In Westboro I was born and raised...
 

Protestin funerals is where I spent mosta my days.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_funeral_protests

Pretty much glad someone finally decided to fuck with those dicks.

What does everyone else think?

Honestly I think Westboro should probably stop for their own safety. I can't believe someone hasn't gone postal on their asses in the course of the past few years when they have dicked out.

Re: In Westboro I was born and raised...
 

Getting into a court battle with the Westboro people is exactly what they want. They are professional agitators. They go out and picket events, shouting the most vile and disgusting things you could think of, and hope that somebody attacks them or does something for which they can sue. They are scum, they make a living off of being scum, and they don't care if everybody knows it. Unfortunately, the First Amendment says they can do it.

Just think of them as real life trolls. I don't know if they actually believe what they are saying, but the way to deal with them is much the same way. I'm a big fan of the college students who held a counter-protest (vastly outnumbering the Westboro people) at which they held up signs mocking the Westboro hate speech: stuff like, "God hates the new Facebook" or "God hates Justin Bieber." Ok, that second one might not be mockery; the student might actually believe it.

Re: In Westboro I was born and raised...
 

I think people should just wait until someone from the church dies, then hold a gay rights parade or something outside the funeral home. :)

Re: In Westboro I was born and raised...
 

I completely agree. Turnabout is fair game. Gay advocacy groups should protest every Sunday outside of their church and in front of their homes. Scum.

Re: In Westboro I was born and raised...
 

I watched the BBC documentary about that church and I am honestly still amazed. Every single person they take into that retarded family of theirs is a waste of brain power and need to be thrown from the gene pool.

Re: In Westboro I was born and raised...
 

Yeah, I feel terrible for those kids born into that. I mean, they don't have much of a choice to be there and be indoctrinated to those kind of beliefs. It's a shame. I don't believe I can think of worse people on the planet than the Westboro people.

Re: In Westboro I was born and raised...
 

That's sickening.
I honestly don't understand the anti-gay pro-bible thing.

I mean, I highly doubt Jesus said "Blessed be everyone. May you all live as equals. Except fuckin' fags and women until you decide on your own accord to allow them to vote, oh, and I guess the meek can have some shit, too. But remember, kill the queers."

Re: In Westboro I was born and raised...
 

Except Jesus never said "Blessed be everyone." He did say "Come, be my follower" and "Teach them to observe all the things I have commanded you." It's not really a free-for-all deal.

If the Bible teaches that practizing homosexuality is wrong, stop whining about it. I don't fully get it, why desparately try to join a club that doesn't agree with the way you live?

Re: In Westboro I was born and raised...
 

There's also the whole "Judge not lest ye be judged" thing...

But the bible can't stop hateful people from intoning it for their own agendas.

Re: In Westboro I was born and raised...
 

I don't think churches are judging. They're just holding onto standards that they find in the Bible.
Hmm, maybe some churches do. That's especially hard to swallow when they tolerate other recurring sins. I agree that it's very hypocritical.

Re: In Westboro I was born and raised...
 

What is the logic in even making the statement that servicemen are dying because of gays? Were they dying during peace time when gay dude were cavorting? There is no sense to this. They are simply evil people.

Re: In Westboro I was born and raised...
 

I like where Angrist is coming from....

Why do we need to try to mold religion to fit our new, logical ways of thinking in society? Why not just ditch the religion part in our new, logical ways of thinking.

:p

Re: In Westboro I was born and raised...
 

I don't think born-gay people are really practicing. I think they've pretty much got it down professionally. :ohreilly:

And Angrist, I'm not adressing you with this, it's just in the same post for the record:

And just for shits, I'm going to say this about the bible and homosexuality:


Homosexuality has been around forever. The Romans and Greeks were highly open with sexuality, and often men would get with men to close business deals, or as favours, for lack of a better word.

Basically the only reason it's viewed as evil to be gay, is because homosexuality doesn't produce offspring. Which means gay people give nothing to the church, because they can't create more followers.

Re: In Westboro I was born and raised...
 

Re: In Westboro I was born and raised...
 

Not sure if you were joking or if you really agree with me, but if you really believe in God, you'll probably believe that what he wants for us doesn't chance. If practicing homosexuality was wrong 2 millennia ago, it's wrong now.

And Typhoid, you're right. There's a difference between having feelings and practicing them.

Re: In Westboro I was born and raised...
 

Didn't quite a lot change from the Old Testament to the New Testament?

And other things have changed from when the New Testament was written til now - it's no longer considered right or ethical to own slaves, for example.

I think every religious person ultimately ends up cherry picking the things they like and disregarding the things they don't. Religious homosexual people ignore the part that says it's wrong. Religious people who don't believe in slavery ignore that part. Everyone seems to ignore the book of Job.

Maybe 'ignore' isn't the right word, though. It's more like people want to gloss over the things they don't like, or just say "oh, it was a different time". But for some reason they can't let others do that to the things they do like.

Re: In Westboro I was born and raised...
 

Again, what does that have to do with protesting at military funerals? Its ok to believe whatever you want to believe, but when you literally terrorize innocents that makes you an evil, disgusting person and is very much AGAINST Christian belief.

I hope they are REALLY surprised when they die and are greeted with their own special cubicle in Hell.

Re: In Westboro I was born and raised...
 

Sorry for the confusion; I never talked about protesting at military funerals. Of course nobody should protest at any funeral. Please let people do what they like (religiously).
I was talking about the moment somebody wants to join a religious organisation. In Holland there have been many homosexuals who are upset that they can't receive a hosti (is that what it's called in English too?) in the catholic church. They've been protesting about it, saying that everybody should be able to receive it.

And yeah, God 'changed the rules' when his son came to earth. But there's been nothing new since then.

Re: In Westboro I was born and raised...
 

How do we know he hasn't changed them about other things but didn't think it was important enough to go about sending another messiah? Is there a line in the bible that says "if any details change, I'll let you know promptly"?

Re: In Westboro I was born and raised...
 

Yes actually. Let me look it up for you, moment.

There is a pretty literal one:
Revelations 22:18,19
"I am bearing witness to everyone that hears the words of the prophecy of this scroll: If anyone makes an addition to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this scroll; and if anyone takes anything away from the words of the scroll of this prophecy, God will take his portion away from the trees of life and out of the holy city, things which are written about in this scroll."

Then there are a lot of times where Jesus (and his disciples) warned about false prophets, or people who would tell something different from what he did.

Anyway, in the end it's pretty much a personal matter of wanting to take the bible literal or not. Not much sense in discussing that. ;)

Re: In Westboro I was born and raised...
 

Being that God created everyone, Canadians, Americans, The Taliban, Insurgents, Australians, The Dutch, The Nazi's, Jews, Black People, Muslims, Buddhists, Brits, The French - he sure isn't pissed off that half of them want to kill the other half, let alone don't even believe in him.

Vengeful God was much more exciting than the God that hates fags and brown people. Vengeful God loved brown people, and hated white people. Those were the days.

Re: In Westboro I was born and raised...
 

God, in a Christian sense, has never hated "brown people". In fact, most of the oppression of foreign `savages' was in a misguided effort to save them through religious conversion. We can argue the results, but there was no hate. In fact, you could say there was mainly love.

Secondly, God may or may not be pissed at people for killing each other. If the 10 commandments are accurate and God exists, I'd say he is. Then again, New Testament God also gave Men free will and reserves punishment for the afterlife, so there nay be plenty of comeuppance... we just don't know.

Also, Typh, your signature quote is also theologically inaccurate. Jesus would have never mandated that a government seize property (taxes) by force and then redistribute that property. Jesus 1) was post-national and did not believe in the power of nations/governments and 2) he believed that people should be charitable of their own volition. That whole free will thing.

In the end, people need to mind their own fucking business. You want to join a bigoted church and hate gays? Go right ahead, just keep in to yourself, and keep your mouths fucking shut.

Re: In Westboro I was born and raised...
 

That is, unless you ask the Mormons about Native Americans. Then God does hate them.

Re: In Westboro I was born and raised...
 

Strangler, first off - for the sig - take it up with Everclear. It's a song.

Secondly the "God hating brown people" was also tongue-in-cheek. My post was not entirely serious. More aimed at the fact that Jesus was brown, all religion started with brown people, as the whites of the north were pagans, roughly until Rome was converted.

But in all seriousness, I agree with your last sentence. Who is what religion doesn't matter, and it's none of anyone elses business. There's a reason I don't talk about my personal beliefs on the internet, because it's irrelevant. I just wish other people lived like that as well.

Re: In Westboro I was born and raised...
 

I'm not sure Mormon's are Christians in a traditional sense, but your point it taken, but I don't think it alters the general rule. That's not to say that the "love" didn't do tons of damage.

And Typh, Everclear may have written the song but they didn't put it into your sig. When people quote something they generally do so out of agreement. If you quoted it to mock it or for some other reason, I apologize.

Agreed.

Re: In Westboro I was born and raised...
 

We've gotten off topic.

Those Westboro people are fucking nuts!


What crazy freak even gets off thinking that they and their tiny family are the only people that truly understand God's will?

Re: In Westboro I was born and raised...
 

I don't agree with you, per se. I respect that you are firm in your position regarding religion. You're not like the masses of people who want their cake (afterlife) and want to eat it too (druggin', sexin', not going to church ever, being gay, etc.).

Now if only we can apply your logic to the real world, I think we'd have a lot less religious people or a lot less annoying druggin', sexin' posers at mass every Easter and Christmas.

Re: In Westboro I was born and raised...
 

Hmm I wonder how long it will be before religion is mostly obsolete?

OR before some new religion basically replaces christianity?

Re: In Westboro I was born and raised...
 

Actually, the Bible itself predicts that religion will lose its popularity and eventually be attacked by politics. :)

Re: In Westboro I was born and raised...
 

Oh hey because that had never happened before in society pre-biblical times.

Re: In Westboro I was born and raised...
 

What we really have to understand about Christianity is that it is the first, and to my knowledge, only major religious doctrine that does not concern itself with governance. Before Christianity religion was part in parcel with politics.

Christianity is intended to be beyond the state; a individual's reverence to God and not a means to organize and control a group. Unfortunately, the draw of using religion as a means to control people has twisted those original principles. Power is all corrupting. Even Christ cannot prevent the innate fallibility of man, but that was never the point, was it :)