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FRED PHELPS, YOU HYPOCRITE: "LEAVE OUR HOMOS ALONE"
Share / Recommend - Comment - Print - Sunday, Nov 14, 04, 6:56PM
FRED PHELPS IS THAT NUT WHO SPENDS ALL HIS TIME HARRASSING GAY people. Finally, some folks on the far right said enough and sent Fred and his idiotic followers packing.
Phelps tried to invade the conservative, bible-belting town of Sand Springs, Oklahoma to harrass 17-year old Michael Shackelford and his fellow evangelical parishioners.
Shackelford was highlighted in a recent Washington Post article, one in a four part series by Anne Hull. Her follow up piece on Shackelford becoming a poster child for Fred Phelps' hate campaign is here.
I remembered one other high profile exchange between Fred Phelps and the wry-witted and brilliant former Republican Senator of Wyoming, Alan Simpson.
Here is the story as written up by the Washington Post's Al Kamen some time ago.
Former Senator Alan Simpson (R-Wyo.) has come under fire for supporting gay rights. The famously anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan., recently picketed the Wyoming statehouse in Cheyenne, in part because Simpson is honorary chairman of the Republican Unity Coalition and signed the group's "Cody Statement" for tolerance.
In a news release, the WBC said the idea was "to picket the funeral of [gay]-enabler Alan Simpson," calling the Cody Statement "a covenant with death and an agreement with hell." In addition, it blasted "Simpson's signature with out-of-the-closet . . . Michael Huffington's," a reference to the former GOP congressman and Senate candidate from California and the ex- of former California Democratic gubernatorial candidate Arianna Huffington.
WBC pastor Fred W. Phelps asked the Cody City Council for permission to erect a monument in Cheyene with the biblical admonition against homosexuality on it.
Simpson, apparently not having changed much since leaving Washington, wrote Phelps a response.
"I just wanted to alert you to the fact that some dizzy-ass is sending out mailings and e-mails from the Westboro Baptist Church -- and using your name!" Simpson said in his letter. "I'm certain that you would not want this to continue or some less-alert citizen might think that you, yourself had done it.
We know that is surely not the case, because you are a God-fearing Christian person filled to the brim with forbearance, tolerance and love -- and this other goofy homophobe nut must be someone totally opposite."
"Quite Sincerely, Al Simpson."
Sand Springs, Oklahoma is just west of Tulsa, and Bartlesville where my family is from, is just north.
It's nice to see Oklahomans -- where they are pro-gay or have problems with it -- defending their own from disturbed people like Fred Phelps.
-- Steve Clemons
Clarification on the headline. That line, "Leave our Homos Alone," appeared at the end of the linked Washington Post story.
best, Steve Clemons
Saw this piece in the Post yesterday and really enjoyed it. Phelps is one of the most horrible people in the world, no doubt, hands down. It amazes me, though perhaps it shouldn't, how quickly a religion based on love can be turned into a weapon.
Wouldn't it be something to be a fly on the wall when Phelps meets the Almighty. "Fred, BOY are you on the shit-list..."
Steve,
Phelps came down to Tulsa a few years ago to picket Oral Roberts University because it was too pro-gay! I also think he showed up when Barney Frank was the marshal for a gay-pride parade in Tulsa (which has a surprisingly large gay population considering). I did see some of the local media coverage regarding his latest foray in Sand Springs, and most of the people rather taken aback by Phelp’s action and denounced it.
One of the bigger shocks for me after the recent election- besides the fact that my mother voted for Kerry- came in a discussion I had with a couple of friends of mine. One of them, who is a very conservative evangelical, was denouncing the Democrats for being evil and so forth. They asked me how I voted and told them I voted for Kerry. I started into my tirade about Republican hypocrisy and brought up gay marriage. I was shocked when my friend said that although he thought homosexuality was a sin, he also had to be mindful of Jesus’ command to do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Basically, he didn’t have a problem with civil unions (his position was essentially the one Juan Cole advanced on his blog a couple of weeks ago), and he and my other Bush-supporting friend agreed with my opinion that a big factor driving this issue was the insurance companies’ policy of trying to find any reason not to insure people. We all were in agreement that the insurance companies should insure whomever you wanted to insure since you were paying the money.
Sunday we dedicated our new church building. The sermon was delivered by Kelly Haney, who is now retired, but for years was one of the most powerful Democrats in the Oklahoma state senate. Before that, he was a Methodist pastor. I bring that up simply to point out that I’m not so sure that the Republicans have as strong a lock on the Red states as some folks might think.
I still believe there is a lot of Americans who believe in "live and let live." We don't poke our noises into the bedrooms of our neighbors and we expect everybody to keep their noise out of what goes on in ours. In my house if we deside have sex on the kitchen table or on top of the dryer it's no one's damn business but ours.
And that's what that article was all about seems to me. It's also why the Christian conservatives don't worry me too much. A lot of stuff they are trying to get into is between consenting adults and it's just none of their damn businesss.
Mr. Phelps is not actually a Christian. He's a Levitican -- a particularly virulent strain of semi-believer. He's also a voyeur, and is obviously pathologically interested in the behavior of other people in their bedrooms. The man is a pervert, and should not be allowed any form of community activism, positions of authority, or contact with children. Should he be classed as a class 1 sexual predator?
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