Give Up Blog

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Now if a liberal said this...

I'm gratified to see that jackasses like Fred Phelps are representing to the world the full ugliness of fundamentalism, at soldiers' funerals no less. It's become such a problem that a band of motorcyclists named the Patriot Guard Riders have formed to block protests by Phelps at military funerals.

The reasoning given by the Baptist Rev. Phelps for protesting at soldier's funerals is as follows:

Shirley Phelps-Roper, a daughter of Fred Phelps and an attorney for the Topeka, Kansas-based church, said neither state laws nor the Patriot Guard can silence their message that God killed the soldiers because they fought for a country that embraces homosexuals.

"The scriptures are crystal clear that when God sets out to punish a nation, it is with the sword. An IED is just a broken-up sword," Phelps-Roper said. "Since that is his weapon of choice, our forum of choice has got to be a dead soldier's funeral."

Now, as far as right-wing hypocrisy goes, as long as Phelps and his band of jackasses are doing this, and they are not denounced by fellow Baptists, conservative blowhards, etc., it represents the total hypocrisy of conservatives. The right-wing constantly demands liberals denounce their comrades whenever one of them says something nasty and/or stupid, like there is a law that every public figure has to take a stand against every piece of jackassery from their party/group. Let's turn the tables. Why don't people like Anne Coulter consider this conservative treason? Why doesn't Rush Limbaugh denounce this as conservative comfort to the enemy? Why aren't these jackasses even mentioned by the right? Why doesn't O'Reilly make the natural comparison of this group to the Taliban? I bet they share all the same ideology all being stupid fundies.

Well, because they do exactly what the liberals do. When some jackass you're politically aligned with acts stupid, the natural response is to duck your head and hope the issue goes away. If confronted with this group, however, maybe we could get the same kind of ridiculous auto-da-fe out of conservatives where they must systematically denounce Phelps and his anti-gay anti-soldier ilk.

As a give-up issue, Fred Phelps is just about the best thing ever. I love those extra-special fundies like Phelps and Marguerite "God Warrior" Perrin who take the trouble to remind us every once in a while how truly ugly religious fundamentalism is. They're like priceless free-advertisement for left wing causes.

3 Comments:

Anonymous said...

How much do you want to bet Rev. Fred Phelps likes nothing more than to "tend his flock" with 17-year old boys?

5:59 PM, February 21, 2006

Rev. Dr. said...

Well, there is a famous study from 1996 on professed homophobes that 80% showed they had repressed homosexual tendencies (if you wire their penis for sound and show them gay porn they stiffen up). The citation is Journal of Abnormal Psychology, Vol. 105., No. 3 (1996), pp. 440-445. http://content.apa.org/journals/abn/105/3/440
The study doesn't have a big n or anything but it is statistically significant.

It's just reaction formation. Phelps probably is a major queer.

12:30 AM, February 22, 2006

JIM said...

Yes, Fred COULD be a repressed gay. However, if someone harbours major loads of rage and self-hatred, and can't acknowledge it consciously, they have to choose an external demon, one that is impossible to get rid of. That way, they have a life-long target for their wrath. Check out the sad soul who runs "Iconbusters", the one and only Obsessed-with-the-Pope Mr Rand Winburn. Why does he pick on the Pope? Because the papacy looks like having another millennium or so to run. In other words, there's little chance of it being disbanded in the forseeable future, therefore, Ranting (God's Elect Messenger) Windbag can ramble on to his heart's content until the end of his miserable, myopic existence. His problem is that he CAN'T forgive those who have hurt him badly. If you tackle him with this, this humble Christian preacher refuses to discuss the matter, because it's just TOO painful! Far better to delude yourself into thinking that you're fighting God's battles here on earth!! Fred Phelps is no different- he's chosen another target which shows no signs whatsoever of fading away- homosexuals. In truth, I don't think Fred hates gays- he hates himself and his powerlessness to prevent his mother dying when he was young. The man is shit-terrified of abandonment and frighted to admit that he's scared and crying inside. If the papacy and gays didn't exist, these poor fellows would select another "everlasting" target to pick on. Everlasting, because there is no end to the bitterness in their own souls. Their websites mirror this, if you have eyes to read between the lines of self-righteous anger and condemnation. Inside, they're just insignificant humans with abnormal levels of self-loathing. Self-hatred, however, is dealt with by the blessed relief of "knowing" that God, quadzillions of years ago, decided to put you on his VIP list. Voila! At the end of your life, you'll be twanging harps with the angels, whilst the rest of us poor clods--PARTICULARLY those who hurt you!!!- burn away for eternity in Hellfire. They're to be pitied. It's called "delusions of grandeur". Those who are so afflicted are a law unto themselves, answerable only to God Himself, and even that is open to debate!!!

4:03 AM, June 27, 2006