Posted on 04/19/2007 9:16:55 AM PDT by FewsOrange
The families of those killed in the Virginia Tech massacre may not be able to grieve in peace at the funerals of those they lost. An anti-gay religious group known for protesting at the funerals of American soldiers killed in Iraq is planning on appearing at services for those killed on Monday as well.
The Topeka, Kan.-based Westboro Baptist Church (WBC), which is not affiliated with any national Baptist organization, announced plans to protest at victims funerals only hours after 32 people were killed in the worst mass shooting in U.S. history. They also may protest at other events on the Virginia Tech campus.
The organization, founded and led by Fred Phelps, believes the United States has condemned itself to destruction by accepting homosexuality and other sins of the flesh. Phelps daughter, Shirley Phelps-Roper, said the Virginia Tech teachers and students who died on Monday brought their fate upon themselves by not being true Christians.
The evidence is they were not Christian. God does not do that to his servants, Phelps-Roper said. You dont need to look any further for evidence those people are in hell.
Cho Seung-Hui, the Virginia Tech student responsible for the killings who took his own life after the shootings, was sent by God to punish those he killed, and America as a whole, for moral decline, said Phelps-Roper, while adding that she believes Cho is also in hell for violating Gods commandment to not kill.
He is in hell, Phelps-Roper said. But he was also fulfilling the word of God.
Because of its virulent anti-gay message and condemnation of Catholics, Jews and other groups, the WBC has been classified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center and is monitored by the Anti-Defamation League.
Curtis Dahn, the president of Virginia Techs Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Alliance, said he reacted with immediate disgust upon hearing of the WBC's plans. Thirty-three people are dead and theyre using peoples deaths and peoples grief to further their own agenda and its just disgusting, he said.
Dahn was friends with Ryan Clark, a resident assistant in Ambler Johnston Hall, who was among the first people killed on Monday. He said he is working with other university leaders and officials to form a response to the WBC. Ideally, he said, the funerals will be nothing more than a chance for family and friends to mourn in peace.
Part of it is that I dont want the families to be affected by this at all, he said. I dont even want the funerals locations to be public knowledge. I dont want a protest, I dont want a counter-protest. I want people to be able to grieve and have what they want, not be made into public displays and mockeries.
Dahn and others may have the law on their side. In 2006, in response to protests at the funerals of dead U.S. soldiers, Virginia enacted a law that added funerals and memorial services to the states disorderly conduct statute. Other states have adopted similar measures to allow police to keep WBC protesters out of earshot.
Now cut that out! [But it's okay to despise, rather than hate them!]
I pray to God that the motorcycle group gets together and block all these freaks. Sorry for my ignorance on not remembering the motorcycle groups name.
No 'pologies necessary. Just see Post #43, above!
Yes that is better. I 100 percent unapologetically DISPISE these people. And thank you for the name of these heros. I know we toss that word out a lot, but I seriously believe they are heros to the people going through the funerals for sure.
The Westboro Baptist nutbags are vermin. That said, I think it’s a cruel irony that they are getting the kind of scrutiny and resistance that they are, based primarily on words they utter. But Cho, who gave the world an entire spectrum of disturbing and alarming actions hardly rated a median score on the nutjob-o-meter, and was pretty much left alone to plot and deliberate mass murder. Would he have been taken out of the picture and locked up for years of “rehab” if, maybe, he had just once said “faggot,” or suggested that gays are not right in the head? Or better yet, given the method of thought control in academia, why didn’t someone just make the charge that he did, false or not, and kick in the star chamber process to take him out of the picture?
Thanks for your well-meant compliment, but don't overlook the use of the now-diluted term champion used not in the meaning of merely the victor of a sporting event, but as one who is an ardent defender or supporter of a cause or another person: a champion of disabled veterans, for example.
There are many who have rendered faithful and honorable service, some for a lifetime's career, who never had the opportunity to exhibit real valor and courage under the most severe circumstances; and yet they will be the first to tell you that they are not heroes- because to so describe them diminishes the real meaning of the term hero that is more accurately applied to real valorous acts and individuals.
Those people are, indeed, champions!
That may indeed have been the methodology of the unnamed informer who turned in the anonymous complaint that Cho was *suicidal,* resulted in Cho's arrest and mandatory *mental health counseling* that began him on his downward spiral that culminated in the self-fulfilling prophecy.
It's the sort of backhanded Modus operandi of a coward unwilling to take personal action and simply shoot Cho in the back of his head. He's going to kill the President! He hates Jews, and Gays! Get rid of him for us, and for the children!
Ping
Can’t speak for anyone else, but IMO this is NOT what the PGR was organized for.
Let me clarify...it was because of Phelps, but it wasn’t for any and every funeral or event that Phelps might picket.
But that is my opinion and not that of PGR or anyone else who matters.
They were protesting at the funerals of homosexuals for a lot longer than that. If Phelps and his mob had stuck with that and not expanded their targets to include military funerals, coal miner funerals, victims of massacre funerals, and so forth then I doubt he'd ever be a subject of conversation around here.
Nope, they're sincere. If anything they believe they're the true Christians and solid Baptists, and it's the rest of us giving Christianity a bad name.
Talk about someone whose mental illness should be acted upon by the government!!! The Phelps family is a study in crazy!!!!
Let me clarify...it was because of Phelps, but it wasnt for any and every funeral or event that Phelps might picket.
But that is my opinion and not that of PGR or anyone else who matters. Actually, it IS the opinion of the PGR. Their mission - as I've stated in a couple other places - is to honor our war heroes who have given all. Whether the WBC is there or not, the PGR stands with the families. I've been a little unsure as to whether to use the PGR pinglist to stories about the WBC. Many times they go hand-in-hand, so I have done it. If you all would rather me have a seperate pinglist about WBC, I would be happy to do so and only ping the PGR list when it also concerns the PGR. Please FReepmail me and I'll see what the majority of the opinions are. Thanks! :-)
Nothing surprises me about that group
That CULT is not a church!! It is a social group of inbreeds!!
What a bunch of low-lifes.
oldGrumpy:
You insulted low-lifes!! low-lifes would not want to be associated with that group of _____________.
They make money filing lawsuits. They incite then they sue. That’s what it’s really about. They use the law to their advantage. They are not Christian & Westboro is not a real church.
The PGR Mission Statement, source *here.*
The Patriot Guard Riders is a diverse amalgamation of riders from across the nation. We have one thing in common besides motorcycles. We have an unwavering respect for those who risk their very lives for Americas freedom and security. If you share this respect, please join us.
We dont care what you ride, what your political views are, or whether youre a "hawk" or a "dove". It is not a requirement that you be a veteran. It doesn't matter where youre from or what your income is. You dont even have to ride. The only prerequisite is Respect.
Our main mission is to attend the funeral services of fallen American heroes as invited guests of the family. Each mission we undertake has two basic objectives.
1. Show our sincere respect for our fallen heroes, their families, and their communities.
2. Shield the mourning family and friends from interruptions created by any protestor or group of protestors.
We accomplish the latter through strictly legal and non-violent means.
Not being an officer or spokesperson for PGR I didn’t feel appropriate to speak on behalf of the organization.
I certainly don’t consider college students part of the PGR mission. The PGR has suffered some fall out due to mission creep and crime victims with no direct connection to our military and its mission falls into that category.
However, I plan to attend the EOD Memorial Service at Eglin AFB tomorrow as a PGR.
“You insulted low-lifes!! low-lifes would not want to be associated with that group of _____________.”
By golly, you’re right! These people are lower than snake s-—. My apologies to low lifes.
Fred Phelps spews God Swill.
There's a fine point. But just as I count the casualties of Flight 93 on 09/11 as being involuntarily conscripted by events requiring field expedient military action, so too were the students who piled chairs and desks against their classroom door similarly bootstrapped and directly if unofficially commissioned as combat engineers.
I do not know but strongly suspect from the haircuts I saw during their TV interviews that one or more may have been from the UT Corps of Cadets; I don't know if any of the victims were- or were veterans- or not.
Doesn't matter. Civilians killed at Pearl Harbor and on 09/11 are part of *the family* too; soo too were the civilian contractors who fought and died on Wake Island in early WWII; so too are the contractors in Iraq, A-stan and a lot of other places today.
"What's the purpose of the Marines," asked one Gunny at a Marine Corps Birthday Ball I attended a couple of years back. Answers from those around the room varied from technical ones about Amphibious work to historical ones regarding the Navy's ability to deliver American forces worldwide, and the USMC being one of the forces so delivered. But the gunny was an old bunny, and had salted the group with one of his boots with the desired answer:
The purpose of the Marines is to have someone who'll take a bullet otherwise meant for an American civilian. Yeah, those guys think highly of themselves.
However, I plan to attend the EOD Memorial Service at Eglin AFB tomorrow as a PGR.
Kindly keep *this one* particularly in mind during the day's events.
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