FRED PHELPS HATES TURKEY!

[Queequeg]

Actually started feeling really sorry for everyone but the old man, even a little sorry for him in the same way I would feel sorry for Hitler.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7735501683185935638&ei=8vHOSe24C6bOqAL1xZGRDQ&q=louis+theroux&hl=en&client=firefox-a

[The Nickname Who Was Thursday]

Interesting video.

Something that struck me is how incredibly modern the group is. The self-absorption, attention whoring, blithe unconcern with the opinions of others and pride in their own exceptionalism fit perfectly into this age of reality television and youtube. They are followers of a new cult, not relics practicing ye olde time religion.

[Habbaku]

Thanks for the link, Spellus.

I have to agree; I feel a bit of sympathy and pity for just about everyone involved (especially the children), but none at all for the patriarch of the clan.  He was rather plainly filled with anger at everything around him.

[The Brain]

Delicious turkey.

[Martinus]

Funnily enough, I have just listened to the Feast of Fools podcast, with the hosts interviewing Shirley Phelps. It's chilling how sane she otherwise seems, it's as if she was this normal person in 90% with 10% of her mind being this loony bin.

[Martinus]

Her message was pretty much that the "hate the sin love the sinner" message is a hypocritical bullshit.

Either you are a Christian, and should be putting gays to death for practicing sodomy and abomination, or you should support them - in which case there are absolutely no grounds to deny them gay marriage and equal rights.

Also - which was rather disturbing - she has a sense of humour. When asked about her favourite song she said "God Hates the World (And all the children)".

Also, she has some common ground with me - she hates the Pope.

[Syt]

Also - which was rather disturbing - she has a sense of humour. When asked about her favourite song she said "God Hates the World (And all the children)".

Not sure she was trying to be funny. It's a WBC rewrite of "We are the World". You can watch it on their website (link's in my "God Hates Your Country" thread).

[The Nickname Who Was Thursday]

Funnily enough, I have just listened to the Feast of Fools podcast, with the hosts interviewing Shirley Phelps. It's chilling how sane she otherwise seems, it's as if she was this normal person in 90% with 10% of her mind being this loony bin.

I don't know about sane, but she does remind me of several women I've known.

[Martinus]

Also - which was rather disturbing - she has a sense of humour. When asked about her favourite song she said "God Hates the World (And all the children)".

Not sure she was trying to be funny. It's a WBC rewrite of "We are the World". You can watch it on their website (link's in my "God Hates Your Country" thread).

Yeah, but she chuckled at that. She also made some other jokes.

She said it's a parody.

[Syt]

Yeah, but she chuckled at that. She also made some other jokes.

She said it's a parody.

Well, it's hard to tell with them. For a long time I thought that the whole "God hates ..." thing is a parody, like Landover Baptist.

[Martinus]

I think the Phelpses have one thing right - at least from a purely rational perspective, if the Bible is the word of God, then only the biblical literalists are right, and any attempts to accommodate the love for fags, divorcees or shellfish into otherwise Christian religious beliefs is misguided and simply violates the holy revelation.

It just shows how outdated and out of whack religion is.

[Sheilbh]

I think the Phelpses have one thing right - at least from a purely rational perspective, if the Bible is the word of God, then only the biblical literalists are right, and any attempts to accommodate the love for fags, divorcees or shellfish into otherwise Christian religious beliefs is misguided and simply violates the holy revelation. .

Well, yeah.  But almost no-one claims the Bible is the word of God in and of itself.  As Blessed Cardinal Newman put it scripture is proof not the origin of doctrine.

I mean even linguistically in the Christian tradition only the New Testament has ever been considered the word of God (Gospel, comes from Godes Spel, God's word in Anglo-Saxon) and even that's been with a great number of caveats.  I do think, however, that this is a fundamental problem with certain sorts of Protestantism. If the Bible's the true word of God how can you be a cuddly Methodist.  The CofE, to its credit, acknowledges more than one source of doctrine and are, theologically, like a more liberal and decentralised Catholic Church.

[Neil]

Funnily enough, I have just listened to the Feast of Fools podcast, with the hosts interviewing Shirley Phelps. It's chilling how sane she otherwise seems, it's as if she was this normal person in 90% with 10% of her mind being this loony bin.

I'm sure she's more functional than you.  She'd never listen to Feast of Fools, after all.

[Neil]

I think the Phelpses have one thing right - at least from a purely rational perspective, if the Bible is the word of God, then only the biblical literalists are right, and any attempts to accommodate the love for fags, divorcees or shellfish into otherwise Christian religious beliefs is misguided and simply violates the holy revelation.

It just shows how outdated and out of whack religion is.

Except that biblical inerrancy and literalism are held by only a tiny minority of Christians.  But don't let that stop you from shooting your mouth off.  Or rather, go buy a gun, and kill yourself today.

[Syt]

I think the Phelpses have one thing right - at least from a purely rational perspective, if the Bible is the word of God, then only the biblical literalists are right

Then they should read it in the original Hebrew and Greek (with a heavy "yiddish" accent as my Latin teacher called it) in the context of the times. That's where the Muslims are right in a way - if you translate "The Word of God" (i.e. the Quran) then it loses its meaning.