Yasmin Nair took the photo on the right during the Westboro Baptist Church's recent appearance in Chicago. It looks like they hate Christmas now, along with fags, dykes, America, Sweden, and Pakistan.
This wouldn't be the first Christian group to declare war on Christmas. In fact, the early Puritans in Massachusetts loathed its celebration, and the city of Boston banned Christmas for 22 years.
But to listen to the Bill O'Reilly crowd, one would think that only the secular cabal would want to harm that classically American holiday. While the commercialization of the holiday (which resulted in a Walmart employee getting trampled just weeks ago) has probably destroyed the spirit of the holiday, the celebration of it is under the most attack from the far right.
After the jump is a crazy anti-Christmas sign the Westboro Baptist Church wants to put up in Olympia, WA.
Via Towleroad:
From the Spokesman Review:
The sign claims that "God's hate" is to blame for the weak economy, that Santa is a child molester, and that the deaths of U.S. troops are somehow the fault of Santa.
"Holy cow," said Steve Valandra, a spokesman for Washington's Department of General Administration, when e-mailed the text. "I guess we'll consider it like all the other requests."
State officials say that after a lawsuit a couple of years ago to allow the Nativity scene, they cannot discriminate among holiday displays.
"The sign reflects the sincerely held religious beliefs and viewpoints on the topic that has been made a subject of public comment in this public forum, which viewpoint is well-grounded in scripture," Westboro Baptist Church pastor Fred Phelps wrote Wednesday to Gov. Chris Gregoire.
We're always saying that the only way to get the right on board for removing these displays of religiosity in government buildings is to require that everything be allowed. This particular one, if forced to appear, would definitely cause some of these folks to rethink how much they want to force their religion on the rest of us.
But these public religious displays aren't about devotion, since these folks won't suddenly stop being Christian if they don't get a nativity scene in the Capitol. These displays are about letting people know who's in charge and who's not. And the Phelps clan is definitely not in charge.
Although one would hope that O'Reilly would take on these folks instead of picking on small town mayors with made-up stories about how they banned green and red. But that would be expecting too much.
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8 Comments
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Wouldn't it be easier if Fred Phelps just released a list of everything God *doesn't* hate?
Andrea | December 12, 2008 2:12 PM
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It would be a lot shorter....
Alex Blaze | December 12, 2008 2:56 PM
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Heh, yeah. He might have a sudden and severe case of writer's block, what with having to pull off some mood other than "hateful psychopath", though. :)
Andrea | December 12, 2008 6:51 PM
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I think Bill O' and his crowd secretly like the Phelps crowd. If the whole cabal would do the world a favor it it put the Christ back in Christmas went to church more and to the courthouse and statehouse less. Pull that off and yes Virginia there is a Santa Claus. Keep us posted, Alex.
null | December 12, 2008 2:35 PM
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Ye gods, is there anything they don't hate? (Let's leave "God hates..." out of this for now.) Then again, when you always have someone else you can blame all your troubles on...
JennyC | December 12, 2008 3:11 PM
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If Phred Phelps and his Manson phamily didn't exist, we'd need to invent them.
Polar | December 13, 2008 1:48 AM
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Um, duh, the celebration of the birth of Christ and the celebration of a fat man in a suit bringing toys are two separate things. The tree IS a pagan symbol and the whole freakin holiday was abducted by christians long, long ago in their attempt to christianize the world. Since the pagans wouldn't give up their rituals, the christians simply let them continue but insisted they were really celebrating something religious. Since Christ was not born in the middle of winter, celebrating his birth on 25 December is just silly.
Most christians don't even realize they're actually participating in an ancient pagan celebration...which is enough to make me chuckle :-) But I find it very humorous that they want to take the pagan ritual out of the pagan holiday when, really, they should move the celebration of the birth of Jesus to the time of year where it belongs. In other words, they need to get their idol out of my holiday...not the other way around!
Jessica | December 13, 2008 5:35 AM
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Another thing Fred Phelps and Co hate. I'll add o the list.
*unrolls a long scroll like Santa's list*
Ah, yes, here it is. I'll just put Santa on the "naughty" list. There you go, Fred.
*pats Fred on the head*
Feel better now? Need some milk and cookies to set everything right? There you go.
Bil Browning | December 13, 2008 9:30 AM
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