Waking up to news about Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church is never a good way to start the day. But, thanks to an NPR report on Morning Edition, that's what millions of Americans did today. And the news was bizarre, even by WBC standards.
Reporter Dina Temple-Raston told the story of the FBI inviting WBC members to training sessions with agents, and the resulting internal controversy. Temple-Raston's journalism-textbook-worthy nut graph explains:
Yet the FBI recently invited leaders of the fundamentalist church tothe Quantico Marine base in Virginia to talk to FBI agents as part of
the bureau's counterterrorism training program. But after four sessions
this spring, the FBI canceled the arrangement amid criticism from
inside the bureau, while church leaders claimed that they had been
misled.
It appears that the FBI brought in some WBC characters to give their
agents some hands-on interaction with potential domestic terrorists.
"[Law enforcement agents] were told that the FBI invited Westboro
members to the class so
police officers and agents could see extremists up close and understand
what makes them tick," NPR reported.
But if that was the case,
nobody told Timothy Phelps, who told Temple-Raston that WBC members were
brought to Quantico to help train officers in the best ways to deal
with provocative suspects. Phelps told the show that he thought the WBC
was there to teach the FBI agents "how to stay measured when they are
speaking with a witness or a suspect with whom they have a strong,
visceral disagreement."
When told that the FBI claims that
wasn't really the case and WBC knew it wasn't, Phelps wasn't too
shocked, telling NPR that the law lies to WBC members all the damn time.
After FBI higher-ups found out that the group had been invited
to speak to agents, a flurry of memos was sent around asking about why
the WBC was invited and telling FBI officials to not invite the
church back. But Phelps says he would return to chat with agents, even
though he felt misled about his reason for being there.
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smart, bet they wish they chould get some al Qaida to talk to. know what makes your enemy tick, what they live and fight for. makes it so mutch easier to destroy them when the time comes
If you want to talk about un-natural, then give your car away, because that's un-natural. what about your cell phone's and your trusty computer your typing on... all those things are un-natural and serve no purpose is the reproduction of civilization. It's narrow minded thinking like yourself that will hinder the evolution of man kind. Who REALLY cares if someone is gay or straight, or if they like country verses rap, chocolate or vanilla. these are choices that everyone has to make. I know I will never change your mind on the subject, I just hope that when you die, your bigotry dies with it.
There are married hetero-sexual couples out there who cannot reproduce. Are you saying that their union is "unatural"? It may not be natural for YOU, but, how can you say you know what is right for everyone? I am a married, hetero-sexual female, btw. I don't think we have any worries that the people of the world would die off anytime soon, even if everyone from here on out was born gay. That is just ridiculous!
Two people (consenting adults) loving each other is ALWAYS a good thing.
APA currently states that sexual
orientation is not a choice, rather that "...it emerges
from most people in early adolescence with no prior sexual
experience". They are born that way! I sure hope you do not have a gay child~that would be terrible for the child!
Judeo-Christian beliefs aside, since they have become so offensive in this country, homosexuality is unnatural. Any coupling in nature that is incapable of reproducing is sterile, flawed, an aberration. According to Darwinism, all you humanists out there, be consistent: homosexuals would die out if left to follow the progression of their lifestyle. It is not "natural", and no one has ever, nor ever will, show that people are born that way. Now, how many of you out there can respond to this without the hatred you like to accuse others with, those who disagree?
Especially the parts where we're all encouraged to spew hatred and hate our neighbors and blame everything on "faggots". WBC made me an atheist.
What are Fred Phelps and the WBC afraid of anyhow? Rainbows?
Unicorns? A flaming pink queer apocalypse?
I attempted to address this with a portrait of the good reverend on my
artist’s blog at http://dregstudiosart.blogspot... Drop in and let me know what you think!
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