Members of the hate-mongering, Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church, who brought their anti-Jewish, anti-gay rhetoric to the borough last fall, will visit Midwood next week as part of their 'Godsmack Tour.'
According to the Church’s website, www.godhatesfags.com, members of the unhinged right-wing Christian God squad plan to protest outside of Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin on Coney Island Avenue between avenues L and M as well as Chabad of Kensington and Yeshiva Torah Teminah, both on Ocean Parkway between Ditmas and 18th avenues on Oct. 11, beginning at 12:30 pm.
'We will picket to remind the Jews that a remnant of them will be saved if they turn to their God, but that the rest will be cast into everlasting fire in hell,' noted the website. 'The Lord’s promises are good and he has promised to save 144,000 obedient Jews who hearken his commandments and repent. The rest of the Jews represent the disobedient masses of mankind who will dwell eternally where the worm that eats them never dies and the fire ascend up forever and ever.'
Neighborhood religious and political leaders are already preparing counterprotests, according to Assemblyman Dov Hikind (D–Borough Park).
'The Westboro Baptist Church is nothing more than a veiled neo-Nazi group spewing venom and bile indiscriminately,' said Hikind. 'I cannot and will not stand idly by while these sick individuals disparage and vilify Jews, rehashing age-old anti-Semitic canards such as the Jews killed Jesus.'
Westboro’s anti-Jewish and anti-gay hate speak is well established.
When they came to Brooklyn last October, Westboro protestors — about seven in total, including small children — held placards reading, 'Jews Killed Jesus,' 'Israel is doomed,' 'Jews stole the land' and 'Mourn for your sins.'
But Brooklyn counter-protestors — who outnumbered the Westboro group 30 to one according to some accounts — shouted down the religious zealots, sending them back to Kansas with their tails between their legs.
Westboro members were beaten, but left unbowed, as this new round of protests prove.
The group’s still proudly standing behind its backwater beliefs, claiming their blitzkrieg protests are actually 'warnings.'
'[The Jews’] time is about gone and they have to be held accountable for spilling the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ,' Shirley Phelps-Roper, a spokeswoman and attorney for the church told us last year. Attempts to reach her were unsuccessful Wednesday as we reached our deadline. 'We want [the Jews] to understand that we will be the fateful witnesses in the spirit of grace and supplication and that we will mourn for them when their time comes.'" (source)
