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Fred Phelps legacy: Should Westboro Baptist founder be picketed when he dies?
CS Monitor ^ | 03/18/2014 | By Patrik Jonsson

Posted on 03/18/2014 12:46:45 PM PDT by SeekAndFind

With reports that Westboro Baptist Church founder Fred Phelps is near death, some gay-rights advocates are conflicted. In the end, they say, his actions actually helped their cause.

For most of the past 20 years, gay Americans dreaded Fred Phelps Sr. and the “God hates fags” pickets by members of his Westboro Baptist Church, a congregation that believes that disciples who do not attack those they see as sinful will themselves be punished by God.

But amid reports that Mr. Phelps is now seriously ill at a Topeka, Kan., hospice facility, some religion experts and gay activists are suggesting that the gay rights movement may ultimately owe Phelps a debt of gratitude for his leadership of one of the most controversial small churches in America.

Instead of turning America against gays and same-sex unions, they argue, Phelps may have instead helped to draw attention to the subject of religious intolerance and its impact on fellow Americans.

“We should give thanks for [Fred Phelps’] gift to American society,” writes Mark Silk, a religion professor Trinity College in Hartford, Conn. “So what’s the gift? It’s that he made religious hostility to homosexuality repulsive.

(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: democratscandals; fredphelps; gay; homosexuality; lavendermafia; waronchristianity; waronreligion; westborobaptist
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To: SeekAndFind

“he made religious hostility to homosexuality repulsive”

Not exactly, but it sure makes it harder to avoid being called a kook for not wanting sexual deviants to take boys in the woods overnight.


21 posted on 03/18/2014 1:13:02 PM PDT by icwhatudo (Low taxes and less spending in Sodom and Gomorrah is not my idea of a conservative victory)
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To: SeekAndFind

Nope ... ignored would be better.


22 posted on 03/18/2014 1:13:26 PM PDT by al_c (Obama's standing in the world has fallen so much that Kenya now claims he was born in America.)
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To: Star Traveler

“His daughter calls Phelps a fag-loving whore (her words) and says he deserves it.”
_____________________

Seriously?! That’s some weapons-grade crazy right there.


23 posted on 03/18/2014 1:14:29 PM PDT by AnAmericanAbroad (It's all bread and circuses for the future prey of the Morlocks.)
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To: SeekAndFind

What he did was wrong so I don’t see how behaving like he did would be right, however, if he and his group protested at one of my loved one’s funerals, I wouldn’t hold myself to such a noble standard.


24 posted on 03/18/2014 1:18:50 PM PDT by punknpuss
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To: SeekAndFind

It’s an interesting question, but probably moot. He is going to get picketed. It’s just a matter of how big.


25 posted on 03/18/2014 1:25:34 PM PDT by RichInOC (Jesus is coming back soon...and man, is He ticked off. (I'm trying to keep it clean.))
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To: NoLibZone; YHAOS; RichInOC

WBC does not believe in having funerals or memorials because “We don’t worship the dead in this church, so there’d be no public memorial or funeral to picket if any member died.”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/17/fred-phelps-excommunicated-wbc_n_4981300.html?ir=Religion


26 posted on 03/18/2014 1:44:10 PM PDT by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer)
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To: SeekAndFind
Unless the man repents on his death bed, he is going to be quite shocked when he meets Christ, because he is NOT a Christian.
Not everyone who says to Me, "Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, "Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?' And then I will declare to them, "I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!' Matthew 7:21-23

So Mr. Fred Phelps, I would advise you to ask Christ to come into your heart now and ask for forgiveness, because if you do not you will soon be banished to the depths of hell,
"Where worm does not die
And the fire is not quenched."

27 posted on 03/18/2014 1:49:46 PM PDT by OneVike (quite surprised by the reac)
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To: SeekAndFind

This is a confirmation of my theory that Westboro is a “False Flag Operation”.


28 posted on 03/18/2014 1:52:58 PM PDT by left that other site
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To: OneVike

We are not to pass judgement. I pray he finds Jesus before he dies.

However the world would be a better place without his family doing what they do.


29 posted on 03/18/2014 1:55:09 PM PDT by driftdiver (I could eat it raw, but why do that when I have a fire.)
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To: left that other site

RE: This is a confirmation of my theory that Westboro is a “False Flag Operation”.

To what end?


30 posted on 03/18/2014 1:56:49 PM PDT by SeekAndFind (question is this)
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To: AnAmericanAbroad

Westboro Baptist Church To Protest Fred Phelps’ Funeral, Says Daughter
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3134261/posts

And this post in the thread ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3134261/posts?page=21#21


31 posted on 03/18/2014 2:05:07 PM PDT by Star Traveler (Remember to keep the Messiah of Israel in the One-World Government that we look forward to coming)
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To: SeekAndFind

In my opinion, to cause the ordinary American to assume that Christians are evil, nasty, hateful people.

It is documented that Phelps hobnobbed with Al Gore and is a Democrat. Yet, the face they project is that they are Right-Wing Christians who hate homosexuals, our military, and America in general.

That’s what I meant by “False Flag Operation”. I think that is the correct term for it.


32 posted on 03/18/2014 2:05:18 PM PDT by left that other site
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To: SeekAndFind

100 percent NO!


33 posted on 03/18/2014 2:12:38 PM PDT by napscoordinator ( Santorum-Bachmann 2016 for the future of the country!)
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To: SeekAndFind

To mimic the actions of an insane person makes you insane too.
Do not stoop to the antics of this group of nuts.


34 posted on 03/18/2014 2:32:36 PM PDT by BuffaloJack (Freedom isn't free; nor is it easy. END ALL TOTALITARIAN ACTIVITY NOW.)
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To: SeekAndFind

I have met the Phelps’ in counter protest.

I will be praying for the repose of his soul and pray that he receives forgiveness before he dies.

Jesus demands nothing less.

Then came Peter unto him and said: Lord, how often shall my brother offend against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus saith to him: I say not to thee, till seven times; but till seventy times seven times.

Anyone or anything telling us to celebrate or be happy that someone is potentially lost to Hell is not of God.


35 posted on 03/18/2014 3:15:33 PM PDT by mountainbunny (Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens” J.R.R. Tolkien)
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To: mbarker12474

“...For a dude with about 17 followers, Phelps sure gets a lot of attention and reaction….”

Just like the queer 3% of the population.


36 posted on 03/18/2014 5:23:38 PM PDT by NCC-1701 (I am proud of what America USED TO BE.)
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To: SeekAndFind; GeronL; wagglebee
“We should give thanks for [Fred Phelps’] gift to American society,” writes Mark Silk, a religion professor Trinity College in Hartford, Conn. “So what’s the gift? It’s that he made religious hostility to homosexuality repulsive.

Fred Phelps is a Democrat activist. He was soundly anti-Iraq war and has served to taint the protests against the norming of homosexuality and has event tainted public perceptions of "Christianity".

His family's lawyer cult is a sham.

Of course the Lavender Mafia owes Fred Phelps (friend of Al Gore) a debt of gratitude. He was the boogeyman they needed to claim a "climate of homophobia". They worked together in league with Satan.

37 posted on 03/19/2014 10:43:05 AM PDT by a fool in paradise (The Texas judge's decision was to pave the way for same sex divorce for two Massachusetts women.)
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