God Loves, Man Kills, Mikey Rants. 

Before we begin let me throw in a disclaimer*:  
The views and opinions expressed in this diatribe are mine, and mine alone (except the stuff I lifted from the ADL website), and not those of any other person in the Film Geekz and IESB network. Some of the thoughts expressed in this article are vulgar in nature and could be deemed offensive by anyone with a working moral compass. - M
 
"Religious controversies are always productive of more acrimony and irreconcilable hatreds than those which spring from any other cause." - George Washington
 
Ok...so: Where does the line between Freedom of Speech and Stupidity begin?
 
Hard to tell these days; take Fred Phelps and The Westboro Baptist Church for example. Oh, they aren't new to the idiot list; they've just got my attention at the moment. You see, they plan to protest at the funeral of Heath Ledger. Why? Because he dared to play a gay cowboy in a movie?..gasp!
 
You're probably thinking - are you fucking kidding?

Would I kid you? Well, actually, I would under most circumstances, but sadly, not today my friends. While I am great at spinning off the wall lies and bits of fiction, what follows is factual by all accounts and measurements (those measurements being my own, of course).
 
Freddie and his group of righteous goons have every intention of protesting as Ledger is laid to rest. To most logical people, this of course sounds grossly inappropriate, right? Of course it does. But this tactic isn't new to Phelps. 
 
You see, this is the same collection of zealots who protest at the funerals of American Soldiers who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan as a way of venting rage at a government that they believe is too tolerant of homosexuality. Huh? Wait...so they protest at the funerals of the men and women who have died serving this country? People who have in all likelihood have nothing to do with the gripes of Phelps and his peeps? I'm sorry, this is productive how, exactly? 
 
Basically, the war is fine by them; it's all those pesky homosexuals running around that they have a problem with. So, it's totally acceptable to go and make the lives of families who have just lost a loved one miserable if it helps rid the world of gay people. Real nice, Freddie, real nice. Here's a hypothetical question for you, Fred: if you caught your two male dogs taking turns licking each other's asses, would you kill the dogs for being gay? While Freddie ponders that question, the rest of you can keep reading.  
 
Let's go back to the whole idea of protesting funerals again; how does this work? The person's dead...protesting won't bring them back so you can make them suffer more (I tried that once, now we're stuck with Joan Rivers for another 80 years; sorry about that). You want to throw a party somewhere to celebrate the death of someone? Sick as it is, I can even accept that. I cannot, however, accept the idea of putting loved ones through an extra slice of pain just so you can vent your anger at people who don't fit your profile of normal.  
 
How deluded can these people possibly be to justify going to those soldiers' funerals holding signs that read "Thank God for Dead Soldiers" and "Thank God for IEDs" (improvised explosive devices)?!? Essentially, they are celebrating the deaths of those who have died serving this country (believe in the war or not, they are still doing their duty). All while chanting epithets at grieving family members.  Doesn't matter if the soldiers are gay, straight, black, white; so long as Phelps and his followers get to spew their hatred and make people miserable, they go home feeling like it was a job well done. 
 
  How do they justify it? One look at any of Phelps websites won't leave you much doubt about just how much hatred he and his followers have in their hearts. Not that they try to hide it; two of his main sites are Godhatesamerica.com and GodHatesFags.com** -not exactly subtle. On his own site Phelps states over and over that God is punishing us for our acceptance of gays. They justify this boiling hatred quite simply; saying it's what God wants. "God's hatred is one of His holy attributes."  - Phelps (Via The Montana Standard)  
 
"You are too young to understand it ... but sometimes the Bible in the hand of one man is worse than a whiskey bottle in the hand of --oh, of your father." - HARPER LEE, To Kill a Mockingbird
 
I am someone who runs his mouth a great deal of the time. I love doing it, and I love that I live in a place where I CAN do it. But it's up to the individual person to stop and think about it and do it in the right time and place. It's called the responsibility of freedom, and it's time people started using it more often.
 
Now since this is first and foremost a movie website, I'm going to have to bring this train wreck back around the bend again, and back to Freddie "Furious" Phelps' plans for Heath Ledger.  
 
"Heath Ledger chose to promote the vile sin of sodomy in defiance of God's law. No one made him play a faggot cowboy in "Brokeback Mountain". No one made him kiss another man, in a flagrant attempt to further desensitize not only Americans but Bible-illiterate fools the world over to the filthy depravity that is faggotry. He chose to do that all on his own. He could have used that bully pulpit he has to promote the cause of God and truth instead. God has repaid him to his face for his filth. Thank God for His Justice. All who flaunt God's law can expect the same. Amen." - Godhatesamerica.com
 
Ok, he played a gay cowboy in a movie... got it. So it's ok to play a serial killer or hockey mask wearing slasher and kill dozens of kids...so long as you're not playing grab ass with another dude it's all good. Did a bunch of straight guys walk out of Brokeback Mountain and suddenly turn gay? People don't switch their sexuality over a movie..trust me, I took my girlfriend and her best friend to see Wild Things hoping for a 3-way (a swing and a miss).  

Does Phelps understand the difference between movie fiction and reality? Acting is a just a job; just because someone works at McDonalds doesn't mean they support people of the clown persuasion, does it (not that there's anything wrong with that)? No, they just want to make some money. If you hated clowns, would you protest at the funeral of some sad sack who got killed while cleaning the Mcfryer? No, because that's absurd!!

"...it is always advisable to perceive clearly our ignorance."  - Charles Darwin

Don't like the content of a movie or TV show? Honestly, my first response to you is simply "don't watch it", but some people have to take it a step farther and protest. Ok, I can live with that. Things like protests don't sway smart people; they only attract other simpletons. Have at it; who cares? I just wish they'd protest movies that really suck so we'd get less of them. Seriously; Meet the Spartans comes out this week, if you aren't too busy to make up some signs.  
 
Normally I tend to try and live my life and just ignore the morons that inhabit this planet. Not a great way to go about it in all honesty. It doesn't help put a stop to the ridiculous plans and actions of the ignorant or educate them enough to make them see the folly of their ways. Sad to say, my life is too busy to really get my Underoos in a bunch over it. I'd rather just take my kid to the park and hope I'm raising a good little person into an upstanding man. Do I get upset when I see great injustice in the world? Of course I do. Do I do anything about it? Not really, and it makes me wonder if I'm as good a person as I thought....but like most, I wonder what one man can do about it.
 
I'm admitting this so that as you finish reading, you understand that I have no illusions about my impact on the world or my place in it. I'm not going to sit here and preach that I'm a better person than most...but at least I can comfortably state that I am not a racist, I'm not a bigot...though I might be a Bigfoot (test results pending). I can say with all honesty that I hate people based on their individual basis of being complete assholes and not the color of their skin, religious beliefs, or sexual preferences. You love a Black Jesus? That's Awesome! Tight butts drive you nuts? Hey that's cool. You love muff diving too? Hey I'm a certified instructor! You can quote the Koran? Can you teach me? I bet that has some wonderful teachings that would help me better understand the Muslim culture.
 
Point is, I might be a total jackass, but I have a live and let live policy about other people's beliefs, lifestyle, and culture...even when it's downright idiotic; but there comes a point where a line is crossed and a collection of people move from being an annoyance to becoming a dangerous movement out for innocent blood to spill.

"Man is a religious animal. He is the only religious animal. He is the only animal that has the True Religion - several of them. He is the only animal that loves his neighbor as himself and cuts his throat, if his theology isn't straight. He has made a graveyard of the globe in trying his honest best to smooth his brother's path to happiness and heaven."  - Mark Twain
 
In case you are wondering, Fred Phelps and The Westboro Baptist Church are monitored by the Anti-Defamation League, and WBC is classified as a hate group. Shocking, I know. They seem like such a fun group. To date, the The Westboro Baptist Church has picketed the gay community at literally hundreds of events nationwide. According to the Anti Defamation League's website, Phelps and his group often target people they mistakenly claim are gay, or those it believes to be encouraging homosexuality. I'm guessing the "Buy the WBC a new Gay-dar" bake sale didn't quite pan out.
 
So far, 38 states have introduced bills to limit protests near funerals, and at least 29 of those states have passed such measures. The constitutionality of these laws has been challenged in four states with mixed results. In addition, President Bush signed the "Respect for America's Fallen Heroes Act" on May 29, 2006, which limits protests near certain military cemeteries. Phelps, who was a lawyer until 1979 (disbarred after committing perjury), has vowed to challenge the legislation, alleging that these new restrictions unconstitutionally restrict freedom of speech. Good luck with that, Fred. 

As with any bully, Old Freddie can't take what he dishes out; enter The Laramie Project, a play based on the murder of Matthew Shepard in Laramie, Wyoming. Shepard's death is considered to be a hate crime motivated by homophobia, and many of Freddie's protests revolve around the play. Phelps sends his followers across the country to picket every performance he finds out about. While I'm sure a play about gay people would be sufficient reason to get Fred outside chanting "Aids Cures Fags" (ain't he clever?), he's got a personal stake in taking on this one. You see, Freddie is a character in the play. And of course he's portrayed "negatively" throughout (a stretch, I'm sure).  

Must have driven him banana sandwich when HBO decided to make a movie about it, because he packed up the goons and picketed the HBO home offices with signs reading "United You'll Fall", which was ignored I'm guessing since the movie aired and is now on DVD. You can buy it HERE.
 
Everybody's a critic: "The Laramie Project is a tawdry bit of banal fag melodrama - sordid, cheap, unaffecting, drearily predictable - without the least artistic or literary merit or redeeming social value. Indeed, its only purpose is to promote sinful, soul-damning sodomy by playing on the sick, maudlin emotions of doomed, Godless America and thereby to recruit ill-bred teenagers to lives of sin, shame, disease, death and hell"
- Fred Phelps

Personally I cannot imagine living like Fred or his followers. Hating so much of what's around you must be lonely and exhausting. To walk down any given street glaring down at people you deem unfit must put an awful lot of strain on the neck. I have to wonder where that level of hatred comes from in this day and age. Seems like every time I start to think we'd become a little more advanced in our thinking someone like Freddie comes along.  
 
This might not be a typical article for this site; it may in fact be the only one of its kind to ever land here. We are here to entertain and inform people about movies and geek culture. We'd rather be on a super fun happy slide than a soap box. But sometimes you hear something so asinine it sets off your gag reflex, leaving you no choice than to vomit it up verbally.  

I support people's right to protest and speak their minds even if I don't agree with their message, but haunting funerals spewing messages of hate shouldn't have to be debated. As a civilized society we should be far past this sort of thing.  

"Nothing is easier than to denounce the evildoer; nothing is more difficult than to understand him." - Fyodor Dostoevsky

Readers have left 4 comments.

No.1  I heart Hatred

He needs to be dropped off in a maximum security prison with nipples tatooed on his butt cheeks, and left for a few weeks. He may never want to leave....

Guest User () • 2008-01-25 19:04:39

No.2  Fred Phelps get out of the closet !

Oh Freddy,
Heath Ledger may have died for YOUR sins you ignorant Phelckface!
You are exhibiting all of the classic symptoms of someone who is clearly deathly afraid of his own homosexual feelings. Yup, it's obvious you "doth protest too much" like other reknowned publicly anti-gay folks like Joseph McCarthy and J.Edgar Hoover.
Even if you weren't so afraid of your own brokeback feelings, it's a shame you think you are a "man of gawd" and a bigger shame that you've somehow found people willing to listen to your hate and follow your lead.
Thank you Mikey for writing this.

The Joker () • 2008-01-26 02:11:58

No.3  RE: Disclaimer

This rant of my hetro lifemate, Mikey reflects my views perfectly!!! You want to talk about the sanctity of marriage? The only marriage I find sacred is the one between my wife and I! Whoever anyone else chooses to spend their life and love with is their own business! I do belived it was Jesus himself that said "Love thy neighbor as thy self..." obviously this douche-bag must have some serious self loathing issues!

Deez () • 2008-01-26 02:35:21

No.4  May Karma Run Over Fred's Dogma

In 1993, as Phelps' name became controversial in his home town, his estranged son, Mark Phelps, wrote a letter to his hometown newspaper, The Topeka Capital-Journal: "I believe in God and the Bible, and my father's behavior doesn't fit the description of behavior that would show in the life of one who loves God; behavior characteristics such as Love, Joy, Peace, Longsuffering, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, Self-control. Instead, my father's behavior characterizes, I believe, Hate, Outbursts of Wrath, Contention, Jealousy, Vengefulness, Misery, Harshness, and Selfish ambition. He mis-states the truth about his own behavior, about others, about the Bible, with apparent ease and regularity. He behaves with a viciousness the likes of which I have never seen. He accepts no genuine accountability in his life and is subject to no one. His lifestyle betrays the sacred trust of what a pastor, husband, father and
grandfather should be. I suppose if a comparison were made between the life of Jesus Christ and my father, there would not be much to compare.

I believe that Topekans are making a good effort to try and stop him and should continue to do so. He can seem very intimidating. He can use foul language and come across with a booming voice to the community, but the truth is, like the Wizard of Oz, when Toto pulls the curtain back, instead of this big powerful individual, it's only a small, pathetic old man. I feel sorry for my father as I would for anyone who displays this kind of hate and evil viciousness. These can only be the manifestations of tortured, injured and agonizing souls." Mark Phelps

Jebus () • 2008-01-26 19:59:36

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