Well, if we're gonna reach out to bigots, why not get the best? I propose Rev. Fred Phelps

[BigBearJohn]

C'mon now. Let's test our resolve to reach out the hand of friendship to those on the other side.

Don't remember the loving Rev. Fred Phelps?

Then, read this:

On October 3, 2003 Anti-Gay Preacher Fred Phelps' announced intentions to erect a "monument" to Matthew Shepard, a college student brutally murdered five years ago. The following is an article published October 3, 2003 by 365Gay.com's News Center.

(Casper, Wyoming) Anti-gay preacher Fred Phelps has announced intentions to erect a monument to Matthew Shepard the gay college student brutally murdered five years ago near Laramie.

But, the monument will be no memorial. Phelps says the monument would be 5 to 6 feet tall and made of marble or granite. It would bear a bronze plaque bearing the image of Shepard and have an inscription reading "MATTHEW SHEPARD, Entered Hell October 12, 1998, in Defiance of God's Warning: 'Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind; it is abomination.' Leviticus 18:22."

Source: http://www.petitiononline.com/mrphelps/petition.html

major :sarcasm:

[madmadmad]

1. and i think obama should reach out to david fucking duke.

[EFerrari]

2. Seriously, we deserve more than the B list. n/t

[ThomCat]

3. Kick and Recommend!

Because this shows exactly how stupid and shallow the idea is that Obama is "reaching out" to Warren.
:applause:

[BigBearJohn]

4. bingo

[Mari333]

5. all together now! Kumbaya my lord Kumbayaaaaaa

Kumbayaaaa my lord, Kumbayaaaaa.....

[BigBearJohn]

6. C'mon people now, smile on your brother, everybody get together try to love one another right now

[Vickers]

7. That's some master race, huh?

:rofl:

[Buns_of_Fire]

39. Looks like a Renaissance Faire gone terribly, terribly wrong... n/t

[BigBearJohn]

8. It sickens me that such a glorious, joyous event will be ruined by Warren's inclusion.

It's like inviting over the loudmouthed, stinking asshole relative that EVERYBODY hates
to your Christmas day family dinner and then asking him to say grace.

[sam sarrha]

9. i see no difference in the two of them

[Enrique]

10. i see a big difference

Phelps preaches little if anything other than hate.

I don't think Warren preaches hate.

[Mari333]

11. saying that jews will go to hell if they arent saved is hate

saying that homosexuality is the same thing as bestiality and pedophelia is hate.

[Enrique]

13. it can be hate

or it could be theology.

Comparing those things could be hate or it could be a rhetorical device.

Phelps's hate is hate no question.

[Mari333]

15. I think Warren has the same views as Phelps

he just has a better PR team to promote himself as a kinder and gentler nazi.

[Enrique]

17. Obama can't act according to what you believe about Warren

because you might be wrong.

People believe all kinds of things. Some people believe Hillary Clinton is evil, but he can't go by that when he's deciding whether to make her Sec. of State. Some people believe Rick Warren is like Fred Phelps, but Obama has to go by what he knows about him.

[Mari333]

18. Obama didnt vet well enough then.

and if he did, its pretty sad he didnt see Warren as a bigot, which he is.
I would like to see how far Obama would have gotten had he put a racist up there.
Obviously, hatred of gay people is still acceptable bigotry in this country.

[Enrique]

33. many people see Hillary as a racist

and Obama named her Sec. of State.

[sam sarrha]

34. preaching gays are child molesters is hate speach.. he uses hat at least

[mondo joe]

36. How is equating gays with child molesters not hate?

[BigBearJohn]

42. exactly

[MountainLaurel]

38. Phelps is just the ugly face

Of the hate you'd hear preached all over the country every week, just like the Klan was the loud-mouthed, violent, visible side of racism in the U.S.

[Kitsune]

40. Warren's PR machine is the only difference.

That, and Warren makes money conning people while Phelps makes money suing people he claims "assault" his sick little cult.

[BR_Parkway]

12. I have more respect for Phelps than Warren or Dobson and the rest

of the professional anti gay industry.

At least you know exactly where you stand with Phelps, he's not trying to dress up his hate as anything than what it is.

The guys in it for the money - they always dance around with the words - love the sinner and all that. But they don't. You can see it a mile away. What they love is the money. And access to power and influence. And if people could be made to be as afraid of pantyhose as they are GLBT - I can guarantee there would be a fear & money generating machine in place warning us all about the evils of pantyhose.

And some asshole still calling us outrage junkies.

[Mari333]

16. well said. n/t

[Political Heretic]

25. My parents weren't in it for the money.

For a long time they sincerely believed what they were taught, my father - an evangelical pastor (then) - believed that homosexuality was a sin because the bible said so. He wanted people to be "saved" from that sin just like any other sin, out of his belief that he was called to preach a message of salvation, saving people from hell and helping them find peace and joy in Christ.

Now you can choose, if you want, to fixate on how stupid you may think those ideas are. However, when I've seen the tears streaming down my fathers face, in the privacy of his own closet, when he didn't know I was looking as he prayed to god for the "souls of the lost" and his worry that they wouldn't make it to heaven - I see something different. Something that I can be compassionate about. I see good, but ignorant intentions.

My father said that it was primarily my patience and compassionate attitude that caused him to see things differently in later life. He remains a christian in terms of personal faith, but he's no longer a pastor. He still believes that homosexuality must be a sin because the bible says so - but that's how he says it, exactly like that: it "must be..." as though it hardly makes sense to him. He doesn't "speak out" against gays or make it a subject of his life at all anymore, to be honest. Except for one time...

In 2006, he wrote an op ed for my local paper as a retired minister against our states anti-gay marriage amendment. He said that whatever his religious texts and personal beliefs tell him for his life, no one should be discriminated against in our laws, constitution or government...

...He would never have gotten to that point of understanding if he talked to people like you. Bottom line. So I don't know who this "they" is you speak of, but its not my father. And I'll wager it actually isn't a great many self-professed evangelical christians in America today.

[LaydeeBug]

14. I've asked before...which member of the KKK is Obama gonna "listen to"? Maybe they can

help with the doxology. :rofl:

[Political Heretic]

20. All of these comparisons are totally baseless for the same reason as I posted below.

[LaydeeBug]

24. no they are not

[Political Heretic]

28. Yes. They really are.

[LaydeeBug]

29. No. They Really Aren't.

[Political Heretic]

30. Yes. They are. I'm at work.... I can't do this as long as you want to.

[Political Heretic]

19. Well for starters, Phelps doesn't represent a huge population

That being evangelical Christians in America. He represents pretty much his own family and is otherwise denounced by everyone else, including Warren.

That would be a start.

[Mari333]

22. Phelps hates gays. Warren hates gays.

whats so hard to understand about that?

[Political Heretic]

26. Well its inaccuracy, for one thing.

I'm sorry that the world doesn't fit neatly into binary categories, but it doesn't.

[BR_Parkway]

32. And there lies the crux of it - some groups are considered freaks

or fringe based on who they hate, others are considered mainstream - mostly it comes down to the level of polish they put on and how nice their suits are - and how much spittle flys from their lips as they're preaching.

Why don't we start this inclusive dialogue with the KKK - they've been around longer, there are much bigger numbers of people involved. Or the anti-Semites. I love the way John Aravosis put it the other day - when your Sister Soulja is always a dyke, it gives everyone a reason to pause.

[BeFree]

21. That's plain stupid, idiotic

Phelps has no following.

[Mari333]

23. Phelps and Warren both hate gay people.

following or not, they have the same beliefs about gay folks.. one has a better PR firm.

[Political Heretic]

27. They actually don't have the same beliefs.

But it doesn't really matter.... as if you are going to listen to anything anyway. sigh.

[Mari333]

31. I see: saying that being gay is akin to bestiality,pedophelia

and alcoholism and gays will go to hell if they dont change their ways.
how is that different from phelps?
saying being gay is a sin
how is that different from phelps?

[sam sarrha]

35. for me it's the story of the 3 jars, 1 jar is poisoned, 1 broken, 1 covered.. anything put in the

poisoned jar becomes poison, anything put in the broken jar leaks out, anything put in the covered jar runs off , never enters

story of religion for me... i still suffer PTSD from being raised in the Free Holiness Pentecostal church.

maybe Warren will bust out rap'n his invocation in tongues..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F63-peBOem4

[mondo joe]

37. So if Phelps had a bigger following he'd be an acceptable choice?

[Orangepeel]

41. Phelps' "constituency" is confined to his own crazy relatives

therefore there is no point in pandering to them.

[Shiver]

43. What's especially freaky?

Phelp's 'church' consists mainly of his family.

Members of the church are not allowed to marry outside the church.

:crazy: :rofl: