Westboro Baptist Church publishes a schedule for where they intend to picket daily. This tactic is in keeping with the group’s overall strategy of stirring up discord by saying they will appear somewhere, even if they have no realistic plans to do so.
Why announce picketing plans if you don’t plan to be there? The group wants to give the impression that it is everywhere. It wants the nation to think that it is a constant gadfly that needs to be stopped. The hope is that towns and localities will try to pass laws or ordinances that limit or prohibit their picketing activity. Then, when those rules are in place, Westboro actually does show up, announces that their civil rights are being violated, and sues the city.
“Ahhhh. It’s a profit deal!” – Navin R. Johnson
For example, Westboro’s picketing itinerary for today, announced as part of their “God Hates the Media Tour, part 2”, includes:
* NBC Universal in New York, NY September 10, 2014 8:15 AM – 8:45 AM
* CBS Headquarters in New York, NY September 10, 2014 8:50 AM – 9:10 AM
* ABC in New York, NY September 10, 2014 8:50 AM – 9:10 AM
* Time Warner Inc. in New York, NY September 10, 2014 9:20 AM – 9:45 AM
* Univision in New York, NY September 10, 2014 10:30 AM – 11:00 AM
* Buzz Feed in New York, NY September 10, 2014 11:30 AM – 12:00 PM
* Tumblr in New York, NY September 10, 2014 12:10 PM – 12:35 PM
* Vine in New York, NY September 10, 2014 12:50 PM – 1:20 PM
* Huffington Post in New York, NY September 10, 2014 1:30 PM – 2:00 PM
* Facebook in New York, NY September 10, 2014 1:30 PM – 2:00 PM
* AOL Headquarters in New York, NY September 10, 2014 1:30 PM – 2:00 PM
* Harper’s Magazine in New York, NY September 10, 2014 2:10 PM – 2:35 PM
* Scholastic Publishers in New York, NY September 10, 2014 2:40 PM – 3:10 PM
* Foursquare in New York, NY September 10, 2014 2:45 PM – 3:10 PM
* Gawker in New York, NY September 10, 2014 3:15 PM – 3:45 PM
* Comedy Central in New York, NY September 10, 2014 4:15 PM – 4:45 PM
That’s a pretty full itinerary for a church with only 75 people, some of whom are kids, and several of whom have jobs with the Kansas Department of Corrections.
Some of Westboro’s longest rants are directed at Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg. In their online announcement, they went after Zuck.
“Facebook is famous for sending nasty-grams to anyone that dares to publish the Word of God, if it gets cross-wise with our rebellious Jewish friend, Mark Zuckerberg.”
Apparently, the Westboro folks are regularly faced with Terms of Service violation notices from Facebook, due to their anti-gay propaganda. Westboro begs to differ.
“God Almighty owns Facebook and he loaned it to you rebels for a VERY SHORT while. You are required by God to use that resource to speak truth to your neighbor and to preach the Word of God. Any other use, will be required by God, from you, when you stand before God in that Great and Terrible Day of Judgment that is in sight now.”
