Westboro Baptist Church in its own words

17 Apr 2009, Posted by Zachary Tracer in National Politics, News, 4 Comments

Since the publication of Thursday’s article about the Westboro Baptist Church coming to Duke Monday, many people have asked me for more information about the group. While I am no expert on the group, I did spend some time Tuesday interviewing a church lawyer and spokesperson, Shirley Phelps-Roper, by phone.

Phelps-Roper said she plans to be at Monday’s protest at the corner of Erwin Road and Fulton Street, and she took about fifteen minutes to explain to me the beliefs and motivations of the group. Her tone never changed, whether she was expounding on her hatred towards gays or advising me to use Microsoft Live Maps instead of Google Maps to find the location of the Monday protest.

Portions of my interview with Phelps-Roper are below.

Shirley Phelps-Roper: The thing, the act that brings us there to start with, is the godsmack, that God sent the shooter over there by Carthage, [N.C.]…. The Lord is coming, America is doomed. The time is so short, we’re not wasting any trips right now. There are students who have been taught that God is a liar. We are running fast every day all over this country…. Everywhere we’re going, we’re hitting as many places as we can get to…

The Chronicle: Will the early time of the protest and low visibility to students limit the effectiveness of the demonstration?

SP: Limit effectiveness? Oh heavens no, hun. The little rebels are going do all that “blah blah blah” mouth running… Well you understand that we have picked a busy intersection. Just because the little rebel students aren’t going to be all up running around, theres also a whole community of people who are going to drive by that location. Those people will see the signs.

TC: Why did the Westboro Baptist Church choose to protest at Duke? Why not at another school in the Triangle?

SP: We haven’t been to Duke in a while and it’s large. Look hon, here it is. Why would we not pick Duke? I’m just saying. Are those students not entitled to have even a shot at seeing what good looks like? Those children—you guys—were taught rebellion. You are in urgent, dire need of some truth.

TC: What is the message of your church?

SP: Our message is: God hates f—s. God hates f— enablers. Therefore, God hates Duke University. Therefore, America is doomed.

TC: Do you think Duke students will be receptive to your message?

SP: [laughter] Well, that depends on what you mean by receptive. Do I think they are going to like it? No. They’re going to respond the same way they do all over doomed America—they’re going to reject the word of God…. How many drunken spewing sprees do you need in a lifetime? The prophet, the apostle, his name was Peter, and he said it kind of like this: “You’ve wasted enough of the days of your life chasing after this nonsense. The lord is coming.”

Why Prop. 8 supporters are bigots

25 Nov 2008, Posted by Danny Lewin in Backpages, Backtalk, 3 Comments

Please note: Title intentionally inflammatory to increase readership. In fact, the point of this is to try to provide a more well-reasoned attack on Proposition 8 than we usually see. Liberals, myself included, have expressed a generally unintelligible ire over Prop 8 while conservatives generally sound reasoned and principled on the subject. I think a proper analogy is asking the man who’s just been stabbed in the gut to perform an oratory on the evils of assault. We’re just too angry and wounded to do it, and it looks like the rationale should be obvious. Let me try to parse it out in a bit more methodical way than just “YOU CAN’T DO THAT!”.

The right for the government to curtail people’s sexual choices in their private lives is self-evident. You can’t have sex with children, you can’t have sex with someone who doesn’t consent, you can’t sell your own body for sex, etc. There’s no fundamental philosophical rule behind any of these rules. Kant doesn’t say kids aren’t okay but people of your gender are, and Locke doesn’t contend that there’s some fundamental rule that says same-sex marriage is wrong, but heterosexual marriage is right. It’s indefensible to claim that the government can’t restrict a person’s private sexual choices, and that’s true for both sides of the aisle. (more…)

Mainstream Mormons

22 Nov 2008, Posted by Andrew Hibbard in Playground, 0 Comments

From David Edelstein’s recent post in his Projectionist blog, concerning Twilight-albeit this portion of the post veers from Twilight to discuss the rising presence of Mormons (among them, Milk screenwriter Duncan Lance Black and Twilight author Stephenie Meyer):

With characters that veer between implosive sexual repression and explosive sexual liberation, are Mormons the new Catholics?

With HBO’s Big Love, the rise of Mormons in the news (largely because of Proposition 8) and Mitt Romney, does this mean Mormons are mainstream? Are Scientologists next? Tom Cruise, say hello to career revival.

Stopping in at the Mary Lou

04 Nov 2008, Posted by Zachary Tracer in News, election 2008, 0 Comments

filed at 2:53 p.m.

Discussion - Zachary Tracer/The Chronicle

I stopped in at the Mary Lou Williams Center today for a brief discussion of “The Faithful Left” just after noon today. Sean Palmer, the Graduate Fellow at the center and a first year divinity student, led much of the discussion, which looked at the interplay of religion and politics in the 2008 election, and, of course, at Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama.

“We want to look at Barack not because of his Democratic stance, but because he represents this whole notion of African American political life,” Palmer said. “We’re looking at it from the perspective of the first African American candidate.”

The center is offering food and entertainment throughout the day, as Will Robinson blogged about earlier.

Though only eight people attended the 12:30 discussion, Jamie Fleece, the center’s marketing specialist, said she expects 100 students to show up to watch election returns on the center’s large-screen television.