Yes, yes, she who hates protesting is actually planning to attend a protest.
Well, a counter-protest.
Fred Phelps, the "God hates fags" guy, is coming to Walt Whitman high school to protest the fact that the high school is named after Walt Whitman and Walt Whitman might have been gay, though I don't think anybody's sure. (Though admittedly Oscar Wilde had strong opinions on the subject.)
Clearly the homosexuals of this world need to have some more parades or something, because poor Phelps is running out of stuff to protest.
So some of my friends and I are going and I want a snarky slogan about peace and love or something because if I'm going to go, I might as well have a sign.
My initial urge is to make a sign that says "God hates protesters" and then wear a t-shirt that says "except me." But that sounds like the sort of thing that is funnier in my head.
Other options?
I've always liked "God bless the whole world, no exceptions"
and there's "For every anti-Gay protestor I see, I'm giving ten bucks to PFLAG"
I have a little too much dignity to show up as the confused person who was looking for the "God hates Figs" protest, though I appreciate the humor value.
I also kinda like "God hates Nora Ephron movies" but that would be hilarious to literally only me.
A gay friend of mine once carried a sign that said "Homosexual Agenda - Spend Time with Family - Be Treated Equally - Buy Milk" but that's not quite on point and it's too long.
Anyway, I'm open to suggestions and if I get more than a couple I will forward this thread around to my friends who are also attending.
If you're in the DC area and you'd like the details on where and when it will be or would like to donate to a "Phelps-a-thon" that gives money to gay causes for every minute the protest goes on, Click here. I've already donated.
CC
Getting back to studying now, she swears.
Update: "God Hates Nora Ephron Movies" has proved very popular among my law school buddies, but I think the "If God hates all the same things you do, you should probably re-examine your faith" point is a little subtle for these folks.
16 comments:
I asked The Almighty God to tell everyone why He hates the Westboro Baptist Church on His 'Stuff God Hates' blog a while back and He answered my prayer within a week or two. Who says The Almighty God doesn't answer prayers? I will see if I can come up with some pithy picket sign slogans but it occurs to me that my UNSAFE SECT? picket sign slogan could apply very well to the Westboro Baptist Church.
How about the ever so U*U -
Fred Phelps
Needs Help
Why didn't you think of this one yet CC?
Westboro Baptist Church Sucks
I've always been partial to "Jesus called. He wants his religion back"
Westboro Baptist Pharisees
Or quote Whitman.
“Be curious, not judgmental.”
"Hate tyrants, argue not concerning God"
Or reference Whitman:
"WBC: A barbaric yawp over the rooftops of the world"
I've counter-protested Phelps two or three times now. Those times he was in town protesting the Laramie Project and harassed a few churches (although never the UU Fellowship...I like to think we are "too far gone" for Phelps' attention) and gay student organizations while he was in the neighborhood.
Anyway, the best sign I saw at those was by our RE teacher. It read: "Teaching children to hate is child abuse." Phelps' clan almost always has young children and is a mighty disturbing sight.
The only problem with particularly erudite, or literary slogans is that they will always be lost on the ignorant.
Ogre's idea of using Walt Whitman quotes is an excellent one and I hereby second his e-motion.
@ restaurant refugee
Peaceful *public* protest is generally geared towards informing the public as much as, if not more so, than trying to change the rigid minds of those people whose words and/or actions you are protesting against. This is one aspect of my own peaceful *public* protest against U*U clergy misconduct, U*U anti-religious bigotry and other U*U injustices, abuses and hypocrisy that most Montreal Unitarian U*Us, and a whole lot of other U*Us. . . just don't get. These U*Us think that I am insane for steadfastly continuing in my peaceful public protest that they make a point of obstinately ignoring, whereas I think these U*Us have a few screws missing for foolishly ignoring my very *public* protest for over a decade now.
I well remember how in part of their deeply misguided efforts to obtain a court ordered injunction forcing an end to my public protest Montreal Unitarians pretended that the reputation of the Unitarian Church of Montreal had been *irreparably* damaged by my long term "image tarnishing" public protest. That is open to some debate but, whatever level of damage the reputation aka "public image" of the Unitarian Church of Montreal has suffered as a result of my protest it would be much smaller if these willfully ignorant moral morons had not chosen the poorly advised fate of studiously ignoring it for over a decade. . .
I have to say that I'm in the camp that thinks Phelps should just be ignored. The only exception I make is when he does stuff like showing up to dead soldiers' funerals -- in which case, there should be a human chain and other efforts to keep him as far from the grieving family as possible -- but I think legislation is in the works to take care of that anyway.
PG,
I, the non-protestor, have a lot of sympathy for that view and likely would not be going if a large number of my YRUUs weren't.
CC
I tend to agree with PG and said as much recently elsewhere in the U*U blogosphere. All too often a counter-protest just draws more attention, including media attention, to the protester. In fact people may have difficulty distinguishing the counter-protesters from the protesters in some cases. It can thus come in very handy for the protesters, especially if they are a small group as is the case with the WBC. I figured that if you were going to participate that I could at least make a few suggestions for picket sign slogans having lots of experience in that area. :-)
It occurs to me that another approach to picket sign slogans would be to parody WBC's own slogans -
WBC PROTESTS
GOD LAUGHS
GOD HATES
BIGOTS
etc.
Obviously from some of the examples I provided in the initial post, parodying Phelps' slogans has been done a lot and it's certainly something I'm considering.
That said, I'm there for love, not anger, so whatever I say, it won't be a direct attack on Phelps on the WBC.
CC
My invisible friend hates you too
On one side, "God is Love" and on the other side, "How do you define 'Love'?"
(the word verification is "blesser")
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