Thursday, March 05, 2009

WBC Coming to Town

Folks might be interested to know that the notorious Westboro Baptist Church will be picketing various locations (including the law school) at the University of Chicago. The WBC is famous for hating gay people, but, in their defense, they hate pretty much everybody (including, naturally, Jews).

If anything interesting happens, I'll let you know.

UPDATE: Hey, one of the crazies left a comment!

You know, the whole thesis of this argument seems to be that unless you accept the Bible as the WBC interprets it, you're going to hell (along with the vast majority of your friends and family, of course). The alternative is spending eternity with people like the WBC, which also would be a form of hell. At the very least, it's two very unappealing options. Personally, I'll take my chances with the infernos, if for no other reason than I'd prefer the company.

Also, I've never been more tempted to experiment with homosexuality than when I know it would send the WBC into paroxysms of rage.

7 comments:

Pope Incontinentius XIII said...

Fun. Just remember, David, God loves IEDs.

Anonymous said...

No silly - God SENT the IED. The creator of the whole earth, he who holds the breath of life in HIS hands, HE kills and HE makes alive - thank God for the IEDs - they are a work of HIS hand!! Every person that rejects the Lord Jesus Christ and the ONLY path to heaven is going to hell - THAT little girls includes the Christ-rejecting Jews. THAT is the Word of God! So shut the heck up about your anti-semitisim. God hates you - you can call that whatever you like, you cannot change God!!

You either SHUT YOUR MOUTHS, get a Bible, crack and read the words and OBEY YOUR GOD - putting away your idols, false gods and your FILTHY manner of life or just go to hell QUIETLY!!

Your best friend,

Shirley Phelps-Roper
3/6/09

Pope Incontinentius XIII said...

I will not feed the trolls.
I will not feed the trolls.
I will not feed the trolls.
I will not feed the trolls.
I will not feed the trolls.
I will not feed the trolls.
I will not feed the trolls.
I will not feed the trolls.
I will not feed the trolls.
I will not feed the trolls.

Anonymous said...

I'm going to see if it's possible to hang out with the WBC crowd when they come. I'm legitimately interested in such groups in a value-neutral kind of a way. I'm also interested in the ways people react to such groups. Yay for learning experiences!

-Grant

PG said...

Grant,

Kudos to you. I once spent a couple hours in college actually talking to the evangelical loons who came to UVA every spring to stand outside the open air amphitheater and yell at the kids about how they were going to hell. It was a really informative experience; I found out a lot about the hierarchy of organized religion for a hardcore evangelical (among Christians, Catholics of course are the worse; Southern Baptists *might* not be going to hell) and about how he rationalized away the theory of evolution. I am a big believer in learning directly from your ideological opponents what they think, and frankly am becoming increasingly exasperated by some folks on the left who get everything they know about conservatism from reading The Nation. People like that fit a little too neatly into the semi-apocryphal story about Pauline Kael (who actually said, "I live in a rather special world. I only know one person who voted for Nixon. Where they are I don't know. They're outside my ken.").

Anonymous said...

Yeah. I've probably taken that too far, to the point where I barely even have an ideology anymore. Either way, hate speech has always intrigued me. The hate-speaker speaks out of hatred (obv), almost always because he doesn't understand the person he is speaking to. Almost always, the majority responds by speaking out of hatred to the hate-speaker, without making even a minimal effort to understand him.

Look, it's important to make the targets of the hate feel safe, and know that they're not hated across the board. I'm not making any claims about whether responding with equal hatred is a good way to do that, or a/the morally justifiable response. I'm just saying it's oddly symmetrical. Makes me think twice about Holmes and his whole "politics/law is just a war" idea.

-Grant

PG said...

Barely having an ideology doesn't strike me as a bad thing so long as it's coming out of hyperactive engagement rather than total disengagement.