Westboro "Baptist Church" out-crazies itself

Normally I don't have any interest in doing posts about crazy folks--first there are so many of them, and second: What's the point? It's not like we could fix 'em if we could just rally enough votes to pass a law....

But I'll make an exception for the thoroughly, uniquely crazy Fred Phelps and his nutty family followers. They're the ones who picket soldiers' funerals with signs cheering the death, and claiming it's "God's punishment" to America because our nation has defied God.

Yeah, I know, the "logic" doesn't quite track but...

Anyway, virtually everyone in America understands that the Phelps crew is utterly bat-shit crazy, so you wouldn't think they'd keep getting air-time for their antics. After all, doesn't the make-believe media normally hate "dog bites man" stories? You wouldn't think "Crazy group acts crazy--again" would be a hot story after the 200th time.

But the MBM keeps loving this particular dog-bites-man story, and I see only one reason: Phelps and crew call themselves a church. So the media see stories about their antics as a chance to tar all religious Americans with the same brush. Even better, their name says they're a Baptist church, so there's a double-benny of being able to heap even more guilt-by-association on fundamentalist Christians.

(Before November of 2008 there was also a second reason: the antics of Phelps' crew kept the continuing death toll in Afghanistan and Iraq in front of the public's attention at a time when anti-war sentiment had almost vanished, so the MBM could use the stories to erode support for George W. Bush and Republicans, as well as support for our nation ever again taking any military action. But of course this motive vanished when Obama was elected, since Da Won promised he'd pull U.S. troops out of both Iraq and Afghanistan if elected. And of course that's exactly what he did. [/sarc]

But I digress....)

Anyway, here's a Phelps story from yesterday (March 11, 2011) that appeared in several local papers around Pennsylvania.

Fresh off their Supreme Court victory allowing them to picket funerals of soldiers, members of the Westboro Baptist Church have announced plans to picket the funerals of seven Mennonite children killed Tuesday night when their farmhouse caught fire.

The children, ages 7 months to 11 years, were killed when a fire started while their mother was milking the family's cows and their father was on his milk delivery route. Their 3-year-old daughter managed to escape and alert the mother but the fire had already overwhelmed the wooden structure, police said.

The group from Topeka, Kan., said the death of the children was "just punishment at the hand of an Angry God" displeased with the failure of Pennsylvania residents to heed Westboro Baptist's call to "put away rebellion and obey the Lord your God."

Whoa! Picketing the funeral of children killed in a fire?

And then claiming the lethal fire is God's punishment because the nation has somehow angered God?

Folks, this isn't clever anti-Bush politics but just weapons-grade crazy. Accordingly, I predict that unlike the hundreds of other stories about the Phelpsies, this one won't make the CBS evening news (or the other networks), since it shows conclusively how nuts they are.

Since it doesn't further the anti-Christian, anti-Bush narrative, it'll be ignored outside the local area.

So let's see if I'm right. Keep an eye out for this story on the networks or in your local paper. If you don't see it, ask yourself why every MBM outlet thought it was newsworthy when the Phelps crew picketed soldiers' funerals, but the same editors and producers decided this particular version of crazy shouldn't get national coverage.

Oh, and for the record: While most of us are familiar with the biblical phrase "Vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord," I don't know any Christian who believes God is into vengeance--let alone killing innocent kids to make a point.

On the other hand, there is a belief system (one hesitates to use the term "religion") that not only thrives on vengeance killings but actually straps bomb vests on children to accomplish that goal. And while the American media hates most religions, they seem to love this belief system, constantly assuring us that this system is THE "religion of peace."

Why does the media never miss a chance to run stories tarring Christianity but never prints a critical word about this other belief system? In fact the MBM constantly run stories designed to block any investigation into possible terrorist activities by believers in this system here in the U.S.

Why is that?