Rick Santorum Cites "God Hates Fags"

Hysterical, self-loathing closet case Rick Santorum will seemingly do anything to remain in the public eye as he moves towards another insane presidential campaign, the real purpose of which may be to keep himself on the speaker circuit and maintain a nice income rolling in.  Now, Santorum while appearing on Face the Nation has used the "God Hates Fags" slogan of the late Fred Phelps to (i) justify license to discriminate laws, and (ii) stay in the media eye.  The man is an utter douche bag and demonstrates how religious brainwashing can literally make one crazy.  The Raw Story looks at Santorum's new low.  Here are highlights:

Likely Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum on Sunday quoted Westboro Church’s infamous “God Hates Fags” slogan in defense of an Indiana law that allowed Christian businesses to discriminate against same-sex couples. 

“I think the current language that the federal law is — and now Indiana is — has been held to have a pretty limited view of religious liberty — religious freedom is in the workplace,” the former Pennsylvania senator insisted. “And I think we need to look at, as religious liberty is now being pushed harder, to provide more religious protections, and that bill doesn’t do that.”

Santorum argued that wedding planners should not be forced to serve same-sex couples because “tolerance is a two-way street.”  “If you’re a print shop and you are a gay man, should you be forced to print ‘God Hates Fags’ for the Westboro Baptist Church because they hold those signs up?” he asked. “Should the government — and this is really the case here — should the government force you to do that?”

“And that’s what these cases are all about.
However, Sarah Warbelow of the Human Rights Campaign told O’Donnell that Santorum seemed to misunderstand the law. 

“The legislation would have done no such thing,” she said. “It explicitly allowed individuals to use their religious beliefs to undermine other types of laws that provide protection, not only against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people, but against other religious minorities and in some instances, against African-Americans and Asian-Americans.”

I wish someone would "out" Santorum and remove him from the political stage once and for all. 

Fred Phelps, Founder of Anti-Gay Westboro Baptist Church, Has Died

It's nice to speak ill of the dead, but Fred Phelps, the founder of the anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church, in my view deserves the same lack of respect that he heaped on others while living.  I would further add that, if there is indeed a Hell, Phelps is there now and is likely surrounded by many other "godly folk" that made religious based hate and bigotry a large part of their lives (e.g., Jerry Falwell).  If Phelps did anything while living, it was to help reveal the ugly face of fundamentalist Christianity.  KSN.com has news on Phelps' passing.  Here are excerpts:  

TOPEKA, Kansas - The Rev. Fred Phelps Sr., the fiery founder of a small Kansas church who drew international condemnation for outrageous and hate-filled protests that blamed almost everything, including the deaths of AIDS victims and U.S. soldiers, on America’s tolerance for gay people, has died. He was 84.

Daughter Margie Phelps told The Associated Press that Fred Phelps died shortly after midnight Thursday. She didn’t provide the cause of death or the condition that recently put him in hospice care.

Throughout his life, Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church, a small congregation made up almost entirely of his extended family, tested the boundaries of free speech, violating accepted societal standards for decency in their unapologetic assault on gays and lesbians. In the process, some believe he even helped the cause of gay rights by serving as such a provocative symbol of intolerance.

Phelps believed any misfortune, most infamously the deaths of American soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, was God’s punishment for society’s tolerance of homosexuality.  

[S]ome gay rights advocates believe all the attention Phelps generated served to advance their cause.  Sue Hyde, a staff member at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, said plenty of churches and ministers preach a message that attacks gay people. But Phelps and his family had “taken this out on the streets,” forcing people to confront their own views and rousing a protective instinct in parents and friends of gays and lesbians.

He reserved special scorn for conservative ministers who preached that homosexuality was a sin but that God nevertheless loved gays and lesbians. When the Rev. Jerry Falwell died in 2007, Westboro members protested at his funeral with the same sorts of signs they held up outside services a decade earlier for Matthew Shepard, a gay University of Wyoming student who was beaten to death in 1998.
“They’re all going to hell,” Phelps said in a 2005 interview of Christians who refuse to condemn gay people as he did.

It wasn’t just the message, but also the mocking tone that many found to be deliberately cruel. Led by Phelps, church members thanked God for roadside explosive devices and prayed for thousands more casualties, calling the deaths of military personnel killed in the Middle East a divine punishment for a nation it believed was doomed by its tolerance for gay people.

“The Westboro Baptist Church is probably the vilest hate group in the United the State of America,” Heidi Beirich, research director for the Montgomery, Ala.-based Southern Poverty Law Center, told The Associated Press in July 2011. “No one is spared, and they find people at their worst, most terrible moments of grief, and they throw this hate in their faces. It’s so low.”

Among the many comments to the piece, one I liked suggested that Phelps be cremated and his ashes scattered along major gay pride parade routes. :)

Virginia AG Ken Cuccinelli Sides with Westboro Baptist Church

Being that he's a religious nutcase himself, it should be no surprise that Virginia Attorney General Ken "Kookinelli" Cuccinelli has refused to join in an amicus brief to be filed with the U.S. Supreme Court in a case brought by the father of a service member whose funeral was protested and disrupted by Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church of "God Hates Fags" infamy. Kookinelli is one of only two state AG's to not join in the brief and claims he is doing so in support of Phelps' right of freedom of speech. Apparently, Kookinelli supports free speech unless it falls in the realm of academic freedom or otherwise counters Kookinelli's extremist religious beliefs. It's a case of transparent hypocrisy for certain, yet all to typical of folks like Kookinelli who have ZERO regard for the right to freedom of religion for others. Indeed, Kookinelli believes that Virginia gays should be punished for nonconformity to Christianist religious views and deserve no employment protections. The full brief that Cuccinelli declined to support can be found here. Channel 12 news has coverage on Kookinelli's latest idiocy. Here are some highlights:
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Never one to follow the crowd, Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli has decided against filing an amicus brief in a case before the Supreme Court involving the controversial Westboro Baptist Church (WBC). Cuccinelli is one of only two State Attorneys General in the entire country who have declined the opportunity to support Albert Snyder. Snyder sued WBC after the hate group protested at his son’s funeral. Snyder’s son was killed serving in Iraq.
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Snyder won his first case, but the decision was turned back by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, based on the 1st amendment. In addition to the overturned decision, he was ordered to pay the court costs of the Phelps family, the leaders of WBC.
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Snyder has gained the support of many politicians, including 42 U.S. Senators and every State Attorney General (including the District of Columbia) except for Maine and Virginia.

Counter Protesters Out Number Westboro Baptist Church 20 to 1

Fred Phelps' Westboro Baptist Church brought its nasty vitriol and homophobic hate to the Norfolk, Virginia area today and based on the first protests, the protesters protesting against Phelps and his band of hate mongers out number those condemning gays by a ratio of roughly 20 to 1 according to WTKR-TV 3. One of the first encounters was at Granby High School in Norfolk (at left). One Facebook page run by a friend of mine has details on the counter protests against Phelps here. Tomorrow, Phelps' crowd plan on protests in Virginia Beach nearly in Pat Robertson's backyard. Here are some highlights from Channel 3 News:
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If the goal of the Westboro Baptist Church was to convince Norfolk high school students to join its cause, the message fell on deaf ears. "I think it's wrong, God loves everybody and I think it's wrong that they are doing it," said Kwain Manley, Granby High School student. India Lynch, another Granby High School student, added, "It's horrible that people think like that."
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The Kansas-based church is known for spreading its anti-gay message by protesting near the funerals of military men and women. One of the church's leaders, Timothy Phelps, says today's counter-protests won't stop his followers.
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While Granby students say they did not want the protestors outside of their school, they say they are happy so many people showed up to the counter-protest. The ratio of Granby students to WBC protestors was about 20:1. "It's crazy. I mean, why be out here protesting crazy stuff against people who have the rights to do what ever they want?" asked one high school student.
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Norfolk school officials and Norfolk police had an increased presence outside the schools today, but the protestors on both sides were peaceful. The church will be outside Landstown High School in Virginia Beach Tuesday morning and at the funeral of Marine Lance Corporal Killin Dunn. He was killed in action in Afghanistan on February 18.
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The Richmond Times Dispatch is reporting that groups in Richmond are organizing counter protests against Phelps and the Westboro haters when they travel to Richmond later this week. Here are a few highlights:

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As the anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church group pickets throughout Norfolk today, Richmonders are rallying online to counter-demonstrate when church members arrive in Richmond tomorrow. A Facebook page started last Tuesday by the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy has tallied more than 980 people who said they would demonstrate against the WBC in various places around the state.
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Another local group, started by four Richmond mothers, Pennies in Protest, has collected about $4,600 from 190 contributors in less than four days in existence. Cofounder Sarah Allen-Short said they got the idea from a New York synagogue that used the occasion of a 50-minute WBC protest to raise $10,000 by asking people to donate to the synagogue for every minute of the WBC picket.

Westboro Church to Descend on Key West

Earlier in the year the boyfriend took me to Key West - I had never been before - and I found it to be not only physically beautiful but also a place that in many ways lives up to it's motto of "One Human Family" through its tolerance of others and welcome mat for all. I was pleasantly surprised how gay and straight residents and visitors intermingled and all respectfully got along at places like the Bourbon Street Pub and La Te Da. However, Fred Phelps and his hate-filled followers might justify rolling up the welcome mat at least on this occasion. It seems the cryptkeeper as Pam Spauding calls him plans to demonstrate un-Christian hate at several locations around Key West, including at Key West High School and B'nai Zion Synagogue . If Phelps and his followers are examples what it is to be Christian, then paganism and non-Christian faiths have much to recommend them on that basis alone. Here are highlights of what KeysNet is reporting:

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Members of the Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas are bringing their unique blend of apocalyptic, homosexual-hating religion to the Southernmost City on May 22 for several planned demonstrations. But in a community whose motto is One Human Family, they're hardly being welcomed.

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Fred Phelps founded the church, which isn't recognized by mainstream Baptist organizations and is monitored as a hate group by the Anti-Defamation League, in 1955; since then, the congregation has grown to around 70, the overwhelming majority of whom are related to Phelps.

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At Key West High School, Roper-Phelps and her supporters are targeting the student Gay/Straight Alliance. "The curse of god has unfolded right in front of our eyes and that's making these young people absolutely good for nothing," she says. "They have no thoughts of God. Their destruction is on top of them and they don't see it coming. Worthless. Absolutely worthless, that's what the young people are."

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Asked about the slogan "One Human Family," which is intended to imply universal respect for folks with different lifestyles, Roper-Phelps unloaded. "I think that that is a doctrine of Satan. One group at Key West High School is planning a "Phelps-a-Thon," asking people to pledge money for every minute that Phelps is at the school. The money would be donated to the school's Gay/Straight Alliance.

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From a brief Google search, I located this link to the Key West "Phelps-a-Thon" if readers are interested in making a pledge.

Group Comes Bearing Message of Hate

That's the headline from a story in the Monterey County, California, newspaper, The Herald that looks at the activities of Fred Phelps and his hate merchant church members. One can only hope that Phelps and representatives of his alleged "church" visit as many locales in Califrnia as possible. While it is true that the Christianists will be looking for every opportunity to depict gay and lesbian couples getting married in California as perverts and freaks, Phelps and his clan will do all they can to catch media coverage to stroke their perverse egos. The picture they present is one that most rational conservatives would not want to emulate. Here are some highlights of how this anti-gay group is being depicited in the California media:

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Members of a virulently anti-gay church group from Kansas plan to stage a protest at 1 p.m. on Pacific and East Franklin streets in Monterey today, the church announced. To call the members of the Westboro Baptist Church "controversial" is like calling the South Pole's weather "brisk" — about as a gross an understatement as anyone can come up with.

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In an interview Sunday — one day before the Topeka group was set to picket in Monterey — nary a sentence came out of church attorney Shirley Phelps-Roper's mouth without including the "f-word" — which in this case is a pejorative term for homosexuals. Phelps-Roper is the daughter of the church's founder, Pastor Fred Phelps, who maintains that pretty much all the tragedy that befalls anyone is because of America and its "fag lifestyle of soul-damning, nation-destroying filth."

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Now, the church is coming to the Peninsula to protest "the evil U.S. military at the Presidio of Monterey," the group's fliers declare. "God hates the present-day, sodomite-controlled United States military establishment ... God hates the U.S.A."

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One Monterey Peninsula College student said she and others had debated whether to bring attention to Phelps' group by showing up for a counter-protest. "I know that the counter-protest and the media involvement is giving (the) Rev. Phelps the attention that he craves," said Shelley Kolonics, 20. "But it also just feels completely wrong not to do anything."

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She and others who passed word of mouth about the church's appearance in Monterey plan to show up around 12:30 p.m. today to check in with police. Kolonics said police told her that no more than 25 people can gather in each group at a time. "We may have to rotate," she said. Her informal group is made up of individuals who, she said, felt they had to raise a countering voice to the Phelps' messages of hate. "Our message is basically the opposite of theirs. God doesn't hate our military and God doesn't hate us," she said. "God doesn't hate gays in America."

Fred Phelps - the True Face of Christianists

Not surprisingly, Fred Phelps and his fellow hate-filled, delusional followers from the Westboro Baptist "Church" are on the road to California to protest the start of gay marriages this coming week. Needless to say the spittle and bile are flying as indicated by the "notice" put out by these hate merchants below. Like other in the gay community, I beleive Phelps should be given LOTS AND LOTS of media attention. His basic message is actually little different than that marketed by disingenuous Daddy Dobson, Klan loving Tony Perkins, and cosmetic surgery gone bad Beverly Ms. LaHaye. He is just more honest about how hate filled their perverted version of Christianity has become. One hears nothing about love of neighbor from these folks. rather, it's non-stop all about who they hate: gays, those pesky brown-skinned Mexicans, blacks, non-Christians, and immigrants of all stripes, to name just a few. The more the media displays Phelps and those like him, the more fully members of the younger generation (and hopefully, many others will too) are dismissing fundamentalist Christianity as the force for evil which it truly has become. Here are some highlights of Michael Petrelis' thoughts on Phelps, et al:

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Every effort should be made to help Phelps get the media attention he so desires, all the better to have him be the public face of anti-marriage equality, and for gay leaders to wisely use him to move California voters to vote against the November ballot initiative.

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Phelps' hateful messages targeting gay people and American soldiers are repulsive and I believe many voters who are on the fence about the fall initiative can't emotionally associate with his rhetoric, and he can push voters to do the right thing at the ballot box for us. I'm very much anticipating dueling photos of his clan's twisted blood-lust versus images of public love from the gays streaming into City Hall to make American history.

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I'll be sure to stop by wherever Phelps is doing his demonstration, and thank him for showing up, lending his important voice to the gay marriage cause. America in her heart does not hate fags or the soldiers, and this reverend plays a crucial role in bringing out the love America wants to express for gays and our servicemen and women in Iraq.

Hate Merchant Fred Phelps Harrasses Ledger Family

Above is the latest garbage from Fred Phelps via Good As You (http://www.goodasyou.org/good_as_you/2008/01/you-shouldnt-sp.html). To say that Fred Phelps and his hate-filled clan are assh**es is an understatement. Now the bastards are harassing Heath Ledger's family and demanding to protest at Heath's funeral or grave site in Australia. The man truly needs to be committed - along with his more discrete brethren, James Dobson, Pat Robertson, Tony Perkins, Don Wildmon, et al, who make a career out of disseminating Hate and marginalizing others to make themselves feel better about themselves.

As Always, Fred Phelps Shows Himself to Be a Nasty Bastard

Heath Ledger's body is barely cold and yet Fred Phelps has already announced that he and his band of false Christians intend to try to protest at his funeral. Phelps is a complete maggot. The only good thing about him is that he shows the world the true unvarnished face of Christianist lunatics.

People should take a good look at Phelps - in the final analysis, he is no different from James Dobson, Tony Perkins, Chuck Colson, Pat Robertson, et al. They merely act less hateful when speaking in public and/or to the media. The underlying hate is the same.

To Marine’s Father, Suit Is More Than Money

The " Rev." Fred W. Phelps Sr., is truly a nasty character and I find him personally reprehensible. Thus, I was pleased to see that his "church" was hit with a $10+ million judgment from a case arising out of the picketing of the funeral of an Iraq War victim. What is interesting is to hear the straight solder's family basically saying what the LGBT community has said about Phelps for years. Here are highlights from a New York Times story ( http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/02/us/02protest.html?_r=1&oref=slogin):

BALTIMORE, Nov. 1 —After a year and a half of anger, grief and legal maneuvering, the father of a marine killed in Iraq has said the success of his suit against a fundamentalist sect that picketed his son’s funeral means more than the jury’s $10.9 million damage award on Tuesday.

“If I can take whatever they have and stop them, good,” said the father, Albert Snyder, 52, a salesman from York, Pa., whose son, Lance Cpl. Matthew A. Snyder, 20, was killed two months after arriving in Iraq in January 2006. “I was not motivated by money. I want to shut this church down, if you can call it a church. I call it a cult or a hate group. I sat in that courtroom for a week and a half and never once heard them say a good thing about God.”

Mr. Snyder said he hoped that other military families whose relatives have been picketed would take his victory in Federal District Court here as a signal to step forward. “I had seen them do it to another family,” Mr. Snyder said, “and it brought back all the bad memories. I don’t even know how I got the courage to do it. I was like the papa bear: ‘You can do anything to me, but don’t try to do it to my children.’ Those people tarnished Matt’s coffin.” Mr. Snyder said his only hope was to cripple the church financially.

One does have to wonder why most of what one hears coming out of the mouths of "Christians" nowadays is mostly hate and the demonization of others. Not exactly what Jesus preached.