So you still think South Dakota is full of intolerant cracker flyover know nothings?
The Westboro Baptist group from Kansas did their thing here yesterday and today - and were completely outnumbered by several hundred counter-demonstrators from our city and region.
One of the counter-demonstraters posted an FB report.
We knew for several days that WBC was on the way. The consensus was to deny them advance publicity. That's why I didn't blog on it until they left.
Apparently SD was the last of the contiguous 48 states they hadn't visited, which is a surprise because our folks have had their share of military funerals (WBC's favorite target).
Shirley Phelps-Roper, a WBC member, reportedly said, "There is a God. There is a standard in this earth and if you're not gonna obey him, his promised blessings are not for you. You only get his promised curses."
Well, one of the standards God expects us to obey is to refrain from gratuitous insults and name-calling,
"But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire." Jesus, Matthew 5:22
So WBC, whose speeches, website, placards and actions are all aimed to insult and belittle, oughtta know about disobeying God and "getting his promised curses." "The measure you give will be the measure you get," Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount.
2 comments:
Westboro's been by before. Protested at Calvary Cathedral, oh I dunno, 6 or 7 years ago at a guess. And, they've been by military funerals, too. I think the Supreme Court case has upped their notoriety... but hey, whatever gets a counter protest to them going is good in my book.
They are a strange lot. At my former parish, they protested once while we were doing a tailgate party for a Nebraska football game. I don't think they were protesting us, but they were in the vicinity.
Sometimes you can just sense the presence of evil in your midst. It doesn't happen with such clarity too often, but when it does you know it.
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