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Loading ...Phelps clan threatens UK college
02.17.2009 1:35pm EST
(London) Followers of the Rev. Fred Phelps say they plan to demonstrate a production of the play “The Laramie Project” at a British college this week – the first foray by the Topeka Kansas church into the UK.
Phelps runs an organization called Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka and his followers regularly stage noisy protests against homosexuality throughout the US.Westboro’s members are made up mostly of Phelps’ relatives. Although it professes to be Baptist, it is not affiliated with any national Baptist group.
Westboro operates Web sites including GodHatesFags and GodHatesAmerica and has been described as a cult.
Phelps and the church first came to national attention when he organized a protest by his followers outside the 1998 funeral for Matthew Shepard.
“The Laramie Project” is based on the Shepard murder. It will be performed Friday night at the Central Studio arts venue at Queen Mary’s College.
The Phelps group announced its plan protest on its Web site under the headline “God Hates England; Your Queen Is A Whore.”
Ben Summerskill, chief executive of the British LGBT rights group Stonewall, called the threatened protest “distressing.”
“The Laramie Project is a very serious play about a young man who was beaten to death just because he was gay. To regard that as a cause for celebration will make a lot of people both gay and straight feel very uncomfortable,” he told The Telegraph.
The local Member of Parliament, Maria Miller (C), said that she has contacted the Home Secretary to see what action the Government may be considering. Under British law, hate groups may be banned from entering the country.
Miller cited Westboro’s “highly inflammatory language and behavior.”
“The most important thing is that a production that is trying to promote tolerance goes ahead and that’s what I’m focusing on achieving,” she told The Telegraph.
Westboro regularly pickets throughout the US, but often threatens demonstrations without showing up.
The group was a no-how at President Barrack Obama’s inauguration despite announcing it would protest. It said last year it would demonstrate in two Canadian provinces but when the government moved to block entry into Canada, was able only to sneak into one area.
Hey – why do you refuse to publish comments you don’t like? Why did you bump off the comment by Shirley Phelps-Roper who points out you lie about our presence at the showing our signs to Obama? You cowards should post her comment and stop being such haters!!
Phelp’s church is made up of most his children and their spouses and thusly his grandchildren.
He abused his wife and his kids. He tyrannized his family and turn his wife into a cow pumping out kid after kid until eventually he had 13 children by her. A man with a mean and ugly temperament. The sickening history of this “crazy as a fox” whily madman is there to see on the internet. His “church” is largely “the fruit of his loins”. And he wanted his kids to be lawyers so that he could have his way. One of his daughters ran against a lesbian candidate for Topeka, Kansas city council and the homophobe lost to her. A Phelps beat by a lesbian! (that is the town where this madman and his merry band of yammering munchkins live) Some of his own children were permanently estranged from their crazy father, I read and some have moved far away from him.
I’m sure this won’t be popular but you could always send ‘em down to Jacksonville, FL. I know enough queers down here that you won’t ever hear from Mr. Phelps again. I learned there are two ways to deal with nasty people – ignore them or bury them. I often prefer the latter.
If you are smart, you will help increase the memberships at sites below. I feel so much better and truly “Free” since I became a supporter of “Freedom from Religion Foundation” and “Free Thinkers” good luck to ending the hate, it runs deep in those hateful so called “christian” people.
http://www.centerforinquiry.net
http://www.ffrf.com
THE RELIGIOUS NAZIS need to be taken down a notch and get back to being more Jesus Christ “Christian” like instead of political activists and haters….
They should be getting homeless people of the streets and abused children out of “Straight” abusive homes, feed the poor, etc…
Oh, take sexual digs at the Queen. Real innovative, that. Peter and the Test Tube Babies beat y’all to that DECADES ago.
TQGGBJ.
The scary thing about the whole “Fred Phelps” congregation/family)is when they start carrying weapons and start killing everyone who believes in equality for everyone. I hope that this will not happen, but what’s their next step? Innocent people will die, by the hands of the Fred Phelp’s out there. That’s what’s really going to be scary.
That is so funny “And remember at the end of the day God hates you”. Who was it in the bible that preached that? Jesus? Actually I think he said God loves you. Love thy neighbor as thyself. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Nope, I can’t find that one in the bible anywhere. Maybe you should get one of those bibles that uses red letters to show where Christ himself was speaking? I thought the point of being a “Christian” was to be Christ like. It seems you people need to do some studying before you do anymore preaching. Remember the place in hell where all the preachers go that lead their flock astray? I do believe they have a room with your name on it as it stands now. You can always repent and apologize to God for trying to speak for him and messing it up completely. To err is human, to forgive Divine.
“And remember at the end of the day God hates you”. Who was it in the bible that preached that? Jesus? Actually I think he said God loves you. Love thy neighbor as thyself. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Nope, I can’t find that one in the bible anywhere. Maybe you should get one of those bibles that uses red letters to show where Christ himself was speaking? I thought the point of being a “Christian” was to be Christ like. It seems you people need to do some studying before you do anymore preaching. Remember the place in hell where all the preachers go that lead their flock astray? I do believe they have a room with your name on it as it stands now. You can always repent and apologize to God for trying to speak for him and messing it up completely. To err is human, to forgive Divine.
Fred Phelps uses the publicity from his “demonstrations” to raise money for his “church”. The money goes to pay for the operating costs of the “church”, and for the next trip to go to a “demonstration”.
Here’s the good part: The “church” is really just his family. The “demonstrations” are really just vacation trips. The operating costs for his “church” consist of his mortgage, utilities, food, and travel expenses.
Have you ever noticed that the “demonstrations” are almost always done in places that other people call “vacation destinations”?
Hell, send them to Iran….. let them put their money where their mouths are! They whould be welcomed with open arms by the fundamentalists there! THEY hate fags as much as the Phelps clan does (it would be entertaining to see how they fared in Iran)
Phelps and his looney family ought to be deported to Gitmo. I hope the UK has enough sense to refuse Phelps and tribe entry into Britain or if it does expel them once they set foot off their plane.
Morgan – they are already banned from entering Canada
you know they prob just gone to go there just to get arrested then deported back to the usa
Dear Shirley Phelps-Roper,
You have no right to say half the things you just said. If God did hate gays then why did he make us? God obviously did not make the bible, man made it. So how do you know God doesn’t think the bible is a sin? Ever since I was a little kid I have believed in God, but I don’t believe in the bible. The bible was written a hundred years after Jesus’ death, so how on earth do you know what it states is true? I have known I was gay since the 2nd grade yet I still love God because I know he loves me. Being gay can not be a sin, because we can not control it. There are many other species that have homosexuals. Like dolphins, sheep, lions, dogs, and many more. The only way I will ever believe that God hates me, or thinks being gay is a sin, is if he comes down from the heavens and says it himself.
Does this “church” actually get tax benefits from the IRS? If they do,then it should be revoked permanently. Any other hate group would not be able to be tax free. Does anybody know how to find this out?