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The infamous Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas hit up the Hyde Park campus of the University of Chicago yesterday, one of three protests the church had planned at the University. According to a report last month by Chi Town Daily News:
The group is targeting several so-called evils at its March 9 protests in Chicago. Among them, according to the church's Website: that Theodore Jennings, the founder of the Chicago Theological Seminary, believes Jesus was a homosexual.And at the University of Chicago itself, the group will argue its contention that President Obama is the Antichrist and misinformed students when he taught at the law school.
Of course, what the WBC protesters didn't count on was a clever counter-protest by students, staff, and faculty of the school, who easily out-numbered the WBC protesters. But it wasn't just about mocking the WBC'ers. The U of C participants brought the event an almost festive atmosphere, serving food and raising over $500 for the Broadway Youth Center, as well as collecting signatures on petitions urging the overturning of California's controversial Prop 8.
Additional pictures of everything that went down can be found here. [via Gapers Block]
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The WBC is a perfect example of the abuses of the 1st Amendment. I wish for nothing but bad things to happen to them.
There is no scuh thing as an "abuse" of the first amendment, unless you are a facist. Or yelling "fire in a crowded theater...
It is like Michael Douglas says at the end of "The American President" something about the beauty of the Constitution being that people have the right to yell at the top of their lungs what you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours.
Jenny has a point, which is what makes the U of C counter-protest even better. They didn't disrupt the WBC'ers, they just played the same game but to a positive outcome.
This is how everybody should handle these morons. People should gather to laugh at them and use them to raise money for good things the morons oppose, then wave all the money they've raised in the morons' faces.
This is awesome, I wish I would have known about this.
Don't these WBC people have jobs? How do they have all this time to travel all over the country embarassing themselves?
They've got a lot of members actually and they all contribute to the pot. Also they file tons of lawsuits when they're prevented from picketing.
They're baptists, people! What do you think baptists do?
Hey now, my grandparents are Baptists.
In all seriousness, I think it's a testament to people's patience and temperament that none of these lunatics have been seriously beaten or killed. Fuck this church.
Yes, all Baptists are unhinged nasty people who run about the world protesting in the most offensive and hurtful way possible. Yes, the grinding noise is my teeth; this is what happens when I see people using the all-inclusive hate that WBC uses in an attempted critique of the WBC. Which is a shame, because this article was about an awesome way of reacting to them.
Baptists aren't all the same. Baptist churches aren't all the same; there are a crazy number of sub-denominations. Even amongst Southern Baptist churches, there's huge variance; my dad's SB church in the early 90s was a big zone of hate--my first time there, they shat-talked Catholics (like my grandma) and Bill Clinton (a Southern Baptist). The church where my friend's dad, a Ned Flanders look-alike, was the pastor? Really nice.
Anyhow, back to the positive: I happened to be down in HP for other business yesterday; it was great to see all the student running around, making signs and t-shirts, setting up the s'mores stand, and generally being excited. Between this and Obama, can everyone forgive us now for that entire trickle-down economics thing?
I was raised Baptist. Joke:
Q: Why don't Baptists ever have sex while standing up?
A: Because someone might think they were dancing.
Funny enough for the WBC bunch... U of C was founded by noted Baptist John Rockefeller and the American Baptist Education Society. As John D. himself said, "best investment I ever made." Rings true more than ever...
Favorite ones:
"God listens to Kenny Loggins" (Go yacht rock!)
"God Watches the Watchmen but he thought the movie was SHIT"
this is perfect. this is EXACTLY what people need to do when these people come to their town. laugh at them. love them. hold signs that say god loves ____. that's the way to combat this stuff. not with hate.
My two favorite from the photos: "God Loves Red Lobster"..."God Shoulda Put A Ring On It"
LOL
My two favorite from the photos: "God Loves Red Lobster"..."God Shoulda Put A Ring On It"
LOL
"God Shoulda Put A Ring On It"
win.
Cthulhu Hates Chordates, FTW! :)
I also like "God Loves Red Lobster" and "God Shoulda Put a Ring On It"...
All good stuff.
Obama stopped teaching there in 2004, correct? I love the concept of protesting something FIVE YEARS AFTER THE FACT. I hope this crew is still stationed outside Blockbuster locations protesting "Brokeback Mountain" DVDs.
I've played Laser Tag with God...she's really good.
The accuracy!
It was a lot of fun there while making fun of these idiots.
You left out the "God Loves Netflix" sign some girl was holding up.
And all the guys dancing to music up there were great.
At one point there was an organized effort for everyone to turn their backs to them.
But the one idiot from the loony church was apparently enjoying it as he was dancing to the music as he kept swapping his ludicrous signs for 20-30 minutes.
They also brought a young boy who kept stepping on a US flag. I think this is the same boy from the Louis Theroux BBC documentary [available on YouTube in multiple segments]. The little boy, maybe five at the time of the doc was asked by Theroux what a fag is & he had no idea.
"Shoulda Put A Ring On It" = Masterstroke
D
If all the WBC signs are right that would make 'God' a Misanthrope. Wouldn't that contradict their belief system?
Oh- Some American Baptist Churches support gays- Members of the Association of Welcoming & Affirming Baptists (AWAB) are churches, organizations, and individuals who are willing to go on record as welcoming and affirming all persons without regard to sexual orientation or gender identity, and who have joined together to advocate for the full inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons within Baptist communities of faith. Our unique makeup helps make AWAB The National Voice for LGBT Baptists.
The last Time WBC came to Seattle First Baptist Church to protest, only two protesters showed up. When WBC showed up at University Baptist Church in Seattle WA, the pastor invited them in for Coffee and church. WBC turned tail and left. They don’t know what to do with themselves when your nice to them.
This is fabulous. If this was applied more with people like this, we wouldn't hear from them so much.
"God Listens To Kenny Loggins" - yes, I loved that too.
This is exactly the way that the Westboro Baptist Church should be counter-protested. The Westboro Baptist Church doesn't want to convert souls — they believe that the world is evil, and they think that they are doing God's work by inciting people to say things and do acts that make people exhibit the emotion of hatred. In the BBC documentary The Most Hated Family in America, they actually say this:
And:
1It's fairly clear from Theroux's behavior throughout the documentary that he doesn't really believe in the Phelps' beliefs — he's just sort of engaging Phelps-Roper on this.
As well as in the voiceovers, where Theroux (who lived with them for a few weeks for the documentary) says at one point, "The Phelps had no interest in winning souls to Christ. In their world, being hated was proof that they were doing the right thing," and at another point, "Shut off from the world, they preach a hatred that is reflected back at them, confirming them in their beliefs."
The Westboro Baptist Church does what they do because they want people to yell and curse at them. They get what they want, and that makes them happy — it's a perpetual reinforcement of their belief that they're the only people in the world who will be saved by God come Rapture time, and the rest of us will all get sliced 'n' diced.
So I imagine any incident where they don't get that would be quite frustrating for them. I imagine the best possible reaction to a WBC protest would be for them to be treated with a "huh? oh, hi. no big thing" reaction, but then I imagine they'd decide their incitements would have to get bigger and more drastic ...
Eh, who gives a shit about these crazies.
What'll be fun is when the idiots holding up the "Bloody Obama" signs get their doors kicked in by the FBI or the Secret Service boards up their church's door.
Or when some battle hardened tough (in the 77% of active military who don't care about serving with openly homosexual servicepeople (see: recent internal polls from DoD) sees these motherfuckers stomping all over the flag they fought under.
Go get 'em!!
PS There should be more counter-protests with marshmallow roasts!!
I got the original of the "God hates Figs" flyer from the student who made it. You can view it here.
I got the original of the "God hates Figs" flyer from the student who made it. You can view it here.
I really love the photo of the woman with rainbow's coming off her eyes.