Posted on 02/16/2009 11:18:36 PM PST by naturalman1975
THE religious group that condemned Heath Ledger to hell for his role in Brokeback Mountain, is back – this time attacking the victims of the Victoria fires.
The Westboro Baptist Church – founded by Reverend Fred Phelps in Topeka, Kansas - claims that sinning Australians are the cause of the bushfires that raged across Victoria, and plan to picket the national day of mourning on February 22.
In a statement, the group says “God hates Australia” and “thank God for the fiery deaths of hundreds”.
“The guilty Australians will not repent of their national sins of the flesh … even after God killed hundreds in the fires and cast them into hotter fire and brimstone in hell,” it says.
The controversial church - whose core belief is that God will punish those who support homosexuality - has previously had its sights on Australia, slamming The Dark Knight star Heath Ledger for his role as a gay cowboy in Brokeback Mountain and protested at the late actors memorial services in the US.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.com.au ...
You know, I had been wondering who’d condemned Heath Ledger to Hell.
And why.
may a F5 tornado visit the Westboro morons house
How can they refer to these people as a church? Theyh are sick is what they are.
they are the ones the require God’s judgment
As far as I’m concerned this “organization” DOES NOT EXIST. Last time I saw reference to Westboro baptist, their literature was on that light weight paper going down the toilet.
I can't believe the news droids always say this! He didn't "found" the church. He was working under a Topeka Baptist pastor whose flock was expanding so greatly that he decided to spin off a chunk of the congregation into a new church in the Westboro suburb. He didn't know Fred as well as he thought he did, and foolishly entrusted him with the pastorship of the new startup church. (BTW, this particular branch of Baptists didn't get their pastors from a seminary, but just promoted from within their ranks of volunteer preachers).
As soon as Fred had control of his own church, and real power in his grubby little hands, his true nature manifested itself. He started driving people away, and the church membership shrunk greatly. One typical deed of his was to pick some member who he really had it in for, and preach entire sermons aimed against them. I think one woman had gotten a divorce, and based on that fact, he preached loudly against this "Jezebel" in the church's midst.
The pastor who had installed him saw the light too late and tried hard to oust Phelps. But the legal papers that created the church were too solid. The parent church, holding the mortgage note on Phelps's Westboro church, were desperately hoping and hoping that Phelps would miss a mortgage payment to them and they could foreclose and oust him. But come hell or high water, no matter how tiny the congregation had become, and no matter how poorly the Phelps family finances were, they ALWAYS managed to make that monthly mortgage payment and keep the church under the firm control of the Phelpses.
Because it wasn't long before the church membership shrunk to just basically Phelps, his wife, a number of his grown children plus their spouses (the total # of his kids was in the two figures, I believe, but a number of them became permanently estranged from the family), and maybe a handful of others. Some of his kids went into law, as he himself did, to support the family. They all eventually bought homes within a block or two of the "church" building. It's not exactly a Waco compound, but still......
Phelps and his followers did not approve of the Clinton/Gore administration’s support of gay rights and they picketed the second inaugural ball in 1997. They also picketed and screamed ugly things at Al Gore’s father’s funeral in 1998. If they ever were friends, I doubt that they are now.
Can’t they be denied a visa to Australia?
Let ‘em come! They won’t be leaving in the same shape though. Aussie cops might tend to look the other way when idiots like this are around. Maybe he and his church will feel a bit of olde style hot aussie justice.
Mel
Words fail me for this so called Reverend. More amazing is that apparently there are enough other fools to make up a congregation.
If the Phelps family had ever been friendly with any Republican the left would never let it rest. I intend to do the same.
There aren't many I would wish something like that on, but they certainly qualify.
“Because it wasn’t long before the church membership shrunk to just basically Phelps, his wife, a number of his grown children plus their spouses .”
Surprised their spouses haven’t divorced them by now. I would rather kill myself than be a member of that family.
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