Members of the Satanist Temple wanted to give the Westboro Church a taste of its own medicine Sunday. The aggressively hateful Westboro ‘church’ is famous for packing up the family – the church is comprised mainly of the Phelps family, and making a scene at the funerals of gay soldiers killed in combat. They also picket at the funerals of celebrities, victims of disaster and of terrorism.
Westboro defends their actions based on their belief that the United States is in a state of sin because of gay people. That’s it. If Marcus Bachmann could pray away all of the gay, this earth would be paradise – with the Phelps family aboard? There is some speculation that Fred Phelps ‘protests too much.’ Never the less they are quite active. Apparently, they do not trust God to mete out the punishment or instruction – and frankly, they seem to be much more agitated over the alleged sin than The Almighty, who has withheld comment.
Despite their hurtful and intrusive picketing and yelling, bereaved families have been informed that Westboro has freedom of speech. Sadly the families do not have freedom from the Phelps family with their world class vocal chords and “God Hates Fags” signs, which are particularly charming when a young child is given the job of carrying the message. So, they attempt to make a shambles of funerals, cause pain to the grieving and are protected by law. What to do?
Satanists set about the task of evening the score. They created a ‘pink mass’ celebrating gay love, which they performed over the grave of Fred Phelp’s mother. The ceremony works somewhat like the Mormon belief that deceased ancestors can be brought into the church belatedly. After the ceremony, the Members then posthumously declared Catherine Johnston, the mother of Westboro’s founder Fred Phelps, a lesbian. The ritual was designed to get a rise of the WBC. In that respect, it was a bit of a wash. A spokesman from Westboro, a notoriously publicity happy group, nattered on predictably and repetitively about the wages of (gay) sin. It must have been a bit of a let-down for the Satanists, but – could it be… A rainbow over grandma’s grave?