When the Westboro Baptist Church first started getting noticed it was partly because it was family-run. Fred Phelps, the patriarch of the Phelps KKKlan, had been made pastor of the small Westboro Baptist Church, then proceeded to cut all ties with all Baptist Church organizations. He began to preach his own brand of Christianity, which was also part of what got them noticed.( but it was the plain old ordinary kind of discrimination; the white vs. black, the straight vs. gay, the religious vs. the atheists, the Right-to-Lifers vs. the Pro-Choicers. There was a lot of vitriol spewed by both sides, but there really wasn't a lot of attention paid, it was just another small church that most people thought were just trying to get attention in order to raise funds for the church. They represented themselves as knowing what God did and didn't like about all that is going on in the world today, and as being the ones to bring forth His message to the people.
Over time though, Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) began to shout their message of hate, rather than to just preach it, and it's begun to be a lot less palatable to those who earlier would just shrug their shoulders and say the church wasn't bothering anyone. WBC began to preach to anyone who would listen their message of hate toward other groups, but the group they ranted about more than any other was the LGBT community. They began saying things like America was losing its soldiers in punishment for being so accepting of same-sex marriage. WBC picketed military funerals, and the funerals of gays who'd been murdered because of their sexual orientation. They even picketed the funerals of women who died of AIDS, all in the name of God cleansing this country of sin.
WBC, in my opinion, went beyond the limits of human decency a long LONG time ago, like when they picketed Matthew Shepard's funeral. (The young man who was savagely beaten and left for dead because he was gay. ) Now they have gone even farther IMO. They have entered the Twilight Zone! WBC is threatening to picket the funerals of the Sandy Hook victims, of which 20 were children of 6 or 7. I think they deserve to have the White House issue an executive order labeling them a 'hate group', and as such they should be stripped of all the rights of a church, including the right to call themselves that. (Just my opinion, please keep that in mind.)
Below is an article about We The People, the White House website which allows anyone to draw up a petition and get signatures on it. If enough signatures are received, the White House will respond to the petition. Read on, and see just how many signatures this petition got!
From KEVIN ROBILLARD | 12/27/12 6:47 AM EST of the Politico
More than 260,000 people have signed a petition to the White House asking for it to label the notorious Westboro Baptist Church a hate group.
The
petition aimed at the church best known for picketing military funerals and other events with signs declaring “GOD HATES FAGS,” is believed to be the most popular cause ever on the White House’s “We the People” petition site. Four other petitions targeting the church’s tax-exempt status have attracted nearly 200,000 additional signatures. All five petitions have passed the number required for a response from President Barack Obama’s administration.
The tiny Kansas-based church, mostly made up of members of founder Fred Phelps’ family, has picketed the funeral of military members killed in combat in Afghanistan and Iraq and funerals of victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre. Phelps preaches that the deaths are God’s retribution for the United States’ acceptance of homosexuality (or in some cases, failure to condemn homosexuality strongly).
“This group has been recognized as a hate group by organizations, such as The Southern Poverty Law Center, and has repeatedly displayed the actions typical of hate groups,” the petition reads. “Their actions have been directed at many groups, including homosexuals, military, Jewish people and even other Christians. They pose a threat to the welfare and treatment of others and will not improve without some form of imposed regulation.”
Read more:
Petition to label Westboro Baptist Church a hate group.
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