Actually, I'm glad he has made the news. He's the norm for the more fundamentalist preachers in this area... and getting this problem of nutcase preachers in front of the people has been very difficult. I've heard worse than him (or that other nutcase Phelps) from local preachers, but the local jackasses don't generally make the news. 30 plus years ago they were calling for death for LGBT people and "secular Humanists" (before Phelps became known)... now it's LGBT people and atheists (and they were including liberals the last I heard) and they're getting more violent and loud. I've also heard calls for banning Christmas (because it's too secularized and people should be miserable in church instead of enjoying themselves with family), curses on the Superbowl and organized sports (because they distract from attending church twice on Sunday), and so on. Even calls for confiscating the possessions of non-Christians as our "stuff" is obviously "blessings" that had been stolen from "Christians" has crossed my "radar". Yeah, it's crazy.
People almost have to SEE it to believe it... and even then they sometimes don't.
This denial of a problem is real thick in certain segments of the population, especially those I'd call the working semi-liberals. "But it's a CHURCH, it can't be THAT BAD" is a very common statement, followed by "That is someone from somewhere else, churches around here aren't THAT BAD!" - another common comment I've encountered (and when I was more vocal IRL around here, it was also very frequent). For some reason... maybe it's the water? :) they don't see what's going on under their own noses, or try to dismiss it as "conservative Republicans trying to get more votes from the unwashed" or "Politics as Usual". It's also always been "Fred Phelps' doing" or "Someone from Missouri!", never part of the local culture.
Terry Jones is helping to wake the locals up, although he doesn't realize it. Too bad it comes at the price it does. (Now, if we could get people to realize that he's just typical for a NARasite preacher...)
People almost have to SEE it to believe it... and even then they sometimes don't.
This denial of a problem is real thick in certain segments of the population, especially those I'd call the working semi-liberals. "But it's a CHURCH, it can't be THAT BAD" is a very common statement, followed by "That is someone from somewhere else, churches around here aren't THAT BAD!" - another common comment I've encountered (and when I was more vocal IRL around here, it was also very frequent). For some reason... maybe it's the water? :) they don't see what's going on under their own noses, or try to dismiss it as "conservative Republicans trying to get more votes from the unwashed" or "Politics as Usual". It's also always been "Fred Phelps' doing" or "Someone from Missouri!", never part of the local culture.
Terry Jones is helping to wake the locals up, although he doesn't realize it. Too bad it comes at the price it does. (Now, if we could get people to realize that he's just typical for a NARasite preacher...)
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