22 October 2007

If only God looked like Graham Norton

One of the biggest mysteries on this planet is how the entire congregation of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas has avoided being bludgeoned to death. Their actions seem to be calculated to upset and outrage just about everyone on the planet who isn’t a Westboro Baptist. Perhaps it should come as no surprise that this rabble of virulently homophobic lunatics have trained their guns in Ireland.


Three months ago the Westboros launched a new website God Hates Ireland. The main target appears to be David Norris who, when elected to the Seanad Eireann in 1987, became Ireland’s first openly gay public figure Mr Norris was a prominent member of the Campaign for Homosexual Law Reform (an organisation that had both the current Irish president Mary McAleese and her predecessor Mary Robinson as legal advisors). Legal actions taken by the organisation finally bore fruit in 1993 when homosexuality was finally decriminalised. The website is full of the usual invective one would expect from them. Apparently “Ireland is a land of vile, feces-eaters and anus lickers and those who have pleasure in them - all of whom are abominations to God and headed for Hell.” There of course a tirade on paedophile priests


According to a Sunday Independent article the spur to set up the website was an invitation to Fred Phelps (the leader of the WBC) from University College Dublin’s Literary and History Society to speak at a debate on gay adoption. Apparently Phelps feared that if he came and launched into his usual tirades he would be arrested under the Prohibition of Incitement to Hatred Act (which is "a draconian, antichristic (sic) cup of Satan's slimy vomit, straight from the maw of hell") and that he was thus being set up by the UCD society. His daughter Shirley Phelps-Roper said he would come to Ireland only if pigs fly. "And," she added, "I mean really fly, not in a retouched photograph, or shot out of a catapult".


Graham Norton - Their worst nightmare?

This wooly minded pinko liberal just can’t get his head around what motivates the Westboros. What kick do they get out of picketing the funerals of servicemen and women or the victims of disasters such as the bridge disaster in Minnesota? I suppose it is just single minded fanaticism and the view that any publicity is good publicity. I suppose the best thing to do is ignore them (which defeats the object of this post. I know!) even if they make one want to greet them warmly on the head with a lump hammer.


It would be quite ironic if God turned out to be a Polari speaking Graham Norton lookalike. I would love to see the look on Fred Phelps’s ecaf when he rolls up at the pearly gates and God says unto him “Vada your bijou cartso, we’re all fantabulosa homy polones here”



Notes

Polari was a cant or secret language which seems to have orignally been used by fairground and show folk since the 17th century. It was used by gay men until the 1960s either as a way to discuss gay subjects without being under stood. Some gay men may have used it as a way of asserting their identity. It fell into diisuse after homosexuality was partiially decriminalised in Britain in the 1960s.



Graham Norton is a very camp Irish comedian and television presenter. He first came to notice in the UK playing the character of Father Noel Furlong in the sitcom Father Ted.

15 comments:

Siani said...

Phelps and his followers are as ridiculous as the KKK. In fact, Phelps is amoebic dysentery personified. May Satan give him a good buggering soon!

jams o donnell said...

I love your turn of phrase Siani! Perhaps his legion of demons should obtain some extra largs strap-ons!

Siani said...

LOL, yes. Extra large strap-ons smeared with crushed Naga Jolokia chillies.

Carver said...

I will never understand hate groups who create their God in a mean spirited image. I had to laugh at the idea of what might await them at the pearly gates. Too funny.

billie said...

my own thought is intolerance. being tolerant is what gave these slimeballs any power at all. sue them- do whatever necessary to scare the crap out of them- and perhaps they will slither back under the rock from which they came.

Anonymous said...

Wow. I lived in Ireland prior to 93 and never realised that my gay friends were breaking the law. They certainly didn't seem to hide the fact that they were gay though.

jams o donnell said...

Siani you would make a vengeful god!

They beat me too Carver. They create very ugly deities - in the images of their twisted hatred.

I wonder if they really would like either to be arrested or have the crap beaten out of them is what they really want. It might make them martyrs in their weird minds.

Presumably the law was not strictly enforced by then Ordovicus but it was illegal until then.

Roland Dodds said...

Wait….God doesn’t hate Ireland? My grandmother will be keen on hearing that, having spent the last 40 years lamenting the nation she left!

As for the Westboro Baptist Church, I think goes to show that Americans can be a tough bunch to love sometimes, but we are pretty respectful to groups that we would rather see buried in a shallow grave.

I actually ran into these folks when they were protesting at my University one year, and everyone was told not to touch them whatsoever. I guess the group gets a large part of its funding from suing people who throw eggs and other items at them at these events.

Anonymous said...

If you look at his itinerary you would note that the Phelps circus avoids certain areas of the country.

This is for the very good reason that they don't want to die, and disrupting a funeral in the wrong area of the US would result it the disappearance of the entire group and no investigation by any local police agency.

Some areas believe in free speech, others, not so much.

Phelps is the price we pay to be liberals, but some of us are questioning the expense.

Anonymous said...

You know, the first time I saw the WBC website, I honestly thought it was a parody - now I KNOW it is - a parody of the human race......

jams o donnell said...

A very ugly parody at that Chris

Liz Hinds said...

That is hideous! I just looked at the God hates Ireland site. It's hard to believe that people believe this! Is it that 'church' that is mostly members of the same family? They did a TV programme on them recently - Louis Theroux, I think. I watched the first few minutes and had to switch off: I couldn't bear to hear such a mockery of what should/could be all about love.

jams o donnell said...

I can imagine how you felt Liz. Seeing the christian messge so utterly perverted (not that I am religious myself) is foul.

Paul E. said...

I expect that you've seen this, but if not...

http://www.landoverbaptist.org/

jams o donnell said...

I love the Landover site Paulie. Hilarious stuff!