In Defense of the Westboro Baptist Church

In Defense of the Westboro Baptist Church

Now that the threat of a demonstration by zealots of the controversial Westboro Baptist Church to create a disturbance at the funeral of Elizabeth Edwards has passed, it’s an opportune time to reassess just what Westboro is up to, what it wants, and why those zealots do what they do.

In a previous life, actually in a previous post dated almost a year ago, I wrote about that “The Westboro Baptist Congregation, the WBC, so thrives on outlandish and hateful propaganda that it must be regarded as one of the worst organizations in the nation in terms of vicious radicalism.

“Make no mistake, the WBC has countless hate-peers. Nevertheless, it’s a standout performer, in a class by itself, especially when it comes to attacks on homosexuals and Jews.

“What makes the WBC even worse is that it cites both Old and New Testament scripture to bolster its points of view and its vile invective. Its website, Godhatesfags.com, cites Calvinistic interpretations of Holy Scripture as Biblical truth.”

See “The Westboro Devil Cites Scripture,” http://bit.ly/bCiwP5, which pulls no punches with respect to homosexuality but which, I believe, is far more tempered than Westboro’s extremes.

I retract none of that, although some should be modified.

The WBC is still outlandish, hateful, vicious, and vile. However, even in its most recent outlandish, hateful, vicious, and vile theatened demonstrations against the memory of Mary Elizabeth Anania Edwards, protests that fortunately were never allowed to happen, reasonable people must grant that Westboro has some valid points.

Some additional points, negative points, are that AOL.com, Google.com, and Bing.com have made access to the Westboro Baptist Church home page virtually inaccessible. That concerted effort at internet censorship, assuming my browser isn’t the culprit, stinks almost as much as Westboro’s tactics.

Therefore, in the absence of any other active defense of the WBC and in view of the active suppression of the First Amendment rights of the WBC, I, grudgingly, offer my meager services.

To be blunt, Pastor Fred Phelps and Westboro’s alleged 40,000 adherents may best be described as imbecilic in many of their activities, though not in their beliefs. However, in view of the fact that America regularly elects imbeciles to govern them and millions of Americans worship at the feet of imbecilic celebrities, how can America–and AOL and Google and Bing– presume to selectively censor the WBC? . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=3007)