(Can there be an freethought-organization response to this?—Josh)

Fringe Baptist group to bring hate to Great Neck: Protests planned next week in Long Island, Queens, Brooklyn and Manhattan

By Michael Orbach
Special to the web on Sept 17, 2009 / 28 Elul 5769
http://thejewishstar.wordpress.com/2009/09/17/fringe-baptist-group-to-bring-hate-to-great-neck/

A fundamentalist church from Topeka, Kansas plans protests at Jewish locations in Great Neck, Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan for three days beginning Thursday, September 24th.
The Westboro Baptist Church, led by Rev. Fred Phelps and composed largely of his family members, has been in the news with its protests at funerals of AIDS victims and American soldiers killed in action, holding signs with messages such as “God hates America” and “God hates fags.” While the church has mainly protested what it perceives as homosexual targets and colleges around the country, since April 2009 it has also picketed Jewish sites, according to the Anti-Defamation League. . . .
Chabad of Great Neck . . . will be picketed at noon on Friday, Sept. 25 . . . Protest [sic] are also planned outside the Great Neck Synagogue, North Shore Hebrew Academy High School and at Temple Beth Israel. The group also plans to picket outside the East Midwood Jewish Center on Ocean Avenue in Brooklyn, and in Manhattan at the 92nd Street Y, the Jewish Theological Seminary and at the United Nations. The group’s past targets include appliance stores that sell Swedish vacuum cleaners. . . .

Hate-mongering Kansans begin their assault

By Gersh Kuntzman and David Chiu
The Brooklyn Paper
http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/32/39/32_39_gk_brooklyn_tech_protest_thursday.html

A Kansas-based anti-gay Baptist church began its promised three-day assault on Brooklyn with a brief rally this afternoon at a Fort Greene high school, two days before they vow to picket at three Jewish synagogues in Brownstone Brooklyn over those institutions’ apparent godlessness.
About five members of the Westboro Baptist Church, whose mission is represented clearly in its Web site address, http://www.godhatesfags.com, rallied for about 15 minutes outside Brooklyn Technical HS, holding signs reading, “Fags are beasts” and “God is your enemy.”
It is unclear why the church chose Brooklyn Tech, but its Web site suggested that the school teaches that “it’s OK to be gay.”
“WBC will teach the rebels of Brooklyn what good looks like, and you had better behave,” the church said. . . .

This kind of strategy is basically guaranteed to backfire on them.

I don’t agree completely. Although the Westboro Baptist Church is on the radical fringe of the radical fringe of evangelicals—they’re a kind of “Primitive Baptist,” the sect best known these days for “church planting” in areas that already have lots of churches that the PBs feel are betraying or weakening Christianity—it preaches the same religious bigotry as other fundamentalist churches.  It just does it more actively and outside their own backwoods backyard.

Yes, they’ll alienate more evangelicals than they’ll reinforce.  But they WILL reinforce enough of them to make “God hates fags”-level evangelism part of the religious conversation.  Religious bigots usually say politely that they love sinners, but that they hate what sinners do.  The WBC is less polite, and maybe more honest.

Incidentally, another less-polite-and-more-honest religious group is demonstrating this weekend at the Brooklyn abortion clinic whose escorting I help support.  The Helpers of God’s Precious Infants (HOGPI, pronounced “hog pee”) interfere with clients there every Saturday morning and on many weekends.  Once a year, they stage a march on the clinic as well.  That’s happening this Saturday morning.  You can see photos of a previous march (small thanks to cold weather) and our counterdemonstration at http://www.brooklynprochoicenetwork.org/demo12-07.html.  And if any NYC-area freethinkers wanna be in Brooklyn this Saturday at 8:15 a.m. to confront this year’s larger (and warmer) march, see http://www.brooklynprochoicenetwork.org for details.  I’ll be there, as will the Church Ladies for Choice (http://www.myspace.com/churchladies4choice ) chorus.

Here’s the news wrap-up about the God Hates Fags church, excerpted:

Kansas bigotry falls flat at Brooklyn synagogues

By Ben Muessig
The Brooklyn Paper
http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/32/39/32_39_bm_westboro_protests_saturday.html

A handful of hateful Midwesterner’s brought their anti-Semitic and anti-gay message to two Brownstone Brooklyn synagogues on Saturday - where they were met with anger, condemnation, and some old-fashioned chutzpah. . . .

[T]he Westboro demonstrators focused their efforts on the Park Slope and Cobble Hill synagogues, where they added anti-Semitic lyrics to the Israeli national anthem and Jewish songs like “Hava Nagila” while waving signs stating “Jews stole the land,” “Israel is doomed,” “You will eat your babies,” and “Bitch burger” (which, inexplicably, depicted a fetus served on a bun). . . .

The Christian extremists told The Brooklyn Paper that they targeted these specific temples “because they are the largest Jewish organizations in the area” and that they didn’t intend to convert anyone to their cause.

“We are not here to convince anyone - we are here to warn them. That’s our duty,” said Megan Phelps-Roper, 23, from behind a police barricade. . . .

The scores of counter-protesters mocked the fundamentalist group with homemade signs stating “Jesus had two dads” and “God hates cotton-polyester blends.” Others exchanged insults with the religious group and chanted: “Go home.” . . .

It’s too bad the Patriot Riders won’t be there to drown out those idiots with their motorcycles. I think they only do the soldier funerals.

Hey, maybe you “make your own Patriot Riders” - ask a local motorcycle group to peacefully drive around the Jewish Center protests, the school protest, or the clinic protest, or park nearby and rev their engines, drowning out the nuts. It frustrates the hell out of them.

In fact, some of those engines are so loud, you wouldn’t need many to drown out the nuts. A couple of guys on really noisy bikes would suffice. Even one loud bike parked or circling near them is enough to annoy the heck out of them.

There are ladies motorcycle clubs too. I bet at least some of those ladies wouldn’t be to happy to hear about what is going on at the clinics, blocking women’s rights.

I wonder if the WB ‘church’ will fade away as a historical anachronism once it’s charismatic leader has died, or will his daughter be able to hold it together?

His attorney daughter seems to be the attack dog for the church. I think she will try to continue his sick legacy after his death. But I wonder if his flock will listen to a woman, since he teaches that they are inferior...

Jules - 30 September 2009 04:29 AM

His attorney daughter seems to be the attack dog for the church. I think she will try to continue his sick legacy after his death. But I wonder if his flock will listen to a woman, since he teaches that they are inferior...

I have been wondering that myself. AND she had a child out of wedlock, something condemned by HIS (Fred Phelps) teachings.

I was wondering what happened to those nut jobs after that lawsuit. Well Josh, I hope you guys get’em for a million too.
By the way, good point asanta, St paul said, “fornicators will not see the kingdom of god.” Fundimentalist do believe this to be so. That means they may think she is going to hell.

JackHugh - 21 October 2009 07:03 PM

i have never heard of that before.

Never heard of What??