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03/12/2006 03:16:36 PM · #1 |
Saturday was the funeral of Sgt Youman from Flushing Mi. The Kansas protesters were there and so were a few members of the local community as well as a showing from the Patriot Guard Riders. The PGR only attend upon invitation from the family and act as a sheild between the protesters and the family with the utmost respect for the fallen soldier. The protesters on the other hand...praise the IED's that killed Sgt Youman and stand on the American Flag during their "rant".
 
   
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03/13/2006 12:51:58 AM · #2 |
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03/13/2006 02:27:46 PM · #3 |
//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Phelps
Political affiliations
In 2003, before the fall of Saddam Hussein during the Iraq War, Phelps wrote Hussein a letter praising his regime for being, in his opinion, "the only Muslim state that allows the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ to be freely and openly preached on the streets." Furthermore, he stated that he, if U.S. Government and laws permitted and at the invitation of the Iraqi government, would like to send a delegation to Baghdad to "preach the Gospel" for one week. Hussein granted permission, and a group of WBC congregants traveled to Iraq to protest against the U.S. The parishioners stood on the streets of Baghdad and heavily patronized Baghdad establishments holding signs reading:
â€Â¢ AL GORE FAMILY VALUES (with a cartoon of two men having anal sex) [65]
â€Â¢ GO HOME (with a cartoon of Bill Clinton)
â€Â¢ BABY KILLER (with a cartoon of Hillary Clinton)
â€Â¢ BABY KILLER (with a cartoon of Bill Clinton)
â€Â¢ FAG GORE
â€Â¢ FAG USA= SODOM
â€Â¢ STOP THE HOLOCAUST (in reference to Phelps' "Topeka Baptist Holocaust" campaign)
â€Â¢ FAG USA (with a picture of an inverted, burning American flag)
â€Â¢ USA SIN (with a picture of anatomically incorrect stick figures engaged in anal sex)
Phelps mourned the fall of Hussein's regime and has consistently criticized the invasion of Iraq, citing, "IRAQ+USA=SODOM" and keeping a toll on his webpage celebrating the death of every American soldier killed and pronouncing loyalty to Iraq.
Phelps has also repeatedly championed Fidel Castro for Castro's stance against homosexuality; in 1998 Harper's magazine published a letter Phelps sent to Castro in which he praised Castro and lambasted the U.S. (Castro did not respond to that letter and is likely to have ignored it given Phelps's intensely right-wing leanings.) In 2004, when a pro-homosexual Cuban refugee announced plans to travel to Cuba, Phelps sent another letter to Castro "warning" him of the man's plans and requesting travel visas for a group of WBC congregants so that they could follow the refugee around Havana with signs bearing anti-U.S. and anti-homosexual slogans. Castro also ignored that appeal.
In the 1980s, the Phelps family were strong political allies with then-senator Al Gore. The home of Fred Jr., Phelps' eldest son, located in the Westboro compound, acted as Gore's campaign quarters for one of his senate races, and the Westboro compound was host to a fundraiser. Numerous photos exist on the internet of Fred Phelps Jr. and his second wife, Betty Phelps-Schurle, posing with Al and Tipper Gore in Phelps Jr.'s home. Phelps also served as a Gore delegate on the floor of the Democratic National Convention in Atlanta in 1988. [66]
During Bill Clinton's presidential campaign, Fred Phelps Jr. and members of Westboro campaigned for Gore, though simultaneously attacking Hillary Clinton. In January 1993, Fred Phelps Jr. and Betty Phelps-Schurle were invited to the inaugural ball in Washington, D.C.[67]
In the ensuing years leading up to Clinton's second presidential campaign, Gore and Clinton took stances increasingly in favor of gay rights. Consequently, Westboro turned against Gore, who nevertheless invited Fred Phelps, Marge, Fred Jr., and Betty back for the 1997 inauguration; they responded by bringing the entire Westboro congregation to the White House and picketing on the front lawn during the ball, [68] with signs proclaiming that Gore, Clinton, and both men's families were going to Hell, not necessarily for their stances on homosexuality, but because they had "betrayed" Westboro. [69]
In 1998, Westboro picketed the funeral of Gore's father, screaming vulgarities at Gore and telling him "your dad's in Hell." [70]
Phelps has run in numerous Democratic primary elections for governor of the predominantly Republican state of Kansas, in 1990, 1994, and the last time in 1998, when he came in second with 15,000 votes out of a total of over 103,000 votes cast, or 15%.[71]
In the aftermath of the election, in an incident that would be repeated years later when Phelps circulated a fuzzy petition to outlaw homosexual work protection, numerous Kansas residents who had cast votes for Phelps came forward to express their distaste for him. They claimed that Phelps had lied about his intentions to numerous constituents, using double-talk and fuzzy language to confuse them; neglected to mention his stances on race, religion, and homosexuality, and campaigned mainly on the platform of a "good ol' boy" Southern gentleman and retired lawyer unfairly prosecuted by the system. [72]
More recently, Phelps was the subject of nationwide controversy when his family proposed, in a referendum, the removal of workplace protection for homosexuals in Topeka. The measure was defeated, fifty three percent to forty seven percent. Also in 2005, Phelps' granddaughter Jael was an unsuccessful candidate for Topeka's City Council; Jael was seeking to replace Tiffany Muller, the first openly gay member of the Topeka City Council.
Phelps carries a burning hatred against Scandinavians and Lutherans in particular, whom he considers to be hellbound heretics. That may be because a Lutheran girl of Swedish origin, Luava Sundgren, separated his son Mark from the rest of his family. Phelps' hatred for Finns began on 1998, when a Finnish national humiliated him on a religious debate.[citation needed] As Tarja Halonen won the Finnish presidential election in 2001, Phelps used the fact that Halonen, a lawyer by profession, though heterosexual herself, had in her youth worked as the human rights lawyer of SETA, Finnish lesbigay organization. Phelps threatened on his webpage to come with his congregation to burn the Finnish flag in front of the Finnish Parliament. This threat united the Finnish lesbigays, reservists and hackers, who cracked his website and defaced it by replacing every page with a Finnish flag. As the Finnish police stated that his safety cannot be guaranteed should he arrive in Finland, and that should he carry out his intentions he would be arrested and sentenced on account of defacing the national flag, he never carried through his threat.
Phelps seems to have targeted his hatred against Sweden instead of Finland after the prosecution in June, 2004, of Swedish pentecostal pastor Ã…ke Green on hate-speech charges for comments about homosexuality; both countries are traditional Lutheran countries. On the Westboro website Godhatessweden.com, Phelps declares the heavy Swedish losses in the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, initially calculated (exaggeratedly) at 20,000, to be God's punishment of Sweden for the prosecution of Green, and depicts a granite monument designed by himself to Green as a Christian martyr, announcing plans to erect copies of it throughout the U.S. In response, Green has called Phelps "appalling" and "extremely unpleasant," stressing that while Phelps proclaims hatred for homosexuals and condemns them to Hell, Green hopes for them to repent and go to Heaven.
Message edited by author 2006-03-13 14:40:45.
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