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Title: Opinion piece about Westboro Baptist Church.
Source:
sltrib.com
URL Source: http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/lifest ... oro-baptist-god-corey.html.csp
Published: Sep 12, 2010
Author: Corey J. Hodges
Post Date: 2010-09-12 14:14:49 by Ferret Mike
Keywords: None
Views: 123970
Comments: 131
Westboro Baptist Church preaches that all the world’s tragedies can be blamed on society’s tolerance of gays.
Pastor Fred Phelps Sr. leads the Topeka, Kan., congregation of 70 to 80 members, most of whom are his children and grandchildren. Although Westboro identifies itself as Baptist, it is not affiliated with any known Baptist convention or association.
The congregation has made headlines by picketing at military funerals, arguing that the soldiers’ deaths are God’s punishment for homosexuality. The group also protested at the Rev. Jerry Falwell’s funeral, calling him a “false prophet,” and recently in West Virginia, where 29 miners were killed, with signs that read, “Thank God for dead miners.”
Albert Snyder, the grieving father of one fallen soldier, sued Westboro for invading his privacy and inflicting emotional distress (Snyder’s son was not gay). The legal dispute is now headed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
There is no biblical defense for Westboro’s hateful message and insensitive demonstrations. The group’s philosophy and approach are riddled with contradictions. Westboro cannot truly believe in the Bible, which speaks of God’s love, mercy and grace. Jesus vehemently opposed earthly agents of condemnation. He said, in Matthew, “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged. … Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye.” Westboro’s hate is a huge plank.
Some argue that, although Westboro’s protests are despicable, they are not illegal. The fear is that if the high court restricts the group’s First Amendment right, it will have dire consequences for all of us. Private speech endorsing religion is protected under the Constitution’s Free Speech and Free Exercise clauses. People of faith always worry that a ruling limiting First Amendment rights could affect religious speech.
It seems, therefore, that the only way to combat the Westboro radicals and other hate groups is through counter-protests. When Westboro showed up in West Virginia, counter-demonstrators staged a far bigger rally.
While Westboro’s actions may be not be illegal, they are immoral and unethical. People of faith must remember that the law cannot be the sole decider of behavior. We should hold ourselves to a higher standard. The law may permit us to do certain things, but our religious convictions should restrain us.
Corey J. Hodges is pastor of New Pilgrim Baptist Church. He can be reached at coreyjhodges@comcast.net.
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#9. To: Murron (#6)
Did you ever get around to apologizing to me?
"Our quest for the lesser evil has arrived at an impasse. On one hand we have a world-class Doublethinker who expects us to thank him for keeping promises he has vigorously broken and to accept the cynical notion that war is peace. On the other we have a mob of flesh-eating galoots who promise to give us Orwell’s Hate Week 52 weeks a year for as long as it takes them to bring about Armageddon. " — Jeff Huber
Stop feeling picked on and embrace values. Throw away your moral relativism. You will be much more fulfilled.
Well, [war's] got to do something for attention, his multiple personalities aren't speaking to him any more, and his imaginary friends keep finding excuses not to come over. (Murron)
FReeper grade propaganda who's only purpose is to try to dampen discourse. The people I see as the worst at distinguishing between people and behavior are FReeper grade conservatives that don't like diversity of opinion.
Picked on?!? By you?!? BWAHAHAHAHAHA... Stop pretending that you speak for a Ghost.
Is that both of you expressing your love for me? [snicker]
Ha...
It's hard to live up to sometimes, but that is what we are taught to do.
"I really wanna care. I wanna feel somethin'. Let me dig a little deeper:. No, My give-a-damn's busted"~ Messina Jo Dee
That tag line just drives you to distraction, doesn't it? I think I'll keep it around awhile . . . :-P
Well, [war's] got to do something for attention, his multiple personalities aren't speaking to him any more, and his imaginary friends keep finding excuses not to come over. (Murron)
:-P Any tagline that is portrayed as an 'original' Murron quote is just too funny. Maybe you'd better try to find who she stole it from. I would guess BE.
Denial is not a river in Egypt.
Nope. I've used the imaginary friends line several times in the last 30 years or so...
Thanks. Irony isn't what you do to wrinkled clothing...
Whining mold, I see you responded to whore's invitation to spam. Class shows through. If whore were honest and had virtue, he would have explained to you that I previously tried to iron out authorship with him (whore) and he devolved to catty name-calling. Frustrated by this, I returned Murron to the authorship since that is where I first read the quote. Don't like it or Murron? I don't care. Get a life and stop being at war's beck and call.
Well, [war's] got to do something for attention, his multiple personalities aren't speaking to him any more, and his imaginary friends keep finding excuses not to come over. (Murron)
Bull. It drives you crazy and that is why this page is filling up with your troll proteges.
Well, [war's] got to do something for attention, his multiple personalities aren't speaking to him any more, and his imaginary friends keep finding excuses not to come over. (Murron)
Ground Control to Major Thom... [snicker]
More of that love coming thru...
You mean protégé. Don't forget the accents.
The Bible says a whole lot more about economic injustice that it does about homosexuality. Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. They were haughty and did detestable things before me. Therefore I did away with them as you have seen.
Instead of your over protestation and feeble attempts at stifling debate here, why don't you just find the source of the plagiarizer's quote. Believe me, she didn't make it up herself. She'll be taking credit for your stuff fairly soon too. LOLOL
They all steal from each other to the point they all sound the same. There's not an original thought in the whole group.
In case you don't know, Rudgear thinks that all of us are war's sock puppets, controlled totally by him.
"Our quest for the lesser evil has arrived at an impasse. On one hand we have a world-class Doublethinker who expects us to thank him for keeping promises he has vigorously broken and to accept the cynical notion that war is peace. On the other we have a mob of flesh-eating galoots who promise to give us Orwell’s Hate Week 52 weeks a year for as long as it takes them to bring about Armageddon. " — Jeff Huber
Not to mention that what is said in the Old Testament has completely different meanings then those attributed to them. For example, Genesis 19 is a major 'slam dunk them' passage conservative Christians use to condemn homosexuality; but it's real meaning is about Condemning the raping of strangers for the purpose of humiliation. All of the alleged Old testament passages used as evidence God condemns homosexuality are misunderstood and translated wrongly toward the furthering of modern bigotry.
Darn you!!!!
BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! FROM THE SITE'S TWO PREMIER LIBERALS, NO LESS!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you, God for the great laugh.
Well, [war's] got to do something for attention, his multiple personalities aren't speaking to him any more, and his imaginary friends keep finding excuses not to come over. (Murron)
What are you laughing at?
No, I think you are all his suck puppets.
Well, [war's] got to do something for attention, his multiple personalities aren't speaking to him any more, and his imaginary friends keep finding excuses not to come over. (Murron)
You really are that deluded you can't even admit it to yourself in the privacy of your own thoughts, can you?
Well, [war's] got to do something for attention, his multiple personalities aren't speaking to him any more, and his imaginary friends keep finding excuses not to come over. (Murron)
Raping of strangers is a theme of the OT. It usually starts with the townsfolk wanting to rape a male visitor, and ends with the visitor's host offering them his wife or daughters instead. Women were worth less than cowshit in the OT.
"Our quest for the lesser evil has arrived at an impasse. On one hand we have a world-class Doublethinker who expects us to thank him for keeping promises he has vigorously broken and to accept the cynical notion that war is peace. On the other we have a mob of flesh-eating galoots who promise to give us Orwell’s Hate Week 52 weeks a year for as long as it takes them to bring about Armageddon. " — Jeff Huber
He's just another poster pigeon holer so Tull won't feel lonesome with his wrong assessments.
That's not what you told me yesterday.
"Our quest for the lesser evil has arrived at an impasse. On one hand we have a world-class Doublethinker who expects us to thank him for keeping promises he has vigorously broken and to accept the cynical notion that war is peace. On the other we have a mob of flesh-eating galoots who promise to give us Orwell’s Hate Week 52 weeks a year for as long as it takes them to bring about Armageddon. " — Jeff Huber
J'adore les jeux marionnette
They were mighty friendly to strangers in the OT, when they weren't slaughtering the women and children of the tribe in the next valley over.
It's hard to keep things straight when one is the moral equivalent of a Yugo traveling the highways of life. Wha...huh? You typing randomly again?
I've found that cyberpace is filled with trillions, upon trillions of thoughts, ideas, and just plain words, that it's nigh on impossible to form an opinion that hasn't already been spoken. It doesn't mean that a person has stolen anything, it's that most of us do have the same thoughts, and/or opinions, you couldn't sling a dead cat out in cyberspace without hitting a thought or idea that hasn't already been posted somewhere. So these trolls who can't seem to come up with an original thought of their own (ironic, isn't it?), resort to attacking those who do express themselves, in an attempt to save face. jmo
"I really wanna care. I wanna feel somethin'. Let me dig a little deeper:. No, My give-a-damn's busted"~ Messina Jo Dee
Yup, there is always irony and hypocrisy to be found between the lines in that censored collection of religious writings. Just look at Jude 1:7 which is said to mean that sexually active homosexuals will go to Hell, not Heaven, at death actually means Humans who have sex with other species will go to Hell, not Heaven, at death. They loved to eat meat and wear skins, but they did not take to any poking of the ewe by any flock manager.
In one particulary memorable OT story, the visitor let the mob have his female companion. The next morning she was left dead on his host's doorstep. No problem. The visitor cut her into 12 pieces and sent her, presumably, to the 12 tribes of Israel, then went on his way. The bible is full of heartwarming tales like this one.
"Our quest for the lesser evil has arrived at an impasse. On one hand we have a world-class Doublethinker who expects us to thank him for keeping promises he has vigorously broken and to accept the cynical notion that war is peace. On the other we have a mob of flesh-eating galoots who promise to give us Orwell’s Hate Week 52 weeks a year for as long as it takes them to bring about Armageddon. " — Jeff Huber
Translation: throw a dead cat in a library and it will hit a book with words I have used before. Honey, stop trying to save face; we forgive you for your misrepresentation of the words of others, but don't push your luck by trying to pass the blame off as belonging to us. I would quit before you push your luck to far. ....and what the heck is cyper pace anyway?
Speaking of unoriginal trolls who attack instead of contributing, I'm still waiting for your apology for this: " Skip is correct it happened under Bush. mininggold or lucysmom taught me that. But it was revealed when Obama was president. Then I owe him an apology, but I still haven't seen a link posted showing this, everywhere I go, the date '2009' pops up, so if you have a link to the original story connecting bush, I'd like to see it. Thanks! "I really wanna care. I wanna feel somethin'. Let me dig a little deeper:. No, My give-a-damn's busted"~ Messina Jo Dee Murron posted on 2010-09-12 0:03:24 ET Linkydink is here.
"Our quest for the lesser evil has arrived at an impasse. On one hand we have a world-class Doublethinker who expects us to thank him for keeping promises he has vigorously broken and to accept the cynical notion that war is peace. On the other we have a mob of flesh-eating galoots who promise to give us Orwell’s Hate Week 52 weeks a year for as long as it takes them to bring about Armageddon. " — Jeff Huber
I think Monty Python was thinking of this self discribed she-hick when that troop of preformers came up with the Black Knight in 'The Search for the Holy Grail.' "Come back and fight, cowards." (hop...hop...hop...hop)
Comments (50 - 131) not displayed.
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#10. To: war (#8)
#11. To: Rudgear (#7)
"Libs hate that, for some sick reason."
#12. To: Rudgear (#10)
Stop feeling picked on and embrace values.
#13. To: Rudgear, Murron (#7)
Well, [war's] got to do something for attention, his multiple personalities aren't speaking to him any more, and his imaginary friends keep finding excuses not to come over. (Murron)
#14. To: war (#13)
#15. To: Ferret Mike (#14)
#16. To: Rudgear (#7)
(Edited)
Hate the sinful, perverted behavior but love the sinner.
#17. To: war (#13)
#18. To: Rudgear (#17)
That tag line just drives you to distraction, doesn't it? I think I'll keep it around awhile . . .
#19. To: war (#13)
[snicker]
#20. To: Rudgear (#17)
#21. To: hondo68 (#19)
#22. To: mininggold, war (#18)
#23. To: war (#20)
#24. To: Rudgear (#23)
#25. To: Rudgear (#22)
Whining mold, I see you responded to whore's invitation to spam.
#26. To: Rudgear (#23)
#27. To: Ferret Mike (#0)
Westboro Baptist Church preaches that all the world’s tragedies can be blamed on society’s tolerance of gays.
#28. To: Rudgear (#22)
Whining mold, I see you responded to whore's invitation to spam. Class shows through. If whore were honest and had virtue, he would have explained to you that I previously tried to iron out authorship with him (whore) and he devolved to catty name-calling. Frustrated by this, I returned Murron to the authorship since that is where I first read the quote. Don't like it or Murron? I don't care. Get a life and stop being at war's beck and call.
#29. To: war (#25)
More of that love coming thru...
#30. To: mininggold, war, lucysmom, go65, Brian S, Rudgear (#28)
#31. To: lucysmom (#27)
(Edited)
#32. To: Skip Intro (#30)
Rudgear thinks that all of us are war's sock puppets
#33. To: mininggold (#29)
They all steal from each other to the point they all sound the same. There's not an original thought in the whole group.
#34. To: Rudgear (#33)
#35. To: war, skivvy (#32)
#36. To: war (#34)
#37. To: Ferret Mike (#31)
but it's real meaning is about Condemning the raping of strangers for the purpose of humiliation.
#38. To: war (#34)
What are you laughing at?
#39. To: Rudgear (#35)
No, I think you are all his suck puppets.
#40. To: Rudgear (#35)
#41. To: Skip Intro (#37)
Raping of strangers is a theme of the OT. It usually starts with the townsfolk wanting to rape a male visitor, and ends with the visitor's host offering them his wife or daughters instead.
#42. To: Skip Intro (#39)
"That's not what you told me yesterday."
#43. To: Rudgear (#36)
#44. To: Rudgear, mininggold (#33)
"They all steal from each other to the point they all sound the same. There's not an original thought in the whole group."
#45. To: mininggold (#41)
"They were mighty friendly to strangers in the OT, when they weren't slaughtering the women and children of the tribe in the next valley over."
#46. To: mininggold (#41)
They were mighty friendly to strangers in the OT, when they weren't slaughtering the women and children of the tribe in the next valley over.
#47. To: Murron (#44)
(Edited)
"I've found that cyberpace is filled with trillions, upon trillions of thoughts, ideas, and just plain words, that it's nigh on impossible to form an opinion that hasn't already been spoken. It doesn't mean that a person has stolen anything, it's that most of us do have the same thoughts, and/or opinions, you couldn't sling a dead cat out in cyberspace without hitting a thought or idea that hasn't already been posted somewhere."
"So these trolls who can't seem to come up with an original thought of their own (ironic, isn't it?), resort to attacking those who do express themselves, in an attempt to save face."
#48. To: Murron (#44)
So these trolls who can't seem to come up with an original thought of their own (ironic, isn't it?), resort to attacking those who do express themselves, in an attempt to save face. jmo
#49. To: Skip Intro (#48)
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