West Seattle Blog...

WSB Forum » Open Discussion

(23 posts)

Protesters should not be at funerals

Started 3 months ago by pattilea
Latest reply from NFiorentini

pattilea
Member Profile

I am so sad, that there will be protesters at the funeral of the Powell children. After all this family has been through, I just want them to be able to grieve in peace!

Posted 3 months ago #
datamuse
Member Profile

Last few times WBC threatened to picket a funeral they didn't actually show up.

(Btw, the family is asking would-be counterprotesters to stay home.)

Posted 3 months ago #
herongrrrl
Member Profile

Occupy Seattle's Facebook event page about this is now asking folks NOT to come to protest, and says that Westboro has said they will not be there.

Posted 3 months ago #
luckymom30
Member Profile

Thank goodness!! Let those 2 beautiful children rest in peace. Best news I've heard all day! Protesting has no business at funerals.

Posted 3 months ago #
Betty T
Member Profile

No matter why the funeral, survivors and mourners deserve respect, no protesters. What were they protesting?

Posted 3 months ago #
DBP
Member Profile

There is only one funeral I'm ever going to protest at, and that is my own.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

>> No matter why the funeral, survivors and mourners deserve respect, no protesters. What were they protesting? —Betty T

—Well, Betty, you're probably not gonna believe it, but this [Westboro Baptist]* group was going to use the funeral to protest . . . get ready for this . . .

Homosexuality.

Yup. These folks claim that God hates America for tolerating homosexuals and that the any time an American is murdered, it's God's way of showing his anger at us.

Makes a lot of sense, huh?

*Thanks for the note, herongrrrl.

Posted 3 months ago #
herongrrrl
Member Profile

To be clear, it was Westboro Baptist "church" who was planning to protest the funeral. There were between 1500-3000 people (depending on who you ask) from a wide range of social and activist groups who planned to be present to counter-protest by shielding the funeral goers from the Westboro picketers.

Posted 3 months ago #
datamuse
Member Profile

Yeah, Westboro. Google 'em if you want to fall down a rabbit hole of crazy.

Posted 3 months ago #
pattilea
Member Profile

My niece is there at the funeral. She worked with the Cox family for over a year, to help keep the children away from him (powell).

Posted 3 months ago #
DBP
Member Profile

This is the "moderate faction" of the Westboro Baptist Church:

Some of the messages on their signs are even worse than these.

Posted 3 months ago #
miws
Member Profile

Looks like they've backed, or perhaps more accurately bawked (chickened) out.

http://www.seattlepi.com/local/komo/article/Anti-gay-church-cancels-protest-at-Powell-boys-3241871.php

Are tough ol' Freddie (aka Satan), and his disturbingly close in DNA Klan 'fraid of a few lil' ol' bikers?

I've heard where wbc will sue at the drop of a hat, if threatened with any attempts of measures being taken to block their "protests". Good on the biker group for offering to step up.

Sadly, since so many of their "protests" are at funerals, it wouldn't be proper to counter-protest, out of respect for the deceased and their loved ones.

However, I absolutely love some of the counter-protests that have taken place at other venues of wbc protest. Google Image "god hates signs", and several images will come up showing counter-protesters holding signs that use the above phrase, as well as "I have a sign!", and others. Just be ready to see wbc's ignorant, hateful signs as well.

Since these creatures from wbc are such attention whores, they rabidly feed on angry counter-protests, which is how I'd instinctively react if given the opportunity to counter-protest, but mocking them like this, and showcasing what ignorant slime (apologies to actual slime), they are, is probably much more effective, IMHO.

Mike

Posted 3 months ago #
metrognome
Member Profile

specifically, WBC's 'motivation' for protesting at the Powell childrens' funeral was that god had killed them because the state legislature passed the gay marriage bill. Sick. Just plain sick.

Posted 3 months ago #
kootchman
Member Profile

If the press didn't cover them, would they exist at all? I doubt it. Somewhere there are some chagrined, disappointed broadcast producers that have a hole in their programming. They were news, now they aren't. Give em' a forum and press coverage if you want to see more of them.

Posted 3 months ago #
JanS
Member Profile

People like this would still exist, unfortunately. But, I agree, they like the publicity - it fuels them. And they like to get a rise out of people...just say they're coming, and look at the response. Who really knows if they were ever coming at all...they just had to say it.

Posted 3 months ago #
datamuse
Member Profile

kootch, they'd still exist, though they definitely thrive on publicity. There's a fascinating investigative article floating around the Web that was written about 15 years ago about Fred Phelps and his family. Disturbing stuff.

I definitely agree that they shouldn't be given attention, though. Publicity is what they're after.

Posted 3 months ago #
NFiorentini
Member Profile

As long as the irrational superstition of religion exists, there will always be those who up the ante on piety. If someone claims to love God, someone else will claim to love God even more by being more literal in their interpretation of scripture. Thus, as long as the superstition of religion exists, groups like the Westboro Baptist Church (and similar organizations in Judaism and Islam) will continue to exist.

Posted 3 months ago #
datamuse
Member Profile

I don't think I entirely agree, NFiorentini. Religion provides a convenient hook to hang your crazy hat on, but I think if it didn't exist extremists would just find something else.

Posted 3 months ago #
NFiorentini
Member Profile

Datamuse: I can't imagine a way that a crazy person can hang their hat on a rational pursuit. It think it's more likely that a crazy person invents some sort of hokus-pokus...like religion.

I'm sorry for offending anyone. I'm just so tired of people denying rights to others because of something some book says or touting faith over empirical evidence. I just watched a Santorum speech and I needed to vent.

Posted 3 months ago #
datamuse
Member Profile

Oh, I agree. But religion ain't the only form of human irrationality out there, not by a long shot. Heck, Hinckley shot Reagan because he was obsessed with Jodie Foster.

Posted 3 months ago #
NFiorentini
Member Profile

True, but Hinckley doesn't represent a significant part of the constituency. He's an isolated nutjob, whereas religion is a state-sanctioned and culturally-encouraged nuttiness. God-and-country!

But crazy would exist outside of religion...I don't disagree there.

Posted 3 months ago #
Betty T
Member Profile

Such a lame excuse to protest! That family has gone through such h--- over the news about ALL Of it.Why can't people just do their own thing, follow their own beliefs and leave others alone. I think protesting at this funeral was even worse than protesting war at a Veteran's funeral and that's sooo disrespectful. But your right, they got a lot of attention.

Posted 3 months ago #
JoB
Member Profile

NFiorentini..

while it may seem irrational to you to for anyone to believe in god..
it seems just as irrational to me for anyone not to.

whether you choose to believe or not..
you are still hanging your hat on your own opinion.

what i have a problem with is those who condemn all people who choose any belief system with the actions of few extremists who choose to use that belief system as justification for their actions.

it should be needless to say that using any funeral as a platform for either stance is unacceptable.

sadly, it isn't.

Posted 3 months ago #
NFiorentini
Member Profile

JoB: I feel the need to clarify things a bit.

For my rant, I used the "big-G" God and there should probably be a distinction between that and "little-g" god. "God" implies that there is a deity that takes a personal interest in us and has passed to us a moral code. That moral code and the belief in that "God" is problematic. There is no empirical evidence that this entity exists and using moral codes supposedly derived from it is irrational.

As long as a belief in this "God" exists in society, there will be some who temper their beliefs with rational thinking; but there will be others who be far more extreme, hoping to win a ticket to heaven or a better go of things in the next life. Beliefs in multiple lives devalue the only life that we know for certain that we have - this life.

Also, the extremists are often enabled by the less extreme because they feel guilty for being less pious. For example, there will be church members who don't really see a rational reason to oppose gay marriage, but they will continue to tithe and contribute money to organizations that will fight the recently-signed law.

However, "god," implying some sort of impersonal higher power, realm or, if you're Baruch Spinoza, "substance," is a very different matter and is the basis of philosophical rationalism. I think that many people would be okay with this...if they freed themselves from the mental shackles of "God."

Posted 3 months ago #