Matthew Shepard Memorial - Odd Twist

[Spud]

Interesting can of worms:

A church wants to place a memorial in a city park for Matthew Shepard assuring people that he went to hell for being gay.

Nobody in City government wants to see such an offensive memorial to a murder victim. But… as they have allowed a Ten Commandments Memorial to be placed in the park they are in a legally tenuous position. Interestingly the ACLU is leaning towards the fine people at the Church….

What drama!

Boise City Council members and the city´s next mayor say they will do everything they ban to stop placement of an anti-gay monument in a city park. That was the response to Fred Phelps, of the Topeka, Kan.-based Westboro Baptist Church, who said he plans to picket a prayer demonstration on Dec. 14 at the city monument behind the bandshell in Julia Davis Park.

Phelps has formally asked the city parks commission for permission to install a 6-foot granite edifice bearing the name and image of Matthew Shepard, a 21-year-old Wyoming college student who died in 1998 five days after he was lured out of a Laramie bar by two men, kidnapped and beaten into a coma. Police said he was targeted in part because he was gay. His attackers were later convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison.

Phelps´ monument would say that Shepard went to hell because he was gay.

The Story Here

 

[Bob Hubbard]

Can we place next to it a memorial to Phelps for being a religious bigot?

 

[rmcrobertson]

Glad to see that someone with guts has jumped right into that whole gentle Jesus-who-forgave-our-sins weirdness.

Sometimes, I almost hope there is a Hell...OK, OK, I'm a wimp, a Purgatory---for these guys. Would that a Dante (who might very well have agreed with this nutcake, while criticizing his posture of sinlessness...one sign that we've progressed) were around to devise a fitting place in hellfire for him...

Fortunately, it usually isn't very long after these guys get on the national news before these clowns turn up at the local fleabag hotel, drunk, disorderly, and naked with two underage hookers and a goat...

OK, OK, that was too much. One underage hooker.

 

[Touch Of Death]

Idaho has bigger problems than this. Trust me. Did you know it is illeagal to file greivances for blatant mistreatment by prison staff, once incarcerated, and that hicks in the woods of North Idaho are making more Crystal meth than anywhere else in the NW. I worked in Idaho calling bingo and the state refuses to let whites even have bingo that is any bigger than in a church basement, while the CDA Indian reservation rakes in millions tax free. I predict the destruction of that monument by vandalism anyway.

 

[Spud]

T'O'D -

I've got 3 family members who work in child protection for the State of Idaho.... I hear ya...

Didn't know about the corrections thing though.... Note to self: stay out of Idaho Prisons...

 

[ABN]

Wow. The idiocy of this "reverend" is amazing. If this were the late 17th century and the good rev were living in say, Massachusetts, there's no doubt in my mind he would be ordering women put to death because their menstrual cycles went a day longer than normal or, even worse, they might actually oppose a sexist patriarchal society.

I would love to be a fly on the wall when it comes time for Phelps to answer to God for his actions in this regard. A friend at work who is an atheist said that he almost wishes that there is a God just so this guy gets his just desserts.

Sadder still is the fact that there are people so filled with hate that they follow this fool.

andy

 

[Jay Bell]

Agreed, Andy. I was just talking to a friend of mine about this insanity. We talked about how fools and the mindless will follow this type of nonsense...and further hate and violence will be stemmed from it.

Frightening enough...this man has a website. I will not post the link, as I'm adament against promoting this man in any way, even to knock him down. The information on his website is nothing short of horrifying...and he attempts to tackle every "issue" he can get his hands on.

Disheartening as it is, as my friend and I got to the point of, "What can be done against this type of madness", we both could think of no answer..

 

[OULobo]

What's cool is that despite all the political wrangling of other threads here, everyone seems to agree this guy is promoting the hate himself and his followers encourage, instead of the love of Christ, that he should be preaching. To spin off of Kaith's post, how about a statue of a man, in a suit holding a bible in one hand and a noose in the other with a giant phallus for a head. Mabey with an etching that says "To our beloved reverand, spewer of hatred, oppression and vitrol." (thanks for the new word guys) "We hope for warm places for you to retire in. Really warm, really really warm."

 

[TonyM.]

I sent freddy an email pretty much saying that, but with all the apropriate expletives and questions about his parents marital status.