Comments | shirei_shibolim: Please spread it around

shirei_shibolim

Please spread it around

Jun 19, 2009 13:22

In case you haven't heard, Westboro Baptist Church will be holding a protest tomorrow in front of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. I would like to urge anyone who feels compelled to counter-protest to stay home. Let me tell you why ( Read more... )

Comments 21

rymenhild June 19 2009, 17:38:16 UTC

I just made the mistake of looking at (the Google cache of) the page where Phelps announces said protest.

I really wish I hadn't.

shirei_shibolim June 19 2009, 18:00:56 UTC

Yeah. You'd think a man so good at getting attention could at least design a better web site. :)

anonymous June 19 2009, 17:41:09 UTC

And I just got an email from Congregation Beth Simcha Torah saying they are expecting the Phelps folks to show up on Sunday. They're asking people to show up for a PEACEFUL protest on Sunday morning at 8:45AM.

shirei_shibolim June 19 2009, 17:56:19 UTC

See, I think they're walking into a trap there. The most disappointing thing the WBC could encounter is a street corner where nobody cares who they are or what they think.

gimmelgirl June 19 2009, 18:11:40 UTC

See my comment below...

strange_selkie June 19 2009, 17:44:03 UTC

Um... protesting... what exactly? I mean, the existence of Jews? Has someone died? Why protest at a Jewish institution on Shabbes, when the joint is most likely completely empty?

shirei_shibolim June 19 2009, 17:58:33 UTC

JTS is Jewish, so God hates it. It recently admitted gay rabbinical and cantorial students, so God hates it even more. Also, Phelps seems to have taken up the issue of Palestinian rights, which is interesting since he hates them just as much as he hates Jews and Israel.

Oh, and . . . shirei_shibolim June 19 2009, 18:20:08 UTC

. . . yes, the Saturday protest is particularly silly. It would have made sense earlier in the year when the internal dorms were more full and the synagogue still holding services, but now they'll likely encounter more Gentiles than Jews in the building.

Re: Oh, and . . . gimmelgirl June 19 2009, 18:22:27 UTC

Not as silly as coming to the other synagogues on their protest list in NYC on a SUNDAY morning, when no one is there! And shouldn't they be at church anyway?

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sovay June 19 2009, 17:47:52 UTC

in fact, they have been known to cancel protests upon hearing that there are no counter-protests scheduled.

My mother reports that in Lexington, where the WBC has been protesting graduations and school events for two or three years running, the town has worked out a system where concerned citizens can come and form a buffer between the WBC and the targets of the protest; they do not interact with the protestors and in fact are required to stand with their backs to them. It seems to make them wander away feeling unloved.

shirei_shibolim June 19 2009, 18:00:18 UTC

That's one of two strategies that sound reasonably effective. The other, which has been used primarily in the church's native Kansas, is to join the protest with joke signs: GOD HATES THE NEW FACEBOOK and the like.

sovay June 19 2009, 18:50:28 UTC

to join the protest with joke signs: GOD HATES THE NEW FACEBOOK and the like.

That's lovely.

darthrami June 19 2009, 18:59:38 UTC

Have you seen the videos of the counter protests in Chicago from a few months ago? They were fantastic. Frat guys hanging out their windows singing I'm coming out, and people with signs like that one.

gimmelgirl June 19 2009, 18:15:11 UTC

While I agree with you about not giving in to them and making an effort to be somewhere you would have not otherwise been is giving in to them, and that they get off on it and you're only fanning the flame, Rabbi Kleinbaum feels differently, and I do also see her point. I originally said essentially what you've said, but then she explained that hate speech must be countered, even if it comes from a crazy person. It was such a crazy person who killed the guard at the Holocaust Museum. Crazy hate speech is still hate speech, and must not be tolerated. Here's the email from CBST which explains it a little better than I have. Essentially, I see her logic that this is OUR opportunity to voice our speech of peace and love in the face of their hate ( ... )

gimmelgirl June 19 2009, 18:18:36 UTC

I also LOVE LOVE LOVE the idea of the Phelps-a-Thon!
THAT's a productive response to this thing.

shirei_shibolim June 19 2009, 18:23:32 UTC

I guess I have to respectfully disagree with the first part of the method. Any response, no matter how peaceful, empowers the WBC to do more of what they do. A sign like "God made me gay," which may seem like a message of love and tolerance to you or me, would look very different to them: they would agree, and explain that that's why you're going to Hell.

As for the second part, that's absolutely brilliant.

strange_selkie June 19 2009, 19:13:15 UTC

Yes. While I do feel rawther strongly that God did make me gay, I think I'd save my sign-carryin' energy in this case and reach into my wallet, as it were, if I could.

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