If God Was Real, There Would Be No Fred Phelps
Fundamentalist douchebag Fred Phelps is stirring up local news again after the dedication of a new monument in town. Here are a couple articles that have appeared in the Casper Star Tribune over the last week.
Phelps wants anti-gay monument
By JOHN MORGAN
Star-Tribune staff writer Tuesday, July 17, 2007In response to Casper’s new historical monument plaza, an anti-gay pastor in Kansas has renewed his request to have his own monument in town.
In a letter to the Casper City Council on Monday, the Rev. Fred Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church restated his intentions to build a monument in Casper, the home of slain gay University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard.
Phelps protested Shepard’s 1998 funeral and members of his family protested in Casper in 2003 after the council declined them permission to install a monument on city property. Phelps had asked permission on Oct. 2, 2003, while the city was debating what to do with its Ten Commandments monument.
On Monday morning, the city dedicated a historical monument plaza, which includes the Ten Commandments, the Declaration of Independence, the Mayflower Compact, the Magna Carta, the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
Phelps said he would be willing to make his monument resemble the six others and would include a picture of Shepard and the engraving: “MATTHEW SHEPARD, Entered Hell October 12, 1998, at age 21, in Defiance of God’s Warning: ‘Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind; it is abomination.’ Leviticus 18:22.”
Mayor Kate Sarosy said she had not received Phelps’ letter Monday evening and said she would speak with the city attorney and the other council members.
“Mr. Phelps’ message is full of hate and not in the spirit of the monument plaza,” Sarosy said.
Very perceptive, mayor. Here’s a followup article:
City rejects anti-gay monument, again
By JOHN MORGAN
Star-Tribune staff writer Thursday, July 19, 2007For the second time since 2003, the city of Casper has rejected a Kansas preacher’s request to erect a monument stating that a murdered Wyoming man is in hell.
“Casper’s historic monument plaza is a collection of documents that are the underpinning and foundation of our law,” Mayor Kate Sarosy wrote in a letter to Rev. Fred Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church on Wednesday.
“Your monument is simply religious in character, based on your personal religious beliefs regarding Matthew Shepard, and bears no historical significance to the foundation of the law for our country. As such, the city cannot place your monument on city property without violating the establishment clause of the United States Constitution.”
Casper’s monument plaza, dedicated on Monday, contains large granite engravings of the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence, the Magna Carta, the Mayflower Compact, the Ten Commandments and the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution.
Phelps and members of his church have visited Casper several times since protesting Shepard’s funeral in 1998 and they consider the town a “preaching opportunity,” despite receiving a letter in 1999 from every preacher in Casper asking them to not come back.
“That’s like putting a big, raw steak in front of a grizzly bear,” said Shirley Phelps-Roper. “We knew we had to get back there. We’re not going to give up on anybody or anything.”
On Tuesday, Phelps said he thinks the city of Casper is irreversibly doomed for raising and supporting Shepard, who was gay. Phelps said he will be back in Casper on Oct. 16.
“The end is coming, and it will be cataclysmic,” said Phelps, 77. “I don’t expect to save Casper.”
Doesn’t this fuckwit ever get bored? We get it, Fred. You dabbled in your youth and later, when you found Jesus, Leviticus 18:22, your perverted brand of religion filled you with so much shame that you have since dedicated your life to taking your deep self-loathing out on everybody else. We get it.
Even if his monument wasn’t the dumbest idea in the history of dumb ideas, what the hell is he doing lobbying to have monuments erected in other towns? Why doesn’t Casper get together to have a monument built in Phelp’s hometown that reads something like “Fred Phelps is an Embarrassment to Our Community, Our Country, and The Human Race” or something? You know, nothing too spiteful or ridiculous — just phallic and visible from space.
I believe there are relatively few truly evil people on earth, and even fewer in the public spotlight, but this guy seriously has to be in the top ten. I hate to be hypocritical, because I also believe very strongly in free speech (yeah, not just speech you agree with, people), but in a perfect world: Public humiliation by sodomy squad for Phelps and company. I think we can all agree that, under certain circumstances, “poetic and hilarious” cancels out “cruel and unusual.”
July 24th, 2007 at 10:05 pm
The city of Casper is to blame for featuring the 10 commandments with factual history.
July 25th, 2007 at 1:02 am
Hahaha, that occurred to me as well.
“Casper’s historic monument plaza is a collection of documents that are the underpinning and foundation of our law,†Mayor Kate Sarosy wrote in a letter to Rev. Fred Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church on Wednesday.
“Oh, plus the ten commandments.”
July 25th, 2007 at 10:34 am
Exactly what I was thinking, kind of perverts the whole idea.
Maybe someone needs to point out to the council that they’ve inserted the religious element by including them
July 25th, 2007 at 10:44 am
I’m still trying to wrap my mind around…
“Your monument is simply religious in character…without violating the establishment clause of the United States Constitution.â€
it’s fucking mind boggling…
I mean, Fred Phelps fucking sucks and sucking fucks, but isn’t it a bit contradictory that they tell him his monument is simply religious in character while they cement the ten commandments down.
Fred Phelps getting a monument in town would anger I’m sure many many many people. But how is the Ten Commandments being lumped in with the motherfucking BILL OF RIGHTS any better?
What is the first thing on the Bill of Rights?
Freedom of religion, speech, press, and peaceable assembly as well as the right to petition the government…
Total fucking mind job.
July 25th, 2007 at 10:46 am
I say we take this all the way to City Hall boys! Who’s with me?
All three of us can get a lynch mob together and probably have about four of us by the time we get down there! Raising our torches and pitchforks high, we’ll show em who’s running this fucking show!
July 25th, 2007 at 12:26 pm
hey pick me up i have nothing better to do
July 25th, 2007 at 1:16 pm
See! Four!
July 25th, 2007 at 9:52 pm
You can’t fight city hall.
July 26th, 2007 at 3:17 am
That would probably do as much good as me and Ryan and whoever else going to talk (read: yell at) Fred Phelps and his sycophants at Matthew Shepard’s funeral, it seemed like a good idea at the time, but by the end of it you realize that you can’t argue with a fucking bunch of lunatics and you’re doing more harm than good. In short… you can’t fight a city hall or any kind of religion that refuses to recognize “logic” as a foundation for belief. I submit we give up and drink beer.
July 26th, 2007 at 3:18 am
No bitching about improper colon usage.
July 26th, 2007 at 7:24 am
we’ll fucking lead as three kings.
July 26th, 2007 at 11:49 am
In beer drinking?
July 26th, 2007 at 1:19 pm
You haven’t listened to Tenacious D a whole then I take it.
July 26th, 2007 at 2:45 pm
I want a sodomy squad shirt.