The population of Tampa can do one of two things when the group pickets outside of three churches on Sunday.
They can stay home and ignore the attention-seeking far-right provocateurs with the hope that maybe they'll go away.
Or, they can show up in droves and constitute a diverse coalition consisting of people of every race, religion, gender identity, military branch, sexual identity, etc,, and drown out the WBC members' toxic spew.
The group plans on starting out Sunday at Sacred Heart Catholic Church at 8:20 a.m., Hyde Park United Methodist Church at 9 a.m. and First Christian Church at 10 a.m.
Their "rationale" for demonstrating outside these Tampa churches?
Who really effing knows.
Here's what a press release lauding the event says:
“In this environment where anyone who dares say sin is in fact sin, and they should be fighting tooth-and-nail against that zeitgeist, all you hear are crickets and coyotes in the hills and valleys and echoing through the caverns of Tampa! What DO they warn against? The Jesuits at Sacred Heart care only of their history and vain traditions or architecture. Whereas Hyde Park cares only to please the desires of men, they are so “open-minded” their brains are falling out. Bringing us to First Baptist where they are no more Baptist than the Local Druid Cult, but more “casual” — just check out their “sermons.”
(It's more comprehensible if you huff paint before reading.)
This is a group that protests military funerals, Judaism, same-sex marriage, Bon Jovi concerts, you name it.
When representatives from the "church" tried to protest the Catholic and Jewish student unions on the USF campus in 2010, they were outnumbered by more than a hundred people—from military members to LGBT equality groups—and left early as the diverse group of counter-protesters chanted pro-diversity phrases and flipped the departing Westboro members the bird as they left.
The Southern Poverty Law Center calls the group "arguably the most obnoxious and rabid hate groups in America," which probably puts it in the running for most obnoxious and rabid hate group worldwide.
There don't appear to be any counter-protests planned for Sunday morning, but it would be surprising if there wasn't, especially given the recently energized activist community's ability to mobilize via social media.
This article appears in Mar 9-16, 2017.
