Posted on 07/02/2013 10:32:13 PM PDT by South40
PHOENIX - The notoriously outspoken and often controversial Westboro Baptist Church has made several threats through social media intending to picket the funerals of the 19 firefighters killed in the Yarnell Hill wildfire near Prescott.
Westboro Baptist Church posted several tweets from their Twitter account within the last 48 hours, connecting the firefighter deaths to punishment for the world's apparent tolerance of homosexuality.
In a tweet posted at 2:56 p.m. Monday, the church said, "Westboro Baptist Church THANKS GOD for AZ fires that killed 19 firefighters!"
In another post, they retweeted Arizona Senator John McCain, adding their intent to picket: "WBC to picket! "@SenJohnMcCain: The City of Prescott has released the names of the Granite Mountain Hotshots who lost their lives yesterday."
(Excerpt) Read more at abc15.com ...
BBC’s Louis Theroux did two shows on these freaks...”The Most Hated Family in America”... perhaps they’re on YouTube?
Interesting look behind the scenes.
Let them try. They’ll take a major beating, IMHO, if they do. Rural AZ doesn’t tolerate that kind of crap.
What is wrong with them? Why do they do this?
Because they can. Not meaning to give you a short answer, but that is why. Never lose sight of the fact that the founder is a Democrat disbarred lawyer and you will understand their motives clearer.
They do it hoping to provoke someone to assault them so they can sue for “damages.” Can’t remeber where I read it but I think that is their main source of income. It will be interesting when they eventually piss off someone with nothing left to lose who just starts capping them en masse.
Not to worry. Besides being mentally deficient asswads, they are basically cowards (the reason the bring children with them) and are not going to show up where several thousand fire fighters and their supporters are gathered.
This fellow has an interesting theory about that:
http://dcclothesline.wordpress.com/2013/02/16/is-fred-phelps-a-common-bigot-or-an-evil-genius/
And we do know Phelps was a backer of noted leftist Al Gore:
http://www.conservapedia.com/Fred_Phelps
As to his theology, anyone who baptizes exclusively based on profession of belief in Christ, and doesn’t baptize infants, can claim to be Baptist.
But Phelps claims to be Primitive Baptist. PBs are a small, very strict Baptist minority, with a solid commitment, among other things, to the doctrines of grace, including predestination, and Phelps relies on that doctrinal similarity to stake his claim.
However, the PBs are also quite serious about the pedigree of faith, believing, much as Catholics do, that only a traceable Apostolic succession can verify the authenticity of a given congregation, and they do claim such a succession, only by way of Paul, not Peter.
So any church claiming to be PB fails if they have no ordained leader not traceable to that succession, and the Phelps church is just such a creature. The only direct lineage the group has is to the Southern Baptists, and as such is not in fellowship with any other PB group at all. Therefore they are false in their claim to be PB.
Now the author of the article at the first link above makes the argument that the hateful nature of the group is by design, i.e., that some communist instigator deep in the shadows has created Westboro intentionally with as much offensive content as possible, as a way to set them up as the ultimate caricature of Christian rejection of homosexuality.
This is at least plausible because it is a known psyop method, a special use of “bracketing,” using a strong negative emotional signal in association with some target group to condition people to unconsciously reject the target, thus enabling a future attack on the target that will be warmly accepted by the conditioned population.
And as the author points out, it also provides a mental prod to “nudge” people in the opposite direction. Nobody wants to be associated with the vile hatred of such a group. He’s right. This bears the mark of Alinsky’s rule on ridicule, only instead of offering it as direct speech, it is presented as a negative cultural icon, created intentionally as a lightning rod to focus people’s minds on how awful it is to be one of those “heartless homophobes.”
And if that is the design, I have to say it is very effective, and the only antidote I know of is for genuine Christians to neutralize the ridicule by being well-informed and faithful Christians that set a good example of Christ-like love in action.
The second best thing that could happen here is for thousands of real Americans to show up an surround these creeps so they can’t get anywhere near the funerals. We all know what the best thing would be.
As an aside, I wonder why these idiots didn’t picket SCOTUS because of their two recent pro-gay decisions.
They do what they do for the shock value and for the headlines. There were lots of people picketing in front of the USSC, people with whom these creeps didn’t want to share the spotlight.
Talking to family in Prescott you are correct. I had an experience with the Westboro bunch in Lubbock a couple of years ago. A family lost two sons in the wars and the Westboro group came to picket. The Patriot Guard came and provided a barrier between that small group and the much bigger number of mourners including myself. Without going into detail, it was one of the most moving experiences of my life.
Per Facebook today, a picture was posted of motorcycle clubs holding flags to protect the mourners from them if they showed up. I read the whole thread and can’t seem to find whether or not they actually came, but our bikers were there!
I remember the time not too long ago in Texas with the local sheriff arresting them. And putting their faces all over the net to the surrounding communities. I guess they couldn’t get gas, food, lodging...
I take that back.......there IS a post that they were spotted nearby but weren’t allowed near.
Here. YOU look. (if you can)
They need to be ignored, these tweets are just another means for them to attract media attention.
This is their current MO, post on their website that they are going to attend a funeral, rely on the MSM to broadcast it, towns prepare for it, then they never show up............
And they got the media attention they were looking for.
Brilliant strategy.......
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