Anti Gay Baptists

Anti-gay preachers Fred Phelps and Shirley Phelps-Roper have this week been banned from Britain. They are most famous for their God hates fags boards.
Do you think that the UK should ban people like this.
If you are a Christian, what do you think about their ideas?

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Good for the UK. Anyone who discriminates should not be allowed a platform.

But might be better to call them there and set up a gay parade instead.

 

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I see your point, but don't you think that would be a bit hypocritical ?

 

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Not at all.

 

Hmmm
This was in Absurdities Of Religion thread an hour earlier. But without the creepy picture.

 

No, they should not be banned. The part of free speech that everyone always has a problem with is where it also applies to speech they don't like.

The Dutch parliamentarian should have been allowed in. These people should be allowed in. They both sound like awful people, but that's not a good reason to take away their rights.

England has completely lost it's sense of liberty.

Saying "God Hates Fags" is not inciting violence. I've seen the documentary about these people, the worst they do is scream at passing cars. Now that may offend some people, but there was a time when simply stating the theory of evolution would have offended some people. Offensive, despite the weak cries of the Brits, does not necessarily imply incitement of violence.

Edit: I am an atheist and do not support the opinions of these lunatics. I just support lunatics having the same rights I do.

 

that's idealistic. All this kind of hate speech does is mobilize public opinion into conducting pogroms against helpless people by demonizing them. Regurgitated cogitations over the corpses of hundreds of thousands (aka soul searching) are too little too late, as far as I'm concerned.

 

England wasn't exactly established to ensure free speech. I wouldn't want this to happen in my country, but then again I hate those people so I'm glad they can't travel to England. It's not like they are well traveled people anyway.

 

If they brought the god hates fags banner overe here they'd probably just confuse people into thinking it was a christian anti-smoking campaign.

I'm not aware of the reasons for the ban and the reasons for their visit - my opinion would vary depending on either/both.

Certainly their brand of christianity can be classed as hate speech -and we have very clear laws on that over here - so if their visit was to promote their views - then it would be in clear violation of our laws - in which case refusing entry is entirely appropriate.
Similar - in fact much stricter - requirements are asked of British people in the USA visa waiver form (one question that has always made me chuckle is "Do you intend to overthrow the Government?").

If they were simply visiting as regular American citizens on holiday, then I see no reason to deny entry - indeed perhaps some exposure to one of the most racially and religiously tolerant cultures (a little too tolerant sometimes) on the planet may do them some good

 

Banning foreigners from coming over and preaching their nonsense and banning local citizens from preaching their nonsense are both different. I applaud Britain for banning them. If they banned their own citizens from such activities, then my antennae would go up.

The same goes for the USA.

~String

 

It's possible they have been banned for their own safety.

 

BTW, you are allowed to say homosexuality is wrong in the UK, people do it all the time on TV and radio. However, if you are deliberately trying to incite violence as the Phelps clearly are then it could be argued that it's in the public interest to not allow you a platform or even entry into the country.

Not a perfect system by any means, but there you have it.

 

One strokes of genius in the Westminster System is that it's more flexible than other western Republics (USA, France & Brazil come to mind). People often talk about how great it is to have an unbending constitution, but often times despicable people hide behind it and get away with some pretty nasty things. In Britain, there is at least some flexibility in accommodating common sense and taking care of issues that would otherwise be impossible to resolve in, say, the USA.

~String

 

The downside is that it does potentially leave us open to tyranny - an unscrupulous politican with a strong majority could curtail all of our freedoms at a stroke - particularly as we have an upper house and head of state that are effectively powerless.

Personally I wouldn't be at all averse to a properly enshrined constitution - or a bill of rights and responsibilities

 

My understanding is they were already banned from Canada

Bunch of fruit loops if you ask me, inbreds too

 

As a Christian, I would pray that they see the truth. The Bible doesn't say that there is anything wrong with being gay. Biblical ignorance is an epidemic, especially in the United States.

 

The sad thing is, if these signs were "God hate atheists" meh, everyone would be on their merry way.

Anyone who discriminates should not be allowed a platform - including monotheists

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http://www.godhatesfags.com/schedule.html

does look like the UK has been removed from their concert tour, it was there before

awww ... too bad

 

Yes they are banned from Canada already and I agree, letting your own fruitcakes talk is important but there is no reason you have to let some one else's fruitcakes in. The US often bans dangerous foreigners like John Lennon and Damien Moran, English teacher, former seminarian and anti-war activist.

 

It certainly does say it's wrong. Seems you're part of the epidemic.