The Lunatic Fringe just got a little less......looney

[SilverEagle]

and mean.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/21/us/fred-phelps-founder-of-westboro-baptist-church-dies-at-84.html?_r=0

But sadly not by enough.

[Censored by Laurie]

BIH, P.

[UNT90]

BIH, P.

Preacher?

[gksmith]

I'm not going to say ill things about someone but Fred Phelps and his followers are just what is wrong with Christianity.

I am a Christian. However, what Westboro Babtist Church and Rev. (use the term loosely) Phelps did really brought a lot of anger toward Christianity and Christians. Rumor is that the reason they did the protests is to get the local government to deny their rights and sue to get money for the church. It really appears that church is not about love and preacing the Gospel to the world and that is not what Christians do...at least the ones I grew up with and the ones I interact with now.

They protested in Waco last year (I think). I have a nephew and his friends spoof their protest. He held a sign that said "Worst Tailgate Ever."

[SCREAMING EAGLE-66]

Every religious group has their fanatic nuts ... toss in our Puritan forefathers that hung people as witches.... ( so much for the freedom of religion claim by them .. the Puritans came here to believe as they wanted ... not to allow others the freedom to believe as they wanted ) Hopefully Westboro will fall apart now and disappear...

[Grant.UNT]

The devil is sodomizing him right now!

rejoice!!

[meangreendork]

I was pretty pissed off that the family could turn around and ask the public to not protest Phelps' funeral after what they did to others who meant them no harm, and in many cases, died in their service.

[gksmith]

I was pretty pissed off that the family could turn around and ask the public to not protest Phelps' funeral after what they did to others who meant them no harm, and in many cases, died in their service.

Protesting his funeral would be stooping to thier level (which is pretty low). I would not protest the funeral just on that principle.

[SCREAMING EAGLE-66]

"Do unto others as you have have them do unto you" .... Since he raised hell at others funerals ... I am sure he would want people to do the same to him.

[Mean Green 93-98]

Every religious group has their fanatic nuts ... toss in our Puritan forefathers that hung people as witches.... ( so much for the freedom of religion claim by them .. the Puritans came here to believe as they wanted ... not to allow others the freedom to believe as they wanted ) Hopefully Westboro will fall apart now and disappear...

Are you really saying that opposition to real witchcraft equals opposition to freedom of religion?

[UNT90]

Every religious group has their fanatic nuts ... toss in our Puritan forefathers that hung people as witches.... ( so much for the freedom of religion claim by them .. the Puritans came here to believe as they wanted ... not to allow others the freedom to believe as they wanted ) Hopefully Westboro will fall apart now and disappear...

Yes, we are evil and so are all of our forefathers.

We really should just kill over collective selves.

Edited March 20, 2014 by UNT90

[Green P1]

Are you really saying that opposition to real witchcraft equals opposition to freedom of religion?

Wait... wut?

[Rudy]

Protesting his funeral would be stooping to thier level (which is pretty low). I would not protest the funeral just on that principle.

So no protest at his funeral, how about a tailgate?

[Mean Green 93-98]

Wait... wut?

Which part is giving you trouble?

[Green92]

Words can't describe what pieces of garbage those people are. The world is a better place.

[SCREAMING EAGLE-66]

Yes, we are evil and so are all of our forefathers.

We really should just kill over collective selves.

..

---Do you understand anything or remember any history...... ? Not all of our forefathers were Puritans.... and in fact the earliest settlers here were at Jamestown and Virginia area did not come for religious reasons... they came for economic reasons. Those who claim America was settled for freedom of religion are just stating a myth. And several groups they did come for religious reasons were usually not extending that freedom to others. Read history... England had already broken with the Catholic Church and except for that group they were not that oppressive to most Protestant groups as was true in many other counties...( Spain especially.. inquisition ) ..

.

.

Edited March 21, 2014 by SCREAMING EAGLE-66

[Mean Green 93-98]

..

---Do you understand anything or remember any history...... ? Not all of our forefathers were Puritans.... and in fact the earliest settlers here were at Jamestown and Virginia area did not come for religious reasons... they came for economic reasons. Those who claim America was settled for freedom of religion are just stating a myth. And several groups they did come for religious reasons were usually not extending that freedom to others. Read history... England had already broken with the Catholic Church and except for that group they were not that oppressive to most Protestant groups as was true in many other counties...( Spain especially.. inquisition ) ..

.

.

You need to read your history. The Church of England burnt many Protestant dissenters at the stake. They basically were no different than the R.C. Church, except that they actually admitted that their head was a secular king. That, and they were cool with divorce on a whim.

[FirefightnRick]

Words can't describe what pieces of garbage those people are. The world is a better place.

Agree.

I got a good story about the Westboro church. A few years ago we had a rookie work at my station who had moved here from Topeka? I believe it was, and was on the FD there. We were eating lunch and a news story about Westboro came on the tube and he mentioned that he made a medical call up there one day outside one of the cemetaries they were protesting at.

Apparently they were protesting across the street of an Iraq war veteran's funeral, and afterwards a Marine drove up, jumped out of his car, grabbed the first male protester he could get ahold of and whipped the ever loving dog shit out of the guy, jumped back in his car and drove off. Said the guy was F'ed up pretty bad and was hospitalized, and that PD caught the marine down the road and arrested him.

At least one Marine patriot felt compelled to give them what they wanted but I'm surprised this didnt happen on a regular basis. It's the reaction the church was always wanting to occur as they always video taped their protests from a distance from several different locations.

Rick

Edited March 21, 2014 by FirefightnRick

[SCREAMING EAGLE-66]

Last person burned in England in 1612 ... by the Puritans. 8 years prior to Plymouth ( late 1620) and even more years before these nuts made it to America. These nuts did not celebrate Christmas or Easter either because it were not mentioned in the Bible... They opposed religious music even... They were absolutely a nutty cult. .

I would compare their treatment to what we think of the Davidians or the Warren Jeff group at El Dorado.

http://www.patrickcomerford.com/2012/04/remembering-last-heretic-burned-at.html

King James Bible ... completed in 1611 ... so the common people in England could read it in English.

Edited March 21, 2014 by SCREAMING EAGLE-66

[Censored by Laurie]

Wait... wut?

right?

[Mean Green 93-98]

Last person burned in England in 1612 ... by the Puritans.

The article you tried to link to (here's a working link: http://www.patrickcomerford.com/2012/04/remembering-last-heretic-burned-at.html) does not say he was burned by the Puritans. Here are a couple of quotes from the article:

Bishop Neile’s Chaplain, who assisted in prosecuting Wightman, was William Laud, the future Archbishop of Canterbury, who was later executed in 1645. . . . The charges brought against him included 11 distinct heresies. Part of the charge was that he believed “...that Christianity was not wholly professed and preached in the Church of England, but only in part.”

The entire article is about how the Church of England tried a heretic and burned him at the stake. Are you being intentionally dishonest here?

As far as timeframe, I was simply addressing your incorrect comments about the Church of England being inoppressive.

Last person burned in England in 1612 ... by the Puritans. 8 years prior to Plymouth ( late 1620) and even more years before these nuts made it to America. These nuts did not celebrate Christmas or Easter either because it were not mentioned in the Bible... They opposed religious music even... They were absolutely a nutty cult. .

Yeah, trying to do things as the Bible teaches rather than everybody coming up with their own ideas . . . what a nutty concept for practicing Christianity.

And your own intolerant response only proves how they needed freedom of religion.

By the way, I disagree with many of the things the Puritans taught. But I respect that they should have a right to worship and serve God according to the dictates of their conscience and what they believe the Bible teaches.

King James Bible ... completed in 1611 ... so the common people in England could read it in English.

You just need to stay off commenting on history. The Geneva Bible was written for the common people (as had the Tyndale New Testament, and a few others), and the bishops of the Church of England couldn't stand it. So they got a few Puritans to compromise with them and give their endorsement to the KJV.

Edited March 22, 2014 by Mean Green 93-98

[GrayEagle]

The Puritans did not come to Plymouth in 1620. That was the Pilgrims. The Puritans came to Salem nearly a decade later.

The Puritans wanted to purify the Church of England. The Pilgrims wanted to separate from the Church of England so they came to America for religious freedom. Both groups were small and they did join together later for strength in numbers.

[MeanGreenTexan]

History aside, this dude... Good riddance. Thankfully, most people understand that this guy's "church" was in name only.

[UNTflyer]

Westboro is not, and never has been, a church. It is not open to outsiders, only the inbreeds of the Phelps family are "members."

Their whole purpose was money, generated by lawsuits against cities that denied them their First Amendment right to be complete douchebags, and angry citizens compelled to punch one of these assholes right in the face.

To say Westboro is what's wrong with Christianity is akin to saying Justin Beiber is what's wrong with English Cricket.

[SCREAMING EAGLE-66]

By the way, I disagree with many of the things the Puritans taught. But I respect that they should have a right to worship and serve God according to the dictates of their conscience and what they believe the Bible teaches.

..

---- I disagree... and have no respect for them .. no religion has the right to believe they have the right to kill those that just disagree with them ... which is what they did. The same was happening during the Inquisition, It could be argued the same with Jewish people many times with many groups even WWII (even people at Oberammergrau, Germany now admit indicate their passion plays emphasized Jewish hatred (because of the "Give us Barabbas" comment by the Jewish people) in the 20's and 30's (been there), and that belief is the problem with Islamic terrorist now .. they think they are justified in killing people who believe differently.

-- Agree Pilgrims and Puritans were not exactly the same .... but not that different either and as pointed pretty much merged. They did not extend the freedom of religion to others that believed differently. To claim they came here "for real freedom of religion is false" ... they came just to do as they wanted. .

.

Edited March 23, 2014 by SCREAMING EAGLE-66