Phelps Clan Announces Plans for First Picket in the U.K.
The congregation of the Westboro Baptist Church, which is led by anti-gay protester the Rev. Fred Phelps and his extended family, is planning its first picketing action in the U.K., prompting concern and even a call for the group to be banned from England.
The U.K. newspaper The Telegraph reported in a Feb. 17 article that the Phelps clan has announced that it may be importing its brand of confrontational street preaching to the U.K. in an action to protest a staging of the play "The Laramie Project," about the murder of openly gay Matthew Shepard in Laramie, Wyoming, ten years ago.
It was the group's picketing of the slain Shepard's funeral that brought the church to national prominence. The church has stated that Shepard is in Hell for having been gay.
The play is due to be staged at Queen Mary's College in Basingstoke, and is being produced by a GLBT youth group, the article said.
The Phelps church recently picketed a production of the play in Boston, Massachusetts, and also has protested at other locales where the plays has been staged. The group has also picketed schools with GSAs (Gay/Straight Alliance clubs).
The Rev. Phelps and his family have traveled extensively throughout the United States, picketing the funerals of people who have died of AIDS, hate crimes victims, and, more recently, U.S. soldiers killed in action in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The group have also announced plans to picket at the Feb 22 service for passengers killed in the crash of commuter flight 3407 in Buffalo, New York, according to a Feb. 18 item posted at The Buffalo Pundit.
The Buffalo Pundit article included the text, "This Sunday, these sick, horrific people whose stock in trade is to terrorize the grieving, expect to disrupt memorial services for the victims of flight 3407?
"If 10 of these animals show up, we should have 100 people there to make sure that their signs cannot be seen and their yells cannot be heard."
The article continued, "I don't want these people in WNY. I especially don't want these people in Buffalo or Clarence Center.
"Then again, that just gives them the attention they want."
Known for their placards, which often carry messages such as "God Hates Fags," "Thank God for Dead Soldiers," and "God Hates America," the group's message is that God is punishing the United States and other countries for failing to persecute gays and lesbians.
The church's Web site announced plans to picket in England with the message, "God Hates England: Your Queen is a Whore," said the Telegraph article.
Earlier slogans used by the group have condemned Princess Diana to Hell for her support of GLBT equality.
The group's announcement has been met with skepticism as well as concern. Some have said they didn't believe the group would actually travel all the way to Basingstoke to picket the play; speculation that local followers of the church would picket in the stead of the Phelps clan have also been dismissed, with Basingstoke Minister of Parliament Maria Miller, a Conservative, saying, "There's no evidence they will be coming... and I don't believe they have a base in the UK."
Still, Miller had expressed her concerns to the government's Home Secretary in order to see whether the government might intervene if the Phelps clan does try to bring its message to the UK.
According to a Feb. 17 article at British GLBT site Pink News Miller had asked the Home Secretary if they group might be denied entry into the country. The site said that a spokesperson for Miller indicated that her constituents had asked Miller to do so.
Either way, said Miller, "The most important thing is that a production that is trying to promote tolerance goes ahead and that's what I'm focusing on achieving," the Telegraph article reported.
The head of GLBT equality organization Stonewall, Ben Summerskill, called the church's announcement "distressing," and added, "'The Laramie Project' is a very serious play about a young man who was beaten to death just because he was gay.
"To regard that as a cause for celebration will make a lot of people both gay and straight feel very uncomfortable," said Summerskill.
"They have caused enormous distress by protesting outside the funerals of service personnel in the US and I hope they have no intention of trying anything similar in Britain," Summerskill continued.
"I suspect that they won't be welcomed by the people of Basingstoke."
An interview by The Telegraph that appeared in the same edition of the newspaper recorded an exchange between the paper and Fred Phelps' daughter, Shirley Phelps-Roper:
The Telegraph asked, "Is this your first picket in the UK?"
Replied Phelps-Roper, "It is the first actual picket. We have been preaching by so many means to the UK for years. The arm of the Lord our God is not shortened by oceans and things, all of which, he created, and all of which he knew about when he considered these last hours of the very last days of all."
Inquired The Telegraph, "Are you flying across to Britain, or is the picket being carried out by members in Britain? If you are flying over, how many protesters are you expecting and when are you arriving?"
Phelps-Roper responded, "Considering that your nation has tried in many ways, including with draconian laws to shut up the Word of God from OFF your landscape, and to make it a crime to plainly say what the STANDARDS of GOD are, (e.g. THOU SHALT NOT lie with mankind as with womankind, it is abomination or THOU SHALT NOT commit adultery, etc.) that I will not be telling any details of our business to get where we need to be."
The Telegraph asked, "What is your objection to The Laramie Project?"
Answered Phelps-Roper, "We don't object to it, we see it as a glorious preaching moment.
"It creates a PERFECT backdrop for us to help YOU connect the dots. From the least to the greatest of the people of the UK, including your lamenting and rebellious and disobedient Gordon Brown.
"You taught your children FOR GENERATIONS now that God is a big fat liar and that HIS standards are on the table to dispose of. You BROKE their moral compass."
Continued Phelps-roper, "The prophet said--WHAT WILL YE DO IN THE END THEREOF. That is to say for you rebels--WHAT will you do when you get to the end of this road of your filthy disobedient manner of life and find that you have incurred the wrath of God and you find that his promises to make your people to be ALTOGETHER WORTHLESS, GOOD FOR ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!
"And what will you do when you all land in hell FOR EVER where the worm that eats on you NEVER dies and the fire is NEVER quenched and the smoke of your torment ascends up for ever and ever and ever and ever and ever--never ending. So we go to the place where the Laramie Project is playing and you look at us, then you look at the so-called 'counter-picketers' and the young people that you have taught that they can live like the very devil himself and it is JUST FINE, because even though the Bible CLEARLY says that God HATES people and it is a perfect hatred--a determination to send the UNREPINENTANT to hell for ever."
Contrasting the Westboro congregation, whom Phelps-Roper described as "hav[ing] no confusion and they have bright shining minds and they are happy and well adjusted and content, living sober, righteous and godly in this present world," to the citizens of Great Britain, whom she declared were "busy in GREAT lament," Phelps-Roper said, "You are like the Doomed american rebels--just a big shameful MESS!!"
Added Phelps-Roper, "I say we are dot connecters! THAT is our job! We use the Laramie Project to tell you unambiguously and unapologetically that your DUTY is to fear God and keep his commandments and that you are required to give the glory of all his judgments that he is executing RIGHT UNDER YOUR NOSE, TO HIM! The God Smacks are HIS WORK!"
The Telegraph asked, "Why have you decided to widen your protests to Britain?"
Replied Phelps-Roper, "Here is the reason--from the mouth of the Lord Jesus Christ, to wit: Mt 24:14 And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.
"Our God has worked upon the hearts of this little flock of slaughter, and he has, in his mercy permitted us to preach to the whole world! What a glorious and amazing sight that we should be so blessed! We are permitted to say with our beloved brother Paul, our faithful, message of TRUTH in this dark adulterous and sinful generation of rebels against God with NO cause. You KNOW his word--you had great light in your land in the 1600s with the vast array of John's (Knox, Bunyan, Brown, Gill, Trapp, etc., etc.) and you have Bible's everywhere!
"But your goofy queen and her adulterous whore of a son - YIKES put their hand and you all put your hands to mischief at every turn," Phelps-Roper continued.
Phelps-Roper went on to declare that U.S. President Barack Obama was the Antichrist, signaling the end of days was near: "The antichrist is sitting now, in the Whitehouse, the time is SO SHORT --the Lord is coming and this generation is DOOMED! You see the destruction already before your eyes!
"As filthy america goes down, and The Beast Obama, That Son of Perdition, that Man of Sin gets his power grab on, you will all give over the power of your government to him and when you see that phony fa?ade fall away, and he gets his war on and all your fawning over him turns to great fear, then you can remember these words.
"In that hour, if you or any other soul in the UK has a heart to know your God, and you understand that the end is near, you can yet put away your idols, your false gods and your FILTHY manner of life and you can serve the Lord your God in truth! THAT is your only hope."
Phelps Roper ended her comments with a cheery, "Thanks for asking!"