelings and have been just as guilty as anyone else but God has and is opening my eyes.

    God hates all sin but he loves everyone, he hates my sins as much as he hates a gay persons sins but he loves us, he loves everyone, God is love and he tells us to love everyone like Jesus loves everyone.

    I don't agree with with gay marriage or the lifestyle but that doesn't mean they should be hated. We are all afflicted with the disease of sin and my time is better spent doing my own soul searching to see where I am missing it and what I need to repent over because if we are honest with our selves everyone one of us has multiple things to repent over every day.



    What does another persons actions have to do with you? When you stand before God there won't be a single other person there and there won't be any excuses like Joe Bloe preacher was a jerk and had an affair so I stopped believing in God. What you believe should be based on how the word of God and a relationship with Jesus Christ affects you personally, even if you think your the only one in the world doing it right. One thing this world is not short of is sinful people, if you look at a sinful persons actions then it can be demoralizing. The only one we can look to is Jesus Christ.
     
  17. chelloveck

    chelloveck Diabolus Causidicus

    As I understand it, the Christian canon of authoritative scriptures is closed. Anyone claiming to be a prophet, post the Revelation of St John the Divine would have to be suspect. Certainly, various people have made all sorts of predictions about the future...but invariably they are the work of charlatans and mountebanks...with or without a dog collar around their neck. Fred Phelps may fancy himself to be a modern day prophet...but such notions merely highlights the grandiosity of his view of himself more so than any substantiation of his claim.

    One doesn't need to disbelieve the tenets of a religion to realise that persons claiming powers of prophecy should be best avoided....particularly when the BS meter is off the dial. Yet, many are willing to accept without question the claims of self proclaimed prophets.

    Unfulfilled Christian religious predictions - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


    images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSeWoOVoaLlxpA3sLE3uHkuvhtnzerRJRxdC3I4ApnYHAYWdqKb
     
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  18. DMGoddess

    DMGoddess Monkey+++

    My beliefs have nothing to do with anyone else, but I REFUSE to be labeled in the same way as people like that, or people who believe that it's fine to kill Muslims because they're not Christian, etc. I believe what I believe, but I refuse to be lumped in with those idiots.

    My paternal grandmother was a good Christian, but even she had prejudices and was judgmental. I try not to judge anyone based on anything but their actions, but I will not be labeled based on the actions of another person or group of people. Believe me, based on past performance, if I could resign from the human race, sometimes I would.
     
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  19. kellory

    kellory An unemployed Jester, is nobody's fool. Banned

    I go to no building of God. The great outdoors is my Church. It is a very personal relationship, that requires no intermediary. Sitting in a deer stand as the dawn is breaking, feeling the breath of God as the thermals rise, seeing the world wake and stir beneath me, I have no doubts of his existence. Weather or not I interest him, is another story.
     
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  20. Ajax

    Ajax Monkey++

    Are you a Christian? I believe that examples of God are found everywhere in nature. Some awesome moments I have had involve being in nature and praying or contemplating spiritual things. Nothing like taking a hike and thinking about the word of God.
     
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