Wednesday, January 30, 2008

I'm going off the rails on a crazy train

The Westboro Baptist loonies are going to picket Maria Lauterbach's funeral in Vandalia, because, as you may or may not know, God hates fags, and the fag-loving United States, and its fag-loving military. Vandalia is not far from me. Do you know how tempted I am to go? I'm perversely fascinated by those people, especially Shirley Phelps-Roper. I wonder if she'd pose for a picture with me. Did you know she thinks we should either follow the Bible in this country to the letter or not at all? She feels like we should either grant full and equal rights to gays (and gay couples), OR we should follow God's word, which is to say that all the queers should be rounded up, imprisoned and then executed. She won't cotton to any compromise. FYI: she prefers the latter course of action (natch).

6 comments:

jason said...

I don't know, in some kind of strange way I think those Phelpses help the "gay cause" (whatever that is) more than most.

They are the perfect fulfilment of the more innocuous forms of homophobia.

Besides they keep shooting themselves in the foot.

Michael said...

I'm torn. As you say, their extreme rhetoric makes the hate and prejudice obvious. Josh Kilmer-Purcell makes that argument in OUT magazine (and he's stoked my fascination with S. P-R). Still, I worry that Westboro Baptists allow the majority of homophobes to "other" the phenomenon, while holding on to their milder forms of hate.

Where I live in rural Ohio, racism is rampant. Is that everywhere? I don't know. Anyway, SO many times I hear something to this effect: I'm not prejudiced, but I just think those people should just stay where they belong/in their place.

Gee, I'm glad you told me you're not prejudiced.

So I wonder whether the good they do outweighs the bad. You have to kind of admire their convictions, even if they are based on merely one of many interpretations of a ridiculously vague Bronze Age text.

freakgirl said...

And also, the entire family is mentally ill. Just saying.

Michael said...

Really? I think they're fanatical and dumb, but otherwise lucid. Worse! Although in some interviews they do exhibit some of that cult behavior/brainwashing talk.

Frontier Psychiatrist said...

Is this like my irrational (and soon to be realized) desire to visit the Creation Museum?

Michael said...

It's EXACTLY that (see: perverse fascination).

OMG, can I come with?