Gay Group Hosts Fred Phelps

[Ian David]

Gay Group Hosts Fred Phelps
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
Posted: March 8, 2005 5:01 pm ET

(Fort Wayne, Indiana) The Equal Rights Coalition will play host to America's most notable homophobe in Fort Wayne on Sunday. The Rev. Fred Phelps, who runs the God Hates fags website and whose followers regularly demonstrate against LGBT rights has agreed to take part in a forum on gay rights.

Members of Phelps' Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas - most of whom are family members - gained national notoriety when they protested outside the 1998 funeral for Matthew Shepard, the gay college student beaten to death in Wyoming.

<snip>

The Equal Rights Coalition has scheduled the forum for 11 a.m. Sunday at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne.

<snip>

"We'll accommodate it if it's anywhere near reasonable," Phelps said. "It's just a wonderful way to show the contrast between the truth of God and the abomination of sin."

More:
http://www.365gay.com/newscon05/03/030805phelps.htm

Indiana Equality Coalition
http://www.incoalition.org/




Also:
Anti-gay minister to appear at forum
Topeka church's leader also will protest play in Fort Wayne on murdered gay student.


Associated Press
March 7, 2005


FORT WAYNE, Ind. -- An anti-gay minister who picketed the funeral of a murdered gay college student and plans to protest a play about the man's death said he would take part in a forum on gay rights.

<snip>

The Equal Rights Coalition has scheduled the forum for Sunday at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne as an alternative to counterprotests that could lead to confrontations.

<snip>
The protests are scheduled for the same day as a children's music program at Good Shepherd United Methodist Church, one of the targeted churches, and the Rev. Phil Emerson said members' main concern was "protecting our children from obscenity."

Emerson said Phelps' message was a perversion of Christianity.

"One cannot hate in the name of God," he said.

More:
http://www2.indystar.com/articles/3/227462-2903-009.html


Journal Gazette | 03/06/2005 | Anti-gay Kansas preacher to picket ...
http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/journalgazette/news/11066579.htm

The Revealer, a daily review of religion and the press
http://www.therevealer.org/

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&lr=&c2coff=1&tab=wn&ie=UTF-8&ncl=http://www.365gay.com/newscon05/03/030805phelps.htm

[Bark Bark Bark]

1. This Should Be...

Interesting?
Funny?
Sickening?
A bloodbath?

Thanks, IanDB1, for the contrasting quotes from Phelps and Emerson.

[Ian David]

2. It'll be like pro-wrestling, but only one opponent will know it's pretend.

Actually, it will be more like watching one of those nature shows and you're watching the lion stalk a dumb ol' gazelle...

Phelps has NO CLUE what he's in for.

[atommom]

3. I've seen Phelps argue. His tactic is to yell louder and swear more.

Hope his opponents can stand up to him!

[Technowitch]

4. This is like inviting a Nazi to a Jewish Defense League meeting...

I mean, why? Is there ANY point to having him there?

As Emerson said in the article, "One cannot hate in the name of God" -- but that is EXACTLY what Phelps does.

"Next week, we'll invite in a rabid bear and a group of children, to open a dialog. Or lunch. The bear wasn't exactly clear on this."

[atommom]

5. Sad to say, that's a really good analogy!

[Ian David]

6. I think the majority of Christians are disgusted by Phelps

Many people who used to be anti-semitic had a change of heart when they saw the pictures of the liberated concentration camps.

Why do you think Hitler bothered to cover-up the Holocaust by saying Jews were being "re-settled"?

Phelps is Hitler, but without Hitler's sense to couch his speech in more palatable terms. This is what makes him different from Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Ira Korff, Daniel Lapin, James Dobson, Brian Camenker, George Bush and their ilk. People like Phelps just come right out and say what they mean-- kill them. The others sugar-coat it and it goes down easier.

Many people who are anti-gay (or indifferent) will finally understand what it is they're actually doing. That it isn't about "protecting families" but about destroying them.

[Technowitch]

8. Aye... That's why they'll be called "Re-Orientation Camps" this time

Don't think that isn't the eventual goal of these homophobes, either, because it is.

Gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transgendered -- they want us to be criminalized, marginalized, and gone.

But all this is beside the point. I still don't see what purpose is served by giving Phelps a platform upon which he can spew his hatred. It gives him a patina of legitimacy, which is utterly undeserved.

In other words, nobody should be helping this sick fuck in publicizing his message of hatred, intolerance, and active advocation of violence against us.

[FuzzyDicePHL]

7. Family members

Members of Phelps' Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas - most of whom are family members

Hmm, I didn't realize most of Phelp's church members were his own family. It immediately makes me think of sick family psychoses such as those at work in the families from "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" and the Peacock family from that supercreepy X-Files episode, "Home" (http://www.tvtome.com/tvtome/servlet/GuidePageServlet/showid-61/epid-565/).

:: shudder ::