We hate giving the Westboro Baptist Church attention, or risk making them look at all like a legitimate organization and not a small group of hateful bigots masquerading that hatred as virtue. Because that's all the WBC wants: Attention. But we're OK covering their protests when they end like this:
The WBC was set to protest Moore, Okla. this week. They've protested the town thrice before, and this time they were arriving with their "God Hates Fags!" signs, because, as they explain:
God has given Moore, Oklahoma many chances to repent...On 5/2/13, God struck Moore with an EF5 tornado, killing 24, injuring 377 others, including many of your children...Not once did a single voice [besides WBC] say, Repent! Mourn for your sins! Obey God! Because you phony salt-of-the-eart-small-town-pseydo-patriot-pretend-Christians LOVE YOUR SIN MORE THAN YOUR LIFE, AND HAVE NOTHING BUT HATE IN YOUR HEARTS FOR EACH OTHER.
They also claim that Moore mocked the recent death of former WBC leader Fred Phelps. But what WBC obviously did not expect was to be met with another protest: Thousands of Moore residents gathered with their own signs and flags. A protest against the protest.
The WBC's protest was supposed to be 30 minutes—they had a permit to "picket the slow learners" (their words) outside Central Junior High. That's right: They were picketing a middle school (but would anything about WBC surprise you at this point?)
They only made it eight minutes in before "hastily getting into their cars and driving away" as Moore citizens pressed the protest lines, Huffington Post explains. The end of the short-lived protest was captured in this video by Matt Ramsey.
Another local, Tina Johnson, told Local KFOR-TV 4, "I thought it was hilarious. I mean I really did. We sat there and laughed the whole time. They were running, yeah."
The video has since gone viral and WBC responded by retweeting it and writing, "Great video! It's like when Paul put cities in an uproar for preaching Gospel!" They continued their ranting, calling the Moore citizens "lawless riotous...rebel[s] against God, now in God's crosshairs."
This little flock of slaughter just runs forth, following the Lamb wherever He goes. We look up and God makes His Word ROAR forth. #Thankful
? Westboro Baptist (@WBCSays) April 8, 2014If you want the real story, you can actually watch the video. No one who crossed the picket line is violent and Moore police tell KOCO that there were no arrests. The police say, "Despite the high tensions the crowd remained relatively respectful."
"Hate breeds hate and love breeds love," said a Moore resident at the protest. And we think that's a sentiment the Big Guy (or whoever you choose to believe or not believe in) would agree with.