NationStates Jolt Archive

The following post refers to this article (http://www.heraldsun.com/durham/4-604893.html).

So, last night, I was talking over in Raleigh with a fellow who was saying that whenever he reads about nutty fundamentalists in the news, it's always Kansas. He was, of course, thinking of the recent debacle over evolution in education over yonder.

I thought it seemed strange - surely other states make the news - but lo and behold, I'm reading the paper this morning and what do I see? Kansas.

A local arts school nearby (Durham, NC) put on a production of the Laramie Project. For those of you unfamiliar with the play, it's a play written as a [real] compilation of interviews conducted with Laramie residents after the death of Matthew Shepard ~7 years ago.

So ten protesters make a trip of over a thousand miles from Topeka to protest a school play (!) in Durham. They apparently showed up waving signs and placards. saying provocative things like "Pope in Hell," "God Hates Fags," and "Thank God for 9/11." (I'm not making this up, folks, and if the paper prints a retraction tomorrow saying "April Fool's," I'd be amazed.) Somewhere around ten times as many counter-protesters showed up across the street to chew them out.

They claimed to have plans to picket various area churches tomorrow to protest their lack of protest.

Quotes of interest from the article: "There's not a real church here in the whole city of Durham. If there was, they'd be here every day preaching against these fags." (Sara Phelps, protest organizer and daughter of anti-gay activist/preacher Rev. Fred Phelps).

"It's good theater and we need to make it clear that we aren't scared off from performing this topic." (Eighth grade student going to watch the play.)

"Mr. Fred Phelps and his organization do not speak for us." (Rev. Mark Creech, Christian Action League of North Carolina [Raleigh])

If I had read this from a blog, I would've had trouble believing this to be real. I guess Steve was right - Kansas seems to be producing problems of the Christian fundamentalist nature for the rest of the country.

It's sad that people feel they must be evangelic in such a way to waste resources, time, money and energy just to "preach" to the world in such a forceful and disruptive manner.

It's sad that people feel they must be evangelic in such a way to waste resources, time, money and energy just to "preach" to the world in such a forceful and disruptive manner.
...And when the people there obviously don't care what they have to say.

I hope someone gets rid of Fred Phelps very soon. He's pissing me off.

*facepalms*
I am speechless.

Stupid christans/americans.

That's not too far for the Phelpsian Nutjob Clan to travel at all. Central Washington University's performance of The Laramie Project in the winter of 2001 was picketed by Phelps & Co. Ellensburg is about 2200 miles away from Phelps' Kansas location, and Ellensburg is a very cold and dry place to be in winter.

Despite the cold (both days it was 22F, 9F with wind chill), and depite the usual tension between permanent Ellensburg residents and CWU students, a complete heterogenous counter-protest of over 300 students dwarfed and drowned out these Phelpsian loonies.

I've recently driven through Kansas, and everyone I met when I stopped in Wichita and Hays were about as friendly as people could be, so I'm not damning the whole state. I just wish more Kansans who think Phelps is off his nut would speak out.

Ah, the wonders of freedom of speech. A small price to pay.

They claimed to have plans to picket various area churches tomorrow to protest their lack of protest.

This amused me for some reason.
It's sad that people feel they must be evangelic in such a way to waste resources, time, money and energy just to "preach" to the world in such a forceful and disruptive manner.
What was it that evangelical preacher said on The Daily Show? Something like "There is one passage on homosexuality in the bible and hundreds on poverty. We have to assess where our priorities are."

Something like that.

That's not too far for the Phelpsian Nutjob Clan to travel at all. Central Washington University's performance of The Laramie Project in the winter of 2001 was picketed by Phelps & Co. Ellensburg is about 2200 miles away from Phelps' Kansas location, and Ellensburg is a very cold and dry place to be in winter.

Despite the cold (both days it was 22F, 9F with wind chill), and depite the usual tension between permanent Ellensburg residents and CWU students, a complete heterogenous counter-protest of over 300 students dwarfed and drowned out these Phelpsian loonies.

I've recently driven through Kansas, and everyone I met when I stopped in Wichita and Hays were about as friendly as people could be, so I'm not damning the whole state. I just wish more Kansans who think Phelps is off his nut would speak out.
He came out to here to the East Bay of California, right next to San Francisco to protest a production of The Laramie Project. I think that he secretly likes the play a lot and is going around publicizing productions of it to continue it's success.

He came out to here to the East Bay of California, right next to San Francisco to protest a production of The Laramie Project. I think that he secretly likes the play a lot and is going around publicizing productions of it to continue it's success.

That's the hilarious side of the Law of Unintended Consequences, ain't it? Any press is good press for a show.

I think Americans must have it good if some of them have the time to get into fundamentalism and do this kind of crap. What they need is a good warmongering dictator. Maybe we could revive Stalin and install him in Washington DC.

A few weeks ago some people from Kansas came over here- I only live in Lousiana, so it's not very far, but still- to protest our Catholic churches. There were people with signs saying things such as 'The pope's second week in hell' and other protest-ish phrases. Of course, once they found out our local college has a Gay-Straight Alliance, they decided to hit that the following Monday.

One of them told a friend of mine as he was walking into the church to watch out or he'll get raped by a priest. It's amazing how far they'll go to change the minds of people who are obviously already convinced. (Of course, my friend only went to church that day because of the protesters. He even wore his special pope shirt. But that's beside the point.)

I enjoyed Fred Phelps "godhatessweden" website. It was hilarious.

I enjoyed Fred Phelps "godhatessweden" website. It was hilarious.
Hm... "godhatesfags," "godhatessweden," "godhatesamerica," that guy's got quite a number of names registered.

I wonder if http://godhatesshrimp.com just might be mocking him in particular...

I wonder if http://godhatesshrimp.com just might be mocking him in particular...
:D I hadn't seen that one yet.
There's also www.godhatesfigs.com and www.godhatesbacon.com