Westboro Baptist Church

[Azakel]

Would I get in trouble if I ran up and kicked Fred Phelps in the balls? I wanna do it so bad!!!

I'll have the get away car ready.

 

[Autodidact]

Azakel: Let me share with you the great idea someone else--not me--had to effectively protest this group. It works. What you do is you come up with a cause that they hate, say, for example, PFLAG. Then you solicit donations from supporters, to pledge so much $ to PFLAG for every minute that Westboro protests, or every protester they bring or something. It doesn't damage their free speech rights, doesn't involve violence or repression, raises money for a good cause, and/or they disappear pronto. Make sure Westboro knows you're doing it. Someone did this at a radio station and it worked wonders. Good luck.

 

[lilithu]

Azakel: Let me share with you the great idea someone else--not me--had to effectively protest this group. It works. What you do is you come up with a cause that they hate, say, for example, PFLAG. Then you solicit donations from supporters, to pledge so much $ to PFLAG for every minute that Westboro protests, or every protester they bring or something. It doesn't damage their free speech rights, doesn't involve violence or repression, raises money for a good cause, and/or they disappear pronto. Make sure Westboro knows you're doing it. Someone did this at a radio station and it worked wonders. Good luck.

I LOVE IT!! :jiggy:

That is SO much better than the usual yelling back and forth.

 

[frg001]

Azakel: Let me share with you the great idea someone else--not me--had to effectively protest this group. It works. What you do is you come up with a cause that they hate, say, for example, PFLAG. Then you solicit donations from supporters, to pledge so much $ to PFLAG for every minute that Westboro protests, or every protester they bring or something. It doesn't damage their free speech rights, doesn't involve violence or repression, raises money for a good cause, and/or they disappear pronto. Make sure Westboro knows you're doing it. Someone did this at a radio station and it worked wonders. Good luck.

That is a good idea

 

[Alla Prima]

Seriously, ***?

Seriously delusional. You could say they've embraced the Dark Side.

 

[Comicaze247]

Would I get in trouble if I ran up and kicked Fred Phelps in the balls? I wanna do it so bad!!!

You should probably smack him in the nuts with a cross. Then it'll show how religion can hurt people

 

[Autodidact]

In all seriousness, this is exactly the response that Phelps hopes to provoke. They would be thrilled, and would immediately file suit against you.

 

[lilithu]

In all seriousness, this is exactly the response that Phelps hopes to provoke. They would be thrilled, and would immediately file suit against you.

I think he was joking, but I agree. There are many Christians who are not happy about Phelps, but would nonetheless be enraged if someone desecrated their religious symbol like that. The focus of attention then would no longer be on the hate-mongering that Phelps and company engage in, but rather on the disrespectful and violent behavior of the "godless" attacker, thus proving in some people's minds that Phelps may be justified in his accusations.

I've been thinking about this and I'm not sure that what GG said earlier is right. She argued that people like Phelps make people like Warren seem more acceptable, and thus Phelps is truly harmful. It's possible. But I think it's also possible that people like Phelps can be a loud reminder of how ugly homophobia is. I mean, so long as BGLT-rights activists do not do something stupid like attack Phelps, and thus look like bad guys themselves, then Phelps is out there looking like a bad guy. That is NOT good publicity for the evangelical objection to marriage equality.

 

[Elessar]

Well, I'm off to do this tomorrow morning. I've finished my sign. One side says:

DON'T JUDGE so that you won't be judged.
For the way you judge others is how you will be judged -- the measure with which you measure out will be used to measure YOU - Matt. 7:1-2

and, on the other side:

267 for tolerance, diversity, cooperation and justice at the
CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL OF PHILADELPHIA
1836 to present
DEAR HIGH, DEAR CENTRAL HIGH -- thy mem'ries never die; thy honor we'll cherish and laud it to the sky!

 

[Elessar]

Well, I counterprotested. It was about 90 of us counterprotesting about 6 representatives of the WBC. It was peaceable, and everything went fine.

 

[Autodidact]

Here's a story about a successful Phelps-a-thon.