Posted by caraher on June 17, 2008, at 22:59:56
In reply to Re: Endorsements » Sigismund, posted by fayeroe on June 17, 2008, at 21:24:45
Fred Phelps, the ringleader of the funeral pickets, maintains a small cult - his church has few if any members who are not either his direct descendants or in-laws. As much as many religious groups condemn homosexuality, the antics of Westboro Baptist Church are more of a local freak show than reflective of any real movement. When they started picketing soldiers' funerals I think they lost any their silent sympathizers...
But they've managed to outdo themselves this time. In Iowa four boys died when severe weather hit a Boy Scout camp, and apparently the Phelps clan showed up to tell us all that these boys died because America hasn't been killing homosexuals...
I usually dismiss the kind of speculation I'm about to do as a cheesy rhetorical trick, but the only way I can make sense of the depth of Phelps' obsession with homosexuality and the sheer hatred he displays is if he's trying to mask self-doubt about his own sexuality. There's nothing about his stated position on homosexuality that logically or even tactically suggests he and his followers should carry signs depicting particular sex acts (not photos, just outlines of people made from circles and rectangles).
As for jilted McCain endorser Hagee, sorry, there was no sex scandal; it was simply his own religious beliefs turning his endorsement into a liability. Like some fundamentalists, Hagee believes the Catholic Church is an abomination, and it wasn't hard to turn up a few statements that probably would lose McCain more Catholic voters than he would pick up among "evangelicals."
poster:caraher
thread:835033
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/poli/20080312/msgs/835186.html