Almost 3,000 people showed up at a Pittsburgh memorial service to remember the life and accomplishments of Fred Rogers. But outside the service a small group of folks showed up to protest against Rogers. And, of course, there could be only one man in America bizarre enough to protest Mister Rogers — you guessed it, Fred Phelps.
What’s Phelps’ angle on Rogers? Rogers was a Presbyterian minister and he never condemned homosexuality. Therefore, in the twisted world of the Phelps’, Rogers helped further the homosexual agenda. The Pitt News reported,
Shirley Phelps-Roper, the attorney for the Westboro Baptist Church, explained that Rogers, as a Presbyterian minister with a television program, had a responsibility to comment on the issue. By not doing so, she explained that he was helping to perpetuate homosexuality, which the group says falls into the category of “whoremongery and adultery, which will damn the soul forever in hell.”
Phelps-Roper is the sort of kook who makes Jack Chick look credible. Not only does she say that tolerance for gays caused the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, but also blames it (and Rogers) for a list of tragedies including the Great White nightclub fire and the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster,
“You don’t get to pretend to decide what form God takes,” Phelps-Roper said. “He’s the God who could have stopped the shuttle crash, the nightclub fire, but instead he sent those things. This country has forgotten God and effectively flipped him off, and Fred Rogers is in part responsible.”
And SARS is probably a punishment for gay wickedness, and the Detroit Tigers wouldn’t be 6-25 if it weren’t for the popularity of Harry Potter.
Source:
Pittsburgh bids farewell to Fred Rogers with moving public tribute Barbara Vancheri and Rob Owen, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, May 4, 2003.
Church group to protest Pitt. PittNews, March 18, 2003.
Fred Phelps’ crusade against Rogers is guided by fear, not divine. Sydney Bergman, PittNews, April 7, 2003.