Westboro Baptist Church to protest at W. VA Mine disaster

Though they normally reserve their ire for soldier's funerals - Fred Phelps and the folks at Westboro Baptist Church are packing up their picket signs and heading for the site of the Upper Big Branch mine in W. VA where a recent explosion has left 25 dead.

Protesters From Kansas Take Aim at Miners

Protesters from Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan., headed to the Upper Big Branch mine Thursday morning to convey the message that the explosion there that left 25 miners dead was a result of e-mail messages allegedly sent from West Virginia threatening the Church and its publisher, according to a statement from the Church.
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“This whole nation is awash in rebellious sin and defiance of God, His standard, and His servant’s faithful words,” a news release on the church’s Web site said Thursday morning.

The statement said the church had received threats about a trip to West Virginia and Virginia scheduled to begin Thursday.

“So God reached down and smacked one of those mines, killing 25 (and likely four more are dead),” it said. “Now you moan and wallow in self-pity, and pour over the details of the dead rebels’ lives, pretending they’re heroes.”

Gee - so it wasn't that the mine owner put $ over safety that caused all of this - it was because someone in W.VA and VA send nasty emails to Fred and his crew.

I don't see how this guy keeps any followers. I guess there are lots of nutty people out there.

Wow. That is just ridiculous. I don't even know what to say.

/facepalm

I normally wouldn't be pushed to make such an over the top statement, but I would genuinely love to see one of these Westboro Baptist Church idiots get shot in the head by a grieving miners family member or friend.


These people are the lowest, most deplorable form of scum. And while I admire the infinite patience of military families and others who quietly suffer these fools, I believe it would do Phelps and his gang a lot of good to get served a reality check.

Maybe if a couple of his flock turn up dead they will rethink the wickedness of their actions. If they can't understand the notion of empathy and compassion toward others, maybe a little fear will do the trick.

reply to post by Frogs


I hope he goes down there and the townspeople tear him and his congregation to shreds!


There's not a jury in the world that would convict them.

In my eyes, it would be divine justice.

Holy geez.
When are these people going to protest themselves?

Take a page from Canada - they decided not to come here due to safety concerns.

I was quite unmoved by their plight.

Originally posted by BlackOps719... see one of these Westboro Baptist Church idiots get shot in the head by a grieving miners family member or friend.

According to their logic they are invincible because they do not tolerate homosexuality.

As much as I would think that what that group does is distasteful, and wrong, I also believe they have the right to do such. It is their opinion. However, they also need to realize that one day the are going to find that someone is going to take the law into their own hands and go right after them in their own home town.
I am hoping that the US supreme court finds against them when their case gets there, and the reason why is this:
If I was protesting in my own home town, then I am expressing an opinion and it is my right, but if I am deliberately going outside of my area, to other areas, to do what they are doing, then it is an act of harasement and doing deliberate harm to those who did nothing to them.

I hope Karma bites these scumbags square on the ass. Yes people have the right to express their opinion but these people aren't doing that. They are harassing a peaceful gathering(funeral) and hoping to incite violence against themselves so they can sick their family full of lawyers on the innocent victims they themselves antagonised.

EYE FOR AN EYE

I think the next time one of theirs dies them people should protest their funeral as god is punishing them for their wicked deviation from his teachings.

Westboro Baptist Church and anyone who follows these lunatics deserve what they get. I have a sneaky suspicion that will be eternal damnation.

They do have the right to spout this crap, all day long. And being mostly lawyers, I think they pick and choose the easiest targets, as well as the most finacially rewarding, if something should happen to them. Something else never mentioned is we don't have a right to freedom from being offended.....looks like they have that covered well too. However, alot of people in this country........let me redine that, alot of blue collar workers in this counrty also reserve the right to whoop your ass for getting out of line......let's hope some of the miner's rights are followed.

reply to post by sdcigarpig


To me, this protest seems more retaliation than their previous protests.

Usually they protest things like soldier's funerals with their anti-gay rhetoric. However distasteful and far out it is, these protests may represent what Fred and crew actually believe.

Now, in this case it seems to follow a different pattern. In this case they seem to be taking advantage of the disaster as an excuse to protest simply because some people from the area sent them nasty emails. To me that is basically just retaliation for someone speaking out against them.

If death and destruction befalls any who email nasty things to Westboro Baptist Church then I should be dead a million times over for what I said to them in email and on FaecesBook in February '09...

Westboro said some of their Australian "affiliates" would picket a memorial service for victims of the Victorian Bushfires during that month...Myself and at least 50 other people warned them in no uncertain terms what would happen if their nutjob followers dared to turn up anywhere near Rod Laver Arena...

They didn't show on the day, the service went off without a hitch and every person who threatened them to a man is alive and healthy as I type this post...

Given people like this can't be silenced by laws, there is only one way to do stop them...And that is with violence, pure and simple, they deserve nothing less...I normally would be loathed to advocate violence over a protest group, but these people are a special case...

No measure of violence inflicted upon them would be too severe

reply to post by sdcigarpig



It is easy to squawk on about freedom of speech and the right to protest when looking at it from an outsiders perspective.

But imagine if that were your son, brother, father, husband who had been killed in such a tragic way, or worse trapped two miles deep in the ground and not known if they are alive or dead.


To have these gargoyles show up at the funeral of your cherished loved one, to have them spit their hate rhetoric and shout and picket obscene messages while your loved one's final service is taking place?

Do you believe it is ok for people to exploit the grief and misfortune of others in order to forward their own misguided, evil agenda? Does freedom of speech cover your right to abuse and harrass a grieving family who has done you no wrong?

Im not trying to play any kind of internet tough guy here at all, but if that was my brother laying in that coffin and these bastards started picketing and being disrespectful in such a horrific way, I doubt that there would be enough restraint on God's green Earth to keep me from grabbing a baseball bat and putting someone's lights out.

Put yourself in the shoes of the ones who are suffering a loss, this is not a game. This is someones loved one who they will never see again. You don't exploit that by using their funeral as a launching pad for your stupid political agenda. And if you decide to do so, whatever happens to you is what you deserve.

$0.02

One of my wife's relatives was killed in that explosion. We are going down that way tomorrow to visit his family. Don't let anybody think that these clowns are about religion. Most of them are lawyers. Their church is just a front. They go to where emotions are running high and then try to provoke people into doing something that they can file a lawsuit over and make money. I think they might be making a big mistake here. You have to be alive to sue. Plenty of mineshafts in that area. Accidents happen.

Police Have No Duty To Protect Individuals

Warren v. District of Columbia is one of the leading cases of this type. Two women were upstairs in a townhouse when they heard their roommate, a third woman, being attacked downstairs by intruders. They phoned the police several times and were assured that officers were on the way. After about 30 minutes, when their roommate's screams had stopped, they assumed the police had finally arrived. When the two women went downstairs they saw that in fact the police never came, but the intruders were still there. As the Warren court graphically states in the opinion: "For the next fourteen hours the women were held captive, raped, robbed, beaten, forced to commit sexual acts upon each other, and made to submit to the sexual demands of their attackers."

The three women sued the District of Columbia for failing to protect them, but D.C.'s highest court exonerated the District and its police, saying that it is a "fundamental principle of American law that a government and its agents are under no general duty to provide public services, such as police protection, to any individual citizen." There are many similar cases with results to the same effect.

In the Warren case the injured parties sued the District of Columbia under its own laws for failing to protect them. Most often such cases are brought in state (or, in the case of Warren, D.C.) courts for violation of state statutes, because federal law pertaining to these matters is even more onerous. But when someone does sue under federal law, it is nearly always for violation of 42 U.S.C. 1983 (often inaccurately referred to as "the civil rights act"). Section 1983 claims are brought against government officials for allegedly violating the injured parties' federal statutory or Constitutional rights.

The seminal case establishing the general rule that police have no duty under federal law to protect citizens is DeShaney v. Winnebago County Department of Social Services. Frequently these cases are based on an alleged "special relationship" between the injured party and the police. In DeShaney the injured party was a boy who was beaten and permanently injured by his father. He claimed a special relationship existed because local officials knew he was being abused, indeed they had "specifically proclaimed by word and deed [their] intention to protect him against that danger," but failed to remove him from his father's custody.

The Court in DeShaney held that no duty arose because of a "special relationship," concluding that Constitutional duties of care and protection only exist as to certain individuals, such as incarcerated prisoners, involuntarily committed mental patients and others restrained against their will and therefore unable to protect themselves. "The affirmative duty to protect arises not from the State's knowledge of the individual's predicament or from its expressions of intent to help him, but from the limitation which it has imposed on his freedom to act on his own behalf."

Read more: Source

I hope the police exercise their right to NOT provide protection for those lowlifes.

[edit on 4/9/10 by FortAnthem]

Originally posted by FortAnthem
I hope the police exercise their right to NOT provide protection for those lowlifes.

Knowing what I know about that area, it might just be the Police who drop them down the mine shaft. It is a very close knit community there and everybody is either related or grew up together. Outsiders are usually ignored until they find out that you are so and so's cousin's husband and then everybody treats you as family. I enjoy visiting there, except for this time.

Originally posted by Frogs
In this case they seem to be taking advantage of the disaster as an excuse to protest simply because some people from the area sent them nasty emails. To me that is basically just retaliation for someone speaking out against them.

Not only retaliation, but as a warning: "You mess with us, we'll find a way to bring a message to YOU."

Hopefully a few hundred Patriot Guard Riders show up at their protest.

reply to post by Frogs


Those people are disgusting, despicable excuses for human beings. They have such a warped sense of humanity. Looking forward to the day that "God" slaps them down a few notches.

Originally posted by JIMC5499
One of my wife's relatives was killed in that explosion. We are going down that way tomorrow to visit his family. Don't let anybody think that these clowns are about religion. Most of them are lawyers. Their church is just a front.....

Yes, I've been doing a little research on Fred and crew this afternoon.

They are actually somewhat small - around 70 (give or take ) people the best I've found so far. Most, if not all are relatives of Fred P.

Their leader, Fred Phelps is actually disbarred as a lawyer. Though evidently several others of his family are lawyers. Ironically, Fred started out doing civil rights work.

They are not affiliated with any Baptist body, organization, other churches or group despite their name. In other words, Fred basically just started the church and decided to call it "Baptist" It is no more affiliated with the Baptist branch of the Christian faith than I would be with the Vatican if I decided to start the "Holy Order of the Frog Catholic Church" in my living room tonight.

He's a real bit of work. I'll have to look and see if there has been a thread posted here that takes a good hard look at this group...

The crazy thing about these morons is that Jesus embraced sinners, he preached love and forgiveness.

The ideas of this Church are so far removed from the actual Christian Message that they ought to be banned from calling themselves Christians.

I'm all for freedom of speech, but when it incites the potential for crimes (them getting their asses kicked or worse!) there should be a way to halt them.

Slippery slope I know, but still, these folk are just evil.