Hate-Freaks to Brooklyn: Bring It On

The kooky Kansas "church" famed for its God-hates-fags message will be harassing Brooklyn Tech after school today and three synagogues on Saturday. Their spokeswoman, Shirley Phelps-Roper, also issued a contemptuous put-down of Brooklyn— asked whether she feared violent confrontations at the picketing locations, she replied: “Don’t flatter yourself, Brooklyn. We serve the living God. You mess with us, you’ll get double destruction for what you do.”

Fighting words/hate speech is nothing new to the Westboro Baptist Church. The Brooklyn Paper had reached their website yesterday, and found quotes like this:

"You Jews broke the covenant with God. The day is near. The beast is going to bring the nations to march upon Jerusalem. Your houses will be destroyed and your women ravaged. " “You have filled modern Jewry with abominations, forsaken God and broken His covenant... You thought the curses of the past year were bad (financial collapse, Madoff swindle, war in Gaza, Holocaust Museum shooting, Beast Obama in the White House, and more), but you haven’t seen anything yet!”

Language like that makes you understand why police are officially investigating a possible link between the group and the scattering of "Kill Jews" leaflets all over Boerum Hill on Tuesday, though the two incidents may be unrelated.

The group's website [www.godhatesfags.com (!)] seems to have been smitten by the Lord and was down when we last checked it, but the locations of their protests on Saturday will be: Congregation Beth Elohim, Garfield and 8th Ave. in Park Slope, 9:45 am; Union Temple at Grand Army Plaza, 10 am; and the Kane Street Synagogue at Kane and Tompkins in Cobble Hill, 12:30 p.m. Bring a witty sign.

Update: some pictures from the protest in Fort Greene— looks like a lot of people showed up.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By John Kuhner in News on September 24, 2009 12:15 PM

Comments [rss]

jesseps

I want to go into their rally with a sign that says "God hates WBC" or "God hates God" and get their stupid reaction.

Everyone that follows WBC is a mindless zombie, they should have stayed in Kansas with their inbreeding.

Dwayne Hoover

Where's an out-of-control livery cab when you need one?

NannyState

Between these shitbags and the Kapparot chicken twirlers, we got ourselves a real hoedown.

Clarice City

Is "Double Destruction" like a double dog dare? I triple dog dare Phleps cult to jump in front of the 1 train at rush hour to see if God saves them.

weenie

9:45AM, 10AM and 12:30PM... definitely the best times of day to stage a protest to all the nannies walking the children of Park Slope. well at least this group has shitforbrains when it comes to event planning.

anybody know where they are sleeping? I've got Jewish melodies and a tap for a keg...

sadpanda

doesn't the "war on terrorism" include domestic terrorists like these?

bomb them and get it over with.

Qraymond

"God hates signs" is really funny.

JenChungsBaby

God Hates Cookie Monster

donner

Can someone please explain where these people get their funds?

robingee

Good question! Their travel expenses are $200K a year!

imadick

self-hating fags

Matt Joyce

I have a sudden desire to do a live reenactment of The Warriors.

JenChungsBaby

God Hates American Apparel

evbo

...but god loves their models. Or at least I do.

Wza

Yep, me too.

smitty

So unfortunate that Hell doesn't exist, because there would be a special place there for them for picketing Matthew Shepard's funeral. I still find it disturbing that they did that 10 years later.

hotstepper

i would say that god is feeling like a used up party-girl on the morning after.

NannyState

Seriously. You DON"T want to see God without her makeup.

nicemarmot

I think the best thing to do would be to gather a bunch of tourists, walk right up to them, have the tourists give them hugs and say "Cheese!" while someone takes a picture.

They'd be so confused their heads will explode.

flynn110

sadly, going out and protesting against these persons is exactly what they want you to do. more people means more media attention which means more people hear their message. these people are twisted individuals but ignoring them is the best policy.

ides_of_march

These assholes are crapping on the American military too. They're no better than traitor Jane Fonda or Code Pink.

smitty

So unfortunate that Hell doesn't exist, because there would be a special place there for them for picketing Matthew Shepard's funeral. I still find it disturbing that they did that 10 years later.

BTW "God Hates Signs" is pretty funny.

sexisicilian

Ditto!! What do you think about this sign for Saturday: GO FUCK YOURSELF & IF YOU HAVE NOTHING BETTER TO DO IN KANSAS, YOU CAN GO KILL YOURSELF!!

SENDING MUCH LUV FROM BROOKLYN:)

HymietownHero

Not a good sign. These idiots thrive on confrontation and insult. Goofy, absurdist signs would serve to underscore the absurd nature of this group. Something like "GOD ENJOYS MATH" or "YES ON STRUDEL" or "SHITSWIVEL MCGUFFIN" would do well.