ALTHOUGH some gay people think Jesus was a fag, some Christians think that God hates fags. Indeed, this particular group – the most hated family in America - thinks God hates Ireland, as it treats gay people like anyone else. That’s a lot of hate in one blog entry. No wonder the haters are hating the thought of coming to Dublin.
Northern Ireland’s peace process has been promoted as an international success story. The Republic’s Department of Foreign Affairs has its Conflict Resolution Unit, which aims to disseminate the ‘lessons’ of the Northern Ireland peace process. And some of the prominent players in our peace process have travelled abroad to other troubled spots to share their [...] read our review »
Are you confused about ‘dissident’ Irish Republicanism? Anxious about its existence and its seemingly increasingly deadly capabilities? Martyn Frampton’s new book, Legion of the Rearguard: Dissident Irish Republicanism (Irish Academic Press, 2011) serves both as a primer on active dissident groups and a timely analysis of their historic significance and contemporary capabilities. This book clears [...] read our review »
Extract from Greg McLaughlin and Stephen Baker: The Propaganda of Peace: The Role of Media and Culture in the Northern Ireland Peace Process. Bristol: Intellect Books. 2010. Political opponents Ian Paisley and Martin McGuiness were confirmed as First Minister and Deputy First Minister of a new executive in May 2007, closing yet another chapter in [...] read our review »
Dear Lord – gobsmacked at that blog.
Don’t give them any more publicity than they’ve already managed to achieve.
God hates Ireland, indeed..
*sheesh*
Pete
The Irish News carried it yesterday morning. Should’ve credited it.
Firebran US preacher blasts Ireland’s equality
By John Manley
A controversial American preacher famed for his outspoken views on homosexuality has launched a website lambasting Ireland for its equality laws.
The anti-gay tirade is featured on godhatesireland.com – the latest platform of the Rev Fred Phelps, head of the Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas.
The firebrand preacher, who earlier this year featured in a BBC documentary made by Louis Theroux, claims Ireland is now “the Emerald Isle of the sodomite damned†after the Dublin government adopted EU legislation which outlaws discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation.
The website claims the laws are a “draconian, antichristic cup of Satan’s slimy vomit straight from the maw of hellâ€.
Gay rights campaigner and Irish senator David Norris comes in for particular criticism on the website.
Mr Phelps also claims he has been invited to Ireland by University College Dublin’s Literary and Historical Society to speak next February on the subject of gay adoption.
Despite branding some of the society’s members “leaders in the Irish homosexual community†who he alleges are responsible for decriminalising sodomy in Ireland, the anti-gay preacher says he will accept the invitation.
However, Mr Phelps believes the invitation is just a ruse and that he will be arrested in Ireland and charged with inciting hatred. He has therefore asked the university society to provide written guarantees from the taoiseach and President Mary McAleese that he will not be prosecuted.
“They know exactly what I will say on the subject of gay adoption and they know that what I will say from the bible about sodomites will land me in an Irish jail for two and maybe 10 years,†he writes on the website.
Nobody from UCD’s Literary and Historical Society was available for comment yesterday.
Mr Phelps’s other websites include godhatesfags.com and godhatessweden.com, which attack the US and Swedish governments for their liberal attitude to homosexuality.
Mr Phelps’s church followers, the majority of whom are members of his extended family, regularly stage pickets at military funerals, gay pride gatherings, and political gatherings, arguing it is their sacred duty to warn others of God’s anger.
Mr Phelps believes the 9/11 attacks were a form of divine retribution and he refers to the US as a “sodomite nation of flag-worshipping idolatorsâ€.
In his home country, the controversial preacher is protected by the US Constitution’s First Amendment, which permits freedom of expression.
Bizarre people!
And he couldn’t even get the tricolour the right way around on the GodhatesIreland.com logo. Still, with “Christian” advocates like him, the atheism/theism debate looks to be pretty well sewn up….
I’m wondering why you think that adds to the discussion, Gonzo.
Pete
Because a lot of the time people can’t be arsed clicking on every link in a blog entry, and the Irish News story kinda sums the story up in a nutshell.
Ah.. so your response wasn’t actually addressed to me, then..
[off snark]
On topic.
Why should I care what a homophobic bunch of super-naturalists think?
Pete
I didn’t think you would care, to be honest, but it’s the flip side of the coin to the thread on the Gay Pride placard, which I closed and redirected to this one.
So it’s not an attempt to get George apoplectic Gonzo ?
Cruimh
Heh!
No, I just wanted to see if those who defended free speech/expression in the last thread could defend the right to attack homosexuality on this one. Or whether the Christians on the last thread thought this particular church was right. Or whether there would be some smart-ass comments about my motives(!)…
You get the drift… What’s the point of a blog that doesn’t provoke debate?
Assuming that you don’t care..
“which I closed and redirected to this one”
For example…
“If they don’t change their minds then there are other options.”
“You get the drift… What’s the point of a blog that doesn’t provoke debate? ”
Indeed – the Phelps are mind-blowingly awful – I saw a documentary about them a few weeks ago.
Best bit was when the moralising matriarch introduced her nephew – and had to admit that he was in fact her illegitimate son. Things got a mite heated – especially when the reporter asked her if it meant she was going to Hell
The girls are pretty though – is Phelps a Ceredigion name Dewi ?
Gonzo,
Free speech is not the same thing as incitement to hatred. That’s why we have laws against it.
Anyhow it’s immaterial. Mr Phelps will be laughed at. Ireland ain’t the Bible Belt.
The Irish Trivolour is deliberately the wrong way round as an insult. If you tracked these people, you would see they do it all the time with the Stars and Stripes. The fact that htey were dancing on the sacred Irish flag should have been an indicator but no, too qwuick to go into print to defend sodomites as progressives.
The Phelps arem ostly very successful lawyers btw. Just like TDs.
Fred Phelps got it right with the L&H trying to entrap him but wrong with the fag enablers who were TCD not UCD.
For the goons who are using Phelps to attack Christianity, Jerry Falwell and his ilk are on record as saying Phelps is a nut case.
Phelps opposes the Iraq war, something Adams’ mate King doesn ot.
Belfast Gonzo, please think a minute before oyur next feel good tirade. People like you are Phelps enablers.
This is old news. Will Crawley’s blog carried the entire story last week and his Sunday morning programme covered it this past weekend. Nice of the Irish News to listen in and then not credit the show with the story! The programme had a guest journalist who had met Phelps and regard him as simply insane. I hadn’t realised that Phelps is a Democrat and has even stood for office in his town and state.
“The Irish Trivolour is deliberately the wrong way round as an insult.”
Oh. Well that cut me to the quick.
“but no, too qwuick to go into print to defend sodomites as progressives.”
Not necessarily progressives, just humans, with as much right not to be demonised and insulted as anyone else.
Bah, missed on Crawley’s blog, which is quite good I have to say.
Still, it’s an improvement on Riverdance!
OÃche mhaith
with those views phelps will be in line for first minister of Norn Iron.
Yeah, they came and protested outside my church. The rector just told us all to exit through the doors on the opposite side of the church as they were looking for confrontations and we weren’t going to go along with their plan.
Why don’t the Provos send some goons to sort these ones out for insulting our flag? But then the Provos are fag enablers. Witness McGuinness having Free Derry corner pinkified. “The people’s flag is palest pink…”
I wonder how many other Provos are fag enablers. Phelps has them well marked. The Troubles were all aobut getting a boner.
What confuses me about this is why did UCD invite the famously insane/reculisve Pastor Phelps to attend their discussion on Gay adoption?
Phelps views are considered horrendous even by the religious right in America, he is almost a living parody of the anti-gay sentiment that exists within many conservative churches in America. Why did UCD want this man to talk about Gay Adoption? Maybe it was a hope that his ridiculously anti-gay views would eclipise the particular scope of the topic and would result in a homophobic rant that would discredit the entire opposition to gay adoption… after all there are several oppenents to this idea that can express their opinoins more eloquently and with greater aplomb than Pastor “Cause God hates Gays!” Phelps.
Just to make it clear I’m in favour of gay adoption. I think it’s just my years living in America that has made me sceptical of any public organisation that actually communicates with the Phelps… even FOX won’t talk to them anymore!
FOX!
On another discussion forum I’m an active member at we’ve tangled more than once with Phred Phelps and his cult. The man is pure poison. There isn’t an ounce of goodness in him and he’s one of the few people in this world I wish a long and agonising death to.
He pickets the funerals of anyone he can get near and even turned on his fellow fundie Jerry Falwell and IIRC protested at his funeral. He basically owns the domain names of “God Hates” and then adds whatever is pissing him off that perticular week, most notably God Hates Sweden saying that the Asian Tsunami of a few years ago was God out to get the few dozen swedes that died. The guy is a wack job.
Protorius,
“Maybe it was a hope that his ridiculously anti-gay views would eclipse the particular scope of the topic and would result in a homophobic rant that would discredit the entire opposition to gay adoption…”
I believe you got it in one.
While studying at length (for research purposes you understand) the hottie hunkering in the background, I noted her tattoo. And I remembered Larry David’s hilarious episode entitled The Special Section.
Seems the cemetery won’t allow Larry’s momma to be buried in the main section. She has a tattoo on her bum, you see, and according to Leviticus 19:28,
“Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I [am] the Lord.”
Ergo, the Ms Phelps pictured can’t be a true Christian. Shame on her!
Jeez Dawkins, don’t mention that chapter of the bible or a certain troll will turn up.
“What confuses me about this is why did UCD invite the famously insane/reculisve Pastor Phelps to attend their discussion on Gay adoption?”
Publicity. The UCD and TCD debating societies regularly invite the most hardline and extreme people they can in the hope of getting publicity, statements in the Dail, phone-ins to Joe Duffy etc.
Pounder,
Only if I recite his name three times while looking in the mirror.
IMHO ever citizen of the Irish Republic should take pride that the tolerance of their nation offends hate-filled morons like this.
It would be nice to starve them of the oxygen of publicity, or failing that, the oxygen of oxygen…
Agree Dawkins, the casual inconsistency of these people reveals their hypocritical bigotry.
If they are condemning sodomites, I womder if the lady in question also seduces her own father, an activity approved of by god in the relevant secion of the bible.
Poor aul Lot never saw it coming and he not a widower for even a wet week…
After my dealings with Phelps else where I feel sorry for him more than anything. For all his vitrol and hate he strikes me as essentialy an unhappy man who uses fear to keep his family around him. If there is a god, a heaven and a hell I think he’ll be on a much lower level than I end up in.
To be fair to the young lady in question, that’s a decent leap, potential Riverdance recruit here.
And she appears to be taking a leaf out of Darren Clarke’s book, and focusing on the Orange third of the flag.
BTW, did ye know that, unlike the Irish Tricolour, the French tricoleur is not composed of equal red, white and blue sections.
In order for it to appear equal, some sections are wider than others.
Had a double take at this picture in the front of Guardian website – flag of India.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
http://www.flagfocus.info/worldflags-large/flag-IvoryCoast-lg.gif
The Ivory Coast Flag
Pounder,
“For all his [Phelps's] vitrol and hate he strikes me as essentialy an unhappy man…”
I’m sure that’s true of every homophobe, and indeed of every bigot. If a peep is happy and confident within himself he has no need to hit on others. All gay bashers are deeply insecure, and yes I guess we should feel sorry for them.
páid,
“In order for it to appear equal, some sections are wider than others.”
Is that not emblematic of society — with apologies to the fatties here :0)
“Free speech is not the same thing as incitement to hatred. That’s why we have laws against it.â€
Dawkins
By that logic Robert Mugabe is a paragon of virtue, meticulously rooting out anyone inciting people to hostility towards a minority in his country, i.e. the members of his regime.
“It would be nice to starve them of the oxygen of publicity, or failing that, the oxygen of oxygen…â€
Jamie Gargoyle
Are those words in themselves not an incitement to hatred?
Do you think you should be imprisoned for them?
And if Mr. Phelps were to make the same remarks, but directed at gays in a debate in a university would you be pressing for campus security to invite the Garda (or PSNI, as the case may be) onto the university campus, a supposed bastion of freedom, to have him removed and incarcerated?
Then, if I were to incite hostility and aversion towards those who back a law that incarcerates people for speaking would it be right and proper that I be thrown in jail too?
And would we not laugh heartily at the mouthwateringly sweet irony that we found ourselves in the same cell, all taking pride in the tolerance of the nation?
Real freedom of speech is having the right to say what you want and the obligation to hear things you don’t want to hear.
“In his home country, the controversial preacher is protected by the US Constitution’s First Amendment, which permits freedom of expression.â€
The Irish News
One can only hope the Americans will never have the poor sense to surrender their freedom of expression, and that of their descendants, over one head the ball and his loony tunes family.
Ah bless ‘em all, typical American religious nutjobs. Keith Allen presented a programme on C4 recently about this family and he discovered that they had a few skeletons in the cupboard.
Keith Allen – that was the chap Gréagóir. Superb show, up there with Ruby Wax visiting the rattlesnake dancers!
Wilde Rover,
“By that logic Robert Mugabe is a paragon of virtue, meticulously rooting out anyone inciting people to hostility towards a minority in his country, i.e. the members of his regime.”
If you disagree with my “logic” then I take it you wouldn’t mind if I and a bunch of the lads were to come round in the middle of the night, stand outside your home with flaming torches and denounce you as a paedophile and rapist — or indeed anything else liable to make you less than popular with the neighbours.
WR – actually, it was a joke, and I think most people can tell the difference between a cheap one-liner on a blog and picketing a funeral.
Perhaps next time I should add a “ba-doom-tish” to indicate joshing for the hard of humour…
The Phelps are, frankly, one Protestant schism past being a cult of personality. Frankly, they’ve gone so far past the point of no return that even the Rev. NO! would look askance at them. Their church and their family are, to the best of my understanding, one and the same.
Throw in the fact they’re mostly lawyers and hyporcites (but I repeat myself) and you have something that passes for the KKK’s version of Brother Love’s medicine show.
guess who they voted for in the past elections…
Whether the emphasis is on Freedom of Speech or Incitment to Hatred really depends on the potential implications of his words.
Freedom of speech for hate filled people like Phelps is a dangerous luxury for society and we only take comfort that he is not taken seriously and indeed he only opens himself up to ridicule. His immediate sphere of influence appears to be his own family circle.
However if this was some firebrand Muslim preacher based in England then it would be a different matter as you can bet he would have somebody acting on his words in a very short space of time.
Then what he says woyuld move into the sphere of Incitement to hatred.
However often society only makes this move as a reaction to something that has already occurred.
Speech can be every bit a dangerous weapon as any other.
that’s what lack of culture and a massive dose of sodas can do to people and that proves that america is a weird weird place.
i feel very sorry for the kids, which are the real victims in this pathetic family
“Speech can be every bit a dangerous weapon as any other.”
Exactly so, John. Like Francesco I’m sorry for the kids, not just Phelps’s but any kid listening to his ravings and being so naive and impressionable that his/her mind is poisoned.
Phelps is indeed a nasty piece of work. Those of us who oppose homosexual practice from the Bible with non-hatred of the individual are embarrassed to be bracketed with him.
I also saw the Louis Theroux documentary. For me, the worst bit was one of their very young children they had brought along to a picket being injured by a missile thrown by an on-looker.
Dawkins
“If you disagree with my “logic†then I take it you wouldn’t mind if I and a bunch of the lads were to come round in the middle of the night, stand outside your home with flaming torches and denounce you as a paedophile and rapist—or indeed anything else liable to make you less than popular with the neighbours.â€
Not if you didn’t mind me ringing the police to report a breach of the peace and slander.
Jamie Gargoyle
“WR – actually, it was a joke, and I think most people can tell the difference between a cheap one-liner on a blog and picketing a funeral.
Perhaps next time I should add a “ba-doom-tish†to indicate joshing for the hard of humour…â€
I must admit I lack your omnipotence and cannot look into the minds of everyone reading this thread to determine whether or not your remarks concerning death by suffocation has cyberspace rolling in the aisles.
Please don’t mistake me for someone trying to defend this guy. I really don’t like him, and the main reason I don’t like him is the fact his expression of freedom seems to lead some people to express the view that freedom of expression should be curtailed just to shut gobshites like him up.
Wilde Rover,
“Not if you didn’t mind me ringing the police to report a breach of the peace and slander.”
If you happen to live on an estate in Carrickfergus, good luck :0)
So basically God hates everyone except the Phelps family? Has the media tried to get gods opinion on this?
Phelps is an absolute nutcase whose anti-whatever screeds boil down to “LOOK AT ME!!!!” Pitiful and already in his own hell…best ignored, difficult as that is.
Some groups have made appearances at Phelps-protested funerals just to form a buffer between his nonsense and the mourners; surely an act of mercy to their credit.