A win for the boys (and girls) out there!!!

[Ragnar]

BALTIMORE - Members of a fundamentalist Kansas church ordered to pay nearly $11 million in damages to a grieving father smiled as they walked out of the courtroom, vowing that the verdict would not deter them from protesting at military funerals.

Members promised to picket future funerals with placards bearing such slogans as "Thank God for dead soldiers" and "God hates fags."
"Absolutely, don't you understand this was an act in futility?" said Shirley Phelps-Roper, whose father founded the Westboro Baptist Church.

It gets even better.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071101/ap_ ... l_protests

Regardless of what you think of the reasons for the war. LETS SUPORT OUT PEOPLE OUT THERE!

[Crazy Healer Lady]

Regardless of what you think of the reasons for the war. LETS SUPORT OUT PEOPLE OUT THERE!

Agreed. Most of them don't want to be there. NONE of them have a choice in it. Regardless of how I feel about the war, the reasons behind it, or what is going on within it, my heart goes out to the poor kids.

"God Hates Fags," eh??? I'd like to see what they'd think if the heavens reached down and actually spoke to them - especially since angels, etc are - largely - non-gender. In any paintings of angels, the genders sort of merge. Robust and masculine men have feminine faces, while the women are flat-chested, etc. Perhaps they feel this represents a lack of sexuality rather than a blending. And if the heavens DID speak to them, and said the divine does not care for sexual orientation, they'd just throw up their crosses and call it the Devil!

Fundies!!!

[morgana]

Yeah, I've heard about those people. There's gonna be a special place in the afterlife for them, and I hope it's excruciatingly painful.

[Ragnar]

Yeah, I've heard about those people. There's gonna be a special place in the afterlife for them, and I hope it's excruciatingly painful.

OOOOHHHH. and I thought you were a nice person.

Edit: And as far as "fags" go. I prefer the company of a lot more gays that I know, than I do straights.

And NO I am not gay. They are just.....I don't know....more caring?

[Kitsune]

morgana wrote:
Yeah, I've heard about those people. There's gonna be a special place in the afterlife for them, and I hope it's excruciatingly painful.

Yup, a very special place set aside for them... They get to share the level with the people who take sexual advantage of young girls, and those who talk in theatres!

Quick, 5 points for the person who correctly guesses what this refrences?

On a more serious note, It is just sick that these people would do this sort of stuff at funerals though.

[morgana]

"OOOOHHHH. and I thought you were a nice person. "

I AM a nice person Ragnar, just not to close minded bigoted (sp?) insecure of their own sexuality funeral crashers. If it weren't against the law I'd like to be the one to personally see to their pain and misery, and then send them on their way to their painful afterlife, but those damn laws get in the way!

[underlilith]

It's stuff like that that makes me so ANGRY!!!

I swear, I can't even enjoy Halloween/Samhein anymore because of those stinking fundamentalist christians!!!

[Dark Waters]

The absolute funny thing is, that most churches won't celebrate "Halloween" anymore, instead choosing to call their events "Harvest Festivals".

The Church is the one that turned it into Halloween {Hallow's Eve} to begin with. Then they lost control of it.

The Original Samhain was a celebration of the Last Harvest of the Year, so because of their insecurity they have, we have come around the Circle.

[Jescissa]

Yup, a very special place set aside for them... They get to share the level with the people who take sexual advantage of young girls, and those who talk in theatres!

I guess those 5 points are mine because a) Shepherd Book said it and b) it comes from the Firefly episode 'Our Mrs Reynolds'

As for Westboro Baptist Church, it is sad that they will only get their comeuppance in the next world, but everyone learns their lesson in the end. No one disses one half of humanity and gets away with it!

I only hope that this precedent holds and more and more people sue them for damages. So what if they think that God caused the war to punish America for their gays? Why do they need to picket a straight man's funeral? I think they've lost the plot now (not that they really had one in the first place)

I try very hard to avoid sending out hateful energy into the world, but I really, really hate this church. Everyone apart from them can see how hateful and damaging they really are and it stinks because nothing can stop them.

[Crazy Healer Lady]

Everyone apart from them can see how hateful and damaging they really are and it stinks because nothing can stop them.

Well, suing for $11 million is a good place to start Nothing is unstoppable.

Edit: And as far as "fags" go. I prefer the company of a lot more gays that I know, than I do straights.

And NO I am not gay. They are just.....I don't know....more caring?

Well, I'd say a good majority are a lot more understanding, as is any group that is discriminated against. Maybe outcasts just tend to group, which is odd, because the "outcasts" put together I feel outnumber the Fundies and "Norms" yet those are the ones who have all the influence?

[Dark Waters]

It's because us outcsts are more diverse, while the fundies are rubber stamps.

On other forums I have sometimes been called gay because I vehemently defend full gay rights. It's a perfectly acceptable lifestyle, but just not for me. The reason I defend them so strongly is that I do feel a kinship for their cause for acceptance and how they have been persecuted. Paganism has oft had similar trials.

[Willow]

Ahhh, the Phelps clan...one heck of a case for forced sterilization.

I can't stand these people, but I mainly just ignore them. I figure the best way to fight homophobia is to go about living my life as a good person. Then they come off looking like the idiots.

However, if they were ever at the funeral of one of my friends, I will stand there with a sign saying God loves fags, the rights of the dead are too important to be violated like this. Fortunately, that sort of thing doesn't happen in Canada too much.

As for the afterlife, I think they will all be reincarnated as homosexuals or transgendered people in some repressive regime. The universe will have it's way.

[morgana]

Well the thing is Willow, alot of them probably ARE homosexuals. They're just so terrified of their own feelings that they mask it with hate. There was actually some psychological study done on homophobia where "homophobic" people were made to watch gay porn while hooked up to machines to monitor their arousal levels, and it turned out that homophobic people overwhelmingly were more aroused by gay porn than normal straight people who weren't homophobic. Interesting eh?

Anyway, back to this screwed up church. The other night I saw an interview with these people on the news and it even showed them teaching their children to sing these horrible songs that they had written about "fags" and Jews burning in hell. To see such angelic looking faces singing such evil things was like some sort of twisted horror movie, the REAL horror being that it was real life and NOT a movie.

[Crazy Healer Lady]

There was actually some psychological study done on homophobia where "homophobic" people were made to watch gay porn while hooked up to machines to monitor their arousal levels, and it turned out that homophobic people overwhelmingly were more aroused by gay porn than normal straight people who weren't homophobic. Interesting eh?

I think in many cases that may just have more to do with "bad" and "dirty" things being an automatic "button." However, I won't deny many people are in the closet and hating that they may feel something toward someone of the same gender.

[Kitsune]

You get the points Jecsicca, and an addition 5 for saying which episode it's from!

Grimwell was saying he has to find out more about you now! After all, anyone who loves Firefly that much has to be worth knowing!