Should we all just stop paying attention to the westboro baptist church?

Yes.

Look at it from their point of view-

Best possible scenario: Our righteous and peaceable army of God confronts the forces of corruption and stands fast against their jeers and taunts, all while the cameras turn.

Worst possible scenario: Nobody shows up.

Ignore them. Go volunteer at a Hospice House or homeless shelter instead.

To be honest I find them fascinating too. I don’t agree with anything they have to say but, as you said, they have no history of violence and so, who am I to try and take away their freedom of speech? What I can do though, is ignore them!

Having said that, despite how harmless they seem (due to the lack of violence) I worry about how further generations they produce will choose to prove their points if they are raised to believe in the same things. Who’s to say that they won’t turn violent in due course when they realise that no one listens when they merely talk?

Lots of stink bombs?

If they lived within a reasonably accessible distance from me I would not be able to help myself – I couldn’t leave them alone. I used to love disrupting the Anti-Abortion League demonstrations back in the eighties. That was fun.

They have a game plan. They know just how far they can go without crossing into territory that will get them in legal trouble. They go right up to that line in the sand and jump up and down on it as vigorously as they can without actually crossing it. How innocent is that? If you consider passive aggression to be “peaceful,” well then, I guess they’re peaceful as all hell.

Also, when they incite just enough and get someone to smack back at them, they sue the pants off of them and recover. This is also part of the plan, to fund themselves through people who just break at their passive-aggression and go (as you say, rightfully) ballistic.

They are after more than attention – they AIM to make the opposition look violent and themselves, in comparison, the poor victims. This is not accidental. And ignoring it, like Mom always told you to do with the school bullies, is probably the option least likely to get Westboro what they want – which is to make right-hearted folks look the fool.

I absolutely love what the friends of Matthew Shephard chose to do in response to the hateful signs the carried at the demonstration outside his funeral.

It was really ingenious, completely nonviolent and deprived them (or at least their hateful signage) the visibility they craved.

Matts friends created these huge angel wings frameworks from PVC piping, attached them to their bodies and covered everything in white sheeting. The wings were high enough and large enough to obliterate the hate filled signs. They formed a solid phalanx of angels in white being a silent, peaceful but very effective block to all the hate filled jerks and their signs. It was awe inspiring and appropriately frustrating for the hate mongers who knew that they dare not try to shove them out of the way or even touch them.

I’ve never paid them much attention. They don’t deserve it.

It’s a great idea, but they are consistently so provocative, and Cable news is so starved for content, and rudeness and ugliness pays off so well, that I’m afraid we will not be allowed to stop paying attention to them/

@syz that seems to be precisely what this guy would do. :]

yes. they are extreme and delusional.. as a Christian I am offended that they would wield a bible as if it supports their positions on things. they are bat-shit crazy.. pardon my french

They came to my street this summer. A friend sent me their schedule to warn me, and there it was in bold letters– my exact street, city and zipcode. At first I was filled with rage, I wanted nothing more than to shout at them or harm them. Coming from a religious background where I had an exorcism performed on me for being gay, there is nothing that pains me and hurts me more than people like the WBC. They may be physically ‘non-violent’, but they’re definitely not harmless.
After the initial wave of anger, I returned to my usual mindset of ‘not dwelling on hate’- I did, however, make a contribution to many gay rights groups as well as put extra effort into my usual activism. Don’t ignore them, counter them. I’m not talking about a direct confrontation, it can be anything from donating to a local gay rights group to praying for them, if you are a spiritual person. There’s too much hate surrounding the situation already, and not enough support for the ones being harassed.

Those people are insane. They make me embarrassed that their church I believe the only people that go there are family members of Fred Phelps is in my states capitol! We had a funeral here a couple years ago for a serviceman that had lost his life. Of course those nutjobs showed up, but so did the Patriot Guard on their motorcycles and blocked the WBC from the funeral.

when did we Start listening to them? I didn’t get a memo, must have been sick that day…...........

Less attention.