Fred Phelps is Near Death - Now has passed

[northcrunk]

Originally Posted by Cole436

I hope everyone just ignores him and leaves the family in peace.

Show them there's a better way.

Would you feel the same way if they picketed your dead childs funeral? $#ck Phelps and the WBC. If I lived near his grave I would take a dump on it every day.

[Cole436]

Originally Posted by northcrunk

Would you feel the same way if they picketed your dead childs funeral? $#ck Phelps and the WBC. If I lived near his grave I would take a dump on it every day.

Yeah, I would. Hate creates more hate. It would be easy to play on their level. Real strength and courage is walking away from it.

[Devils'Advocate]

That's bull####. Absolute bull####. Unchallenged hate becomes gospel. Hatred towards homosexuals was the norm until people started speaking out against it. You challenge abhorant views, not walk away and leave the charges uncontested.

[Yamer]

I really think the hypotheticals being thrown around are greatly strengthening the quality of argument here.

Originally Posted by Devils'Advocate

That's bull####. Absolute bull####. Unchallenged hate becomes gospel. Hatred towards homosexuals was the norm until people started speaking out against it. You challenge abhorant views, not walk away and leave the charges uncontested.

Well, not quite to that extreme, but I don't think just walking away does it any good either.

[northcrunk]

Originally Posted by PsYcNeT

Is there an address I can mail a jar of farts to?

Communal CP jar of farts?

[Devils'Advocate]

Originally Posted by Yamer

Well, not quite to that extreme, but I don't think just walking away does it any good either.

No? Take a look at Russia. "Being gay man means you are likely a pedophile" is stated as fact. One person says it, then 5 people say it, then 10, then it is accepted as uncontrovertibly true.

[Dion]

Originally Posted by Cole436

I hope everyone just ignores him and leaves the family in peace.

Show them there's a better way.

I read somewhere that the WBC doesn't mourn thier dead.

[Dion]

Originally Posted by Devils'Advocate

That's bull####. Absolute bull####. Unchallenged hate becomes gospel. Hatred towards homosexuals was the norm until people started speaking out against it. You challenge abhorant views, not walk away and leave the charges uncontested.

It's not being unchallenged just because someone doesn't want to picket his funeral. What BBF and her community did for the young girl is a better way of challenging thier hatred.

[puckluck2]

Originally Posted by Cole436

Yeah, I would. Hate creates more hate. It would be easy to play on their level. Real strength and courage is walking away from it.

Sorry but you sound like an elementary teacher. Strength and courage is not walking away from it. Those are lame clichés which mean nothing.

As someone else already pointed out should we "walk away" when dealing with homophobes as well? How about racists? #### Phelps and his church. They can all have a slow and painful death.

[strombad]

Originally Posted by Red Ice Player

We don't seem to be disagreeing. I've moved away from organized religion because I no longer believe in deities. I didn't say Christ came up with the rule, but he lived by it. I don't worship him, but I certainly respect him as a man for the way he conducted himself. As a product of his time, he was rather impressive. As for the golden rule, I stand by it as an ideal, an ideal which I myself have a lot of trouble living up to, and I acknowledge the fact that organized religion is hypocritical in its application of said rule. My original comment was aimed at your drive by comment, which I found kind of condescending. You seemed to be totally dismissing the words of the chaplain, simply because he's a Catholic priest.

Partially, yes. I dismissed his words because I felt his comments showed a type of naïveté and simplistic value that did not lend itself to credibility. Religion, in my opinion, does (but not always) seem to encourage a brand of more simplistic thinking which I don't think lends itself to the most critical of thought.

Not that I think all religion is like that, or religious people for that matter, but I found his comments to be a good representation of it, thus, the "drive-by comment."

[Cole436]

Originally Posted by puckluck2

Sorry but you sound like an elementary teacher. Strength and courage is not walking away from it. Those are lame clichés which mean nothing.

As someone else already pointed out should we "walk away" when dealing with homophobes as well? How about racists? #### Phelps and his church. They can all have a slow and painful death.

By stooping down to their level and being just as hateful towards them as they have been towards others accomplishes nothing. It only further the cycle they've created. I'm not saying ignore what they've done, I'm saying be a better person to them then they've been to those around them. An eye for an eye...well you know the saying.

[strombad]

Originally Posted by Cole436

By stooping down to their level and being just as hateful towards them as they have been towards others accomplishes nothing. It only further the cycle they've created. I'm not saying ignore what they've done, I'm saying be a better person to them then they've been to those around them. An eye for an eye...well you know the saying.

What exactly does being kind to them accomplish? I'm not saying you're wrong, exuding hate towards them accomplishes nothing, but showering them with love and forgiveness accomplishes an equal amount.

None of this accomplishes anything. It's the WBC. They'll do what they do until they stop doing it, regardless of whether you show pity or disgust in the event of their founder passing.

[Yamer]

Originally Posted by Devils'Advocate

No? Take a look at Russia. "Being gay man means you are likely a pedophile" is stated as fact. One person says it, then 5 people say it, then 10, then it is accepted as uncontrovertibly true.

That's a very pessimistic (and entirely unrealistic) view on human nature.

[The Fonz]

Is he dead yet

[puckluck2]

Originally Posted by The Fonz

Is he dead yet

Hopefully not. Hope he is a vegetable and in excruciating pain.

[Cole436]

Originally Posted by strombad

What exactly does being kind to them accomplish? I'm not saying you're wrong, exuding hate towards them accomplishes nothing, but showering them with love and forgiveness accomplishes an equal amount.

None of this accomplishes anything. It's the WBC. They'll do what they do until they stop doing it, regardless of whether you show pity or disgust in the event of their founder passing.

Because I think it destroys what they're looking to accomplish. They're looking for that negative reaction, or even a reaction of indifference.

I think it would show their message isn't working, and people are in general better than the WBC choose to believe they are.

If you don't agree with it, I won't argue with you. It's just how I view the world.

[Azure]

Originally Posted by Minnie

Interesting tidbit that I wasn't aware of either. Haven't there been a couple of other nutjobs that are PBI alumni? I have this vague recollection of some others, but I might have that mixed up with another Bridal....I mean, bible school.

Quite a few doozies have come out of PBI. They are not as fundamental as they used to be but the stuff they practised during the years Phelps was there hardly makes it surprising that he turned out as screwed up as he did.

Someone should write a letter to the Calgary Herald thanking PBI for helping create that old senile fool. They are getting away with what they did IMO.

[ernie]

Reading some articles last night it seems he was excommunicated after a power struggle between the board of elders led by Drain and Shirley Phelps ( I think... Doing this from memory). After the board of elders won Fred Phelps advocated that the members of the church ought to treat each other better. So they booted him.

[Yamer]

Originally Posted by Azure

Quite a few doozies have come out of PBI. They are not as fundamental as they used to be but the stuff they practised during the years Phelps was there hardly makes it surprising that he turned out as screwed up as he did.

Someone should write a letter to the Calgary Herald thanking PBI for helping create that old senile fool. They are getting away with what they did IMO.

It isn't just their doctrine and educational system that was off-kilter, from what I understand it was a pretty hellish place for some students to go. Abuse, neglect, all that stereotypical "good stuff" that you would expect to be associated with a fundamentalist church run institution operating very hands off from the larger organization.

I know of some unconfirmed stories from as late as the latter half of the 90s. At the same time I know some pretty remarkable people that have come out of that system too.

[Azure]

Yes. I have heard of the abuse as well. Pretty sad, really.

And like you, I know some pretty great people that have gone there as well. One of them is very close to me.