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01/04/2008
The anti-charity: Westboro needs not, wants not your cash
Out columnist and author of I Am Not Myself These Days, Josh Kilmer-Purcell, has attempted to do what no gay man has done before: Donate money to Westboro Baptist Church. In a very long-winded back and forth that we've posted below the jump, you can read why, exactly, Josh wanted to fill WBC's coffers with lucre, and why Shirley Phelps-Roper is having none of it:
(**Note: The comes from a blog operated by Westboro Baptist Church. However, since WBC has no problem with people using their materials for any purposes, and since we have a big problem linking directly to them, we have reposted it here.
All of the editor's notes and emoticons (except for the one that we have clearly labeled) are their words, not ours)
November 30th, 2007
Westboro Baptist Church
3701 SW 12th St
Topeka, KS 66604
Dear Pastor Phelps,
As a homosexual whom you have picketed in the past, please accept my $100 donation to help with your defense as you appeal the U.S. District Court of Maryland’s decision against you. [Ed: It’s hard to be anything but embarrassed for Mr. Thang when he doesn’t even offer up his weekly floo-floo coffee budget - awkward! ] I’ve written a column about establishing a defense fund for you and your church that will appear in an upcoming issue of OUT magazine. I hope other homosexuals will be persuaded to help with the cause.
You and your family do a valuable service for homosexuals around the world with your protests, bringing the hatred and persecution of gay men and women into the public spotlight. Too often, discrimination against homosexuals is glossed over by homophobes hiding behind words like “tolerance” and “traditional values.” It’s people like you who are brave enough to state your true opinions loudly and clearly that show the majority of kind and caring human beings what hatred truly looks like.
Perhaps unwittingly, you have become one of the most important gay activists of modern times, and I hope that my contribution to your cause will help defray some of the expenses you’ve incurred fighting the charges against you. I’d like you and your family solvent enough to continue protesting homosexuals on the streets for many years to come. You’re even welcome to come picket me again! It’s been a while and would be nice to catch up. It’s cold in New York right now, but I’d be happy to provide hot chocolate. Just let me know how many people to expect. If the kids get too cold, they can stand in the vestibule – I’ll alert the doorman.
Please contact me if there’s any thing else I can do to help.
Sincerely,
Josh Kilmer-Purcell
Email: [email protected]
Josh Kilmer-Purcell is a monthly columnist for OUT magazine columnist [Ed.: Mr. Bragger Dude/Self Promoter Dude said this ‘columnist’ thing twice … NOT ME … someone’s got issues - I’m just sayin! ] and author of the NYTimes Bestseller: “I Am Not Myself These Days: A Memoir”
~~~~~~~~~~~
Westboro Baptist Church and Library
3701 S.W. 12th Street P.O. Box 1886
Topeka, Kansas 66601-1886
785/273-0325
December 24, 2007
Josh Kilmer-Purcell
c/o Out Magazine
6380 Wilshire Blvd, Suite 1400
Los Angeles, CA 90048
Subject: Your check #1147 in the amount of $100.00
Dear Mr. Kilmer-Purcell:
We are in receipt of your letter and check #1147 in the amount of $100.00.
Thank you for your offer to donate to WBC, and to encourage your perverse friends, all haters of God, and hated by God to establish a “Dephense Phund entitled Phags-4-Phelps”. I notice that you do not hold on to excellent visions of freedom and notions of righteousness as a reason for your offer. That’s too bad, and is a testimony to the condition of affairs in Doomed america.
It has been our long-standing policy that we do not ask for anything from anyone, and we will not take anything from anyone. As such, please find enclosed your check #1147 that has been marked VOID. Our God, who doeth all things well, supplies all our needs. He owns everything, so we have need of nothing. We have a basis for our position, and it is grounded in the scriptures. Here are some examples, to wit:
[**Note from G-A-Y: At this point, Shirley quotes pages and pages of Bible verses to justify not taking Josh's money. In the interest of time and space, we have removed them.]
AND, many more such words.
Thank you.
Westboro Baptist Church
By: _______________________________________
Shirley L Phelps-Roper, Member
lj
Enclosure
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Oh, this is disappointing, Shirley, but I thank you for your response. And on Christmas Eve! I hope your entire family had a nice holiday.
I wish you all the best of luck with your appeals, for although you say you doubt me, I wished to contribute to your defense with the most excellent vision of righteousness. I really enjoying seeing you all in the media - you especially. I sincerely think you have a fantastic sense of humor with the media and interviewers, even though you know the subject is serious. The song parodies and the manner in which you pin prick journalistic pomposity remind me of my approach to my writing. You’ll do whatever is required to make people stop and think.
After reading your reply, I’m a little confused…is your refusal to accept my donation because I made the check out to Westboro Baptist Church? Because I’ll happily donate the same amount (and ask my readers to also contribute) to the Phelps Law Firm, since I noticed that you have in the past accepted payments for defense expenses from some government agencies. Or is your objection based upon the fact that I’m a private citizen?
Please let me know. While we probably disagree on desired end results, I’m sure that we both agree that the work you and your family do is vitally important, and I’d like to contribute.
Thanks again, and best wishes for a happy and productive 2008.
Sincerely,
Josh Kilmer-Purcell
~~~~~~~~~~~
Hi Josh –
Thanks for writing.
The media needs a LOT of pin pricking and other things – they are in so much trouble with the Lord their God! This is a generation of people that have checked their brains at the door. Making them think is a tall order. Especially when God has given them over to delusions and confusion and has confounded them and they are clueless. But I digress!
As for the contributions – you need to be clear about this because I don’t want you to think that we have two standards.
For all the reasons that are fleshed out in the scriptures that I sent you, we do not ask for or take anything from anyone with respect to our service to the Lord our God! That is Westboro Baptist Church and her members.
Each member of WBC works. That is how we support ourselves. On two occasions, the working members of WBC had to bring their working skills to the table – that is, we have the vocation that was necessary to help WBC. SO – WBC hired two of the Attorney members of WBC to represent us when the government had passed unconstitutional measures that we could not work around. They created a situation whereby we could not actually stand on the streets and reach our target audience without unnecessary risk of arrest. That violates the laws of this land. So we hired attorneys who have our interest at heart. They did not charge us anything. However, because of the importance of First Amendment rights in this country, the law of this land is that if the government passes measures that impinge upon our First Amendment freedoms, that is such a gross misconduct on the part of the government that written into the law is a clause that if citizens have to sue the government to correct their misconduct, the government MUST pay attorney fees to the prevailing attorneys.
SO – when we won those two cases, the government had to pay our attorneys for their time. They did NOT pay WBC ANYTHING. We COULD have sued them for the infringement of our rights and the LAW of this land is that the very taking of our rights creates damages – that is – we would not have to prove damages – they are assumed. We did NOT make such a claim – we sued in the most limited fashion that we could to accomplish our goal of preaching on the public rights of way in Doomed america. When the government had to pay our attorneys for their time and expenses, our attorneys settled for less than half of the actual cost of their time and then they paid the full of the expenses, which of course of the smallest part of what they paid.
Again – they paid NOTHING to WBC.
I hope that was clear – but if not, feel free to ask again.
We just simply don’t take contributions, and those scriptures are excellent for instruction – you should just read them.
Thanks for the kind thoughts, and as for the outcome of all this. When God has cursed a nation, bad things happen, and one of the first things to go really bad is justice! It falls in the streets, and the judges are turned away backwards! It is a harbinger of the coming destruction of this nation. So we don’t expect much! But what we know for sure is that our God is will, able and delights in deliver his people, so this will all come out just fine!
One final thought – don’t worry about us going away, until our testimony to this generation is complete, we will be on the landscape! You can see that today, we are preaching to the whole world and the whole world is roundly rejecting the standards of God! We were the #2 story in some big publication in China – what’s that about? Big things are coming – america is Doomed!
Please tell your readers the words, and tell them we will be just fine, but please don’t ask them to give us money, we will just have to send it back.
Oh – and one more thing – we will be in NY when the Pope turns up in April, if not before – if you pin point some nice busy intersection in the neighborhood, we will try to picket there.
Finally, God hates Christmas – it is pagan idolatry and so we don’t have any part of that! But we do love the days off from school, etc.
Thanks!
Your friend –
Shirley L Phelps-Roper
Your thoughts
"God hates Christmas"?! Ge-ni-ous!
Posted by: andrew williams | Jan 4, 2008 3:35:12 PM
Wow. This whole conversation is too hilarious and they really do hate everything including Christmas. I almost never would have pegged them for hating Christmas.
Posted by: Sam | Jan 4, 2008 3:36:20 PM
I've always wonder why G-A-Y or anyone would paid any attention to the WBC as I've always seen them as fringe group not worth paying any attention too but the following line sums it up for me:
"Too often, discrimination against homosexuals is glossed over by homophobes hiding behind words like “tolerance” and “traditional values.”
Posted by: Alonzo | Jan 4, 2008 4:03:38 PM
Well, it's hard to call them fringe considering all the attention they receive. Many of the more "mainstream' anti-gay groups would kill for the publicity that WBC gets.
But yes, this site's theory has always been that they help the cause. They aren't going anywhere even if we ignore them -- we might as well deal with them. Plus, they do raise serious and real questions about the nature of limits of free speech/religious expression.
Posted by: G-A-Y | Jan 4, 2008 4:09:27 PM
Of course they help the cause. After all they are trying to speed up the "End Times" prophecies.
Posted by: Daimeon | Jan 5, 2008 10:21:56 AM
Wow. Personally, I'm amazed that Shirley was so congenial in her letter to Josh... the f word that they seem to favor so much didn't come up once.
That was a friggin' genius idea on Josh's part.
Posted by: Wren | Jan 6, 2008 10:10:18 AM
Wren: Shirley is always very congenial when you chat with her in private. As long as you remain frank, she will extend the same courtesy. She is a frequent pen pal of this site and this writer.
Posted by: G-A-Y | Jan 6, 2008 10:18:35 AM
I have to be honest, I was impressed with WBC's stance on taking donations. I'd bet that if someone investigated it, they'd probably find that Shirley's being truthful - they really don't take donations from anyone.
As loathe as I am to recognise it, WBC does have a degree of integrity.
Posted by: Tony | Jan 7, 2008 12:43:09 AM
They do seem to accept legal representation for organizations such as the ACLU that take a break from their promotion of the gay agenda to defend the Phelps' right to speak without government interference.
Posted by: Brahaha | Jan 10, 2008 12:44:44 AM
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