Dear Mr. Levesque –
First, I’m so happy that Mr. Summers, the military rebel that sued us had to ADMIT that there are not the lawsuits that you gossip-mongers love to lie about!
Also, I’m so happy that he addressed the need of children to have their mother. You see Mr. Summers and the military judge that presided over that grotesque miscarriage of Doomed american jurisprudence were determined to punish us for our faithful service to God. One of the ways they did that was to make us go to Baltimore for that trial. THAT, my rebel scribe, was the longest that I have EVER been away from my children. Even in that hour however, we managed to bring the children to be with me for four of the days of that two weeks. Otherwise, they had each other (by that hour, five of our 11 children had reached the age of majority, so there was plenty of big people around to help,) and they had their dad and aunts and uncles, all of whom were all over that job, knowing that one purpose of that trial was to make me sorrow over having to leave my little children in that hour for that long time period. They talked in that hour freely all over the radio in Baltimore and the TV and more, about how they would put enough pressure on us and we would turn on each other and we would implode from within. How foolish are they?! This is a work of God! Who thinks they can destroy the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ? Yikes! Woe unto you, to the words:
1Co 3:17 If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.
I have six grown children now. Four have graduated from college, two in college, two in high school, one in middle school and two in grade school. The little people travel with me a lot. They are “A” students and we have good relationships with their teachers and we make sure their school work is done and good. Here it is – you decide in this life what you are going to do and then, you DO IT! Get up and hit the ground running and drop into bed at night so tired you can’t move and then start all over again, KNOWING that God is our strength! HE will sustain us and even as he loans us the money and anything we need TO SERVE HIM, he also gives us EVERYTHING ELSE that we need that pertains to life and Godliness!!
However, this nation and each of you will not get off the hook for the impact that experience had upon our little house and this little church will be recompensed upon your heads from our God, who said that we should give NO place to wrath, but that he would speedily avenge us. Every last detail of it is known by our God! How good is that?! Our God is faithful! He has already begun to deal with you, but he is in no way finished!
Meanwhile, the answer to his pretend concern is this – I don’t go ANYWHERE to do this job of delivering this final call to this rebellious nation of brutes without my children! We are instructed to serve our God WITH our children. Mr. Summers knows that. You see, when that judge reduced that original verdict, I am told that he tagged me personally with an extra portion of that burden because I had four of my children with me. That is a spectacular testimony against this nation! It makes me so happy and not to mention so very thankful!
The other matter that was raised in your article that we did not discuss was this mysterious US Northern Command. WTH is that? What is that?! How does a thing called US Northern Command say ANYTHING?! WHAT?! How does this US Northern Command guy know anything about us?! And now I understand the perplexed look on dummy Summer’s face when I told him in court that I had never been sued before and except for asking the Federal Court in Missouri to make the State of Missouri OBEY THE LAW and the same with Ohio, I had never in my life sued anyone! I didn’t ask for a dime from those disobedient rebels, just for the court to order them to OBEY THE LAW.
Oh, and that brings me to one last point. You say that “Most Hated Family In America” title assigned to us by the BBC is good press. No silly man! It is a token of our Father’s love toward us! You of course would know that if you had bothered to READ THE WORDS! Check it out now:
Christ in discussing these last hours of the last days of all said this about that:
Luke 21:17 And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake. 18 But there shall not an hair of your head perish. 19 In your patience possess ye your souls.
Matthew 10:22 And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.
Matthew 24:9 Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake.
Matthew 24:10 And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.
Mark 13:13 And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.
What more could we possibly ask for when we AND you know that we have told you WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS, than for you to react exactly as Christ said you would. I’m just sayin . . .
John 15:18 ¶ If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.
19 If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.
20 Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.
21 But all these things will they do unto you for my name’s sake, because they know not him that sent me.
22 If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloke for their sin.
23 He that hateth me hateth my Father also.
24 If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father.
25 But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause.
And this:
Php 1:29 For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake;
Oh yes – and then there is the promise of the final end of it all! So we will patiently endure all your hard speeches, because we know that the day is coming soon when you will understand that you did all these things against your own soul! Again, to the words:
Jude 1:12 These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;
13 Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.
14 And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints,
15 ¶ To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.
16 These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men’s persons in admiration because of advantage.
17 But, beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ;
18 How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts.
19 These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit.
Thanks!
Answering:
http://www.tampabay.com/news/religion/how-does-hate-group-fund-national-protests/1088043
How does hate group fund national protests?
By William R. Levesque, Times Staff Writer
TAMPA – Shirley Phelps-Roper isn’t bothered when people describe her clan as the "most hated family in America." To her, that’s good press.
It’s what happens when you protest funerals of U.S. troops with signs like "Thank God for Dead Soldiers." It’s what happens when you insist almost everyone in "doomed America" is going to hell – gays, Jews, Catholics, West Virginia coal miners.
And yes, even Bon Jovi.
But as members of the Westboro Baptist Church travel from their Kansas homes to protest in Hillsborough County today through Tuesday, the church’s hateful message is less intriguing than how they finance demonstrations around the nation.
The group, composed largely of Phelps-Roper’s extended family, claims to have participated in 43,000 protests in the last 19 years without accepting any outside donations.
Church members say they pay the costs themselves.
As Phelps-Roper, a church leader, notes: "Who the hell is going to give us anything?"
Public records, interviews and past news coverage reveal a tax-exempt church that appears to have no significant income other than the donations of its 85 members, and the occasional cash generated by the litigation their protests spawn.
The group, which espouses a fire-and-brimstone Calvinist theology embracing a vengeful God, said it spends about $200,000 annually on protests. The Hillsborough trip, Phelps-Roper said, will cost $2,000.
"It’s difficult to figure out how Shirley can raise 10 or 11 children and simultaneously travel the country a great part of the year," said attorney Sean Summers, who has battled Westboro in court. "It seems nearly impossible."
Westboro plans four protests in Hillsborough, including a concert by the rock bank Bon Jovi at the St. Pete Times Forum. The church says Bon Jovi has failed to spread God’s word.
On Sunday, Westboro protests the Without Walls International Church and its female pastor, insisting pastors must be male. They also are planning to picket at Plant and Tampa Catholic high schools.
Westboro’s overriding message is that an angry God is killing soldiers and punishing the nation for its tolerance of homosexuality. It has protested at numerous funerals of U.S. troops.
The father of a Pennsylvania Marine killed in Iraq sued Westboro in 2006 over its protest at his son’s funeral. The father was ordered by an appeals court to pay Westboro $16,510 in costs, ruling it had a First Amendment right to demonstrate.
The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to hear an appeal of that decision this fall, a potential bellwether case on First Amendment rights.
The U.S. Northern Command, monitoring protests at military bases, issued an advisory about Westboro in 2005 saying church funding came from litigation.
"This group does employ passive-aggressive techniques intended to provoke a hostile response or offensive reaction from others," Northern Command wrote. "This group will then file a civil action in an effort to reach a settlement in order to fund future activities."
But even some Westboro critics say the church’s few legal victories wouldn’t cover its costs.
"There just aren’t as many lawsuits as people speculate about," Summers said.
Phelps-Roper, 52, said litigation funds nothing. Church members – 80 percent of them are related by blood or marriage – cover their own expenses and tithe the church, she said.
"We work. We pay our own way. We don’t ask for anything from anyone,’’ Phelps-Roper said. "If someone sends us a check, we return it with a nice letter."
Numerous family members are attorneys and work for a family law firm, including Phelps-Roper. Others have jobs in Kansas state government, including the state’s Department of Corrections.
The Phelps family "donate their money to the church. They get a tax deduction. The church gets the money. And they get it tax-free," Summers said.
In court filings, Westboro has claimed $442,800 in real estate holdings, an $86,000 mortgage and $50,000 in cash or personal property.
But critics say those modest numbers are untrustworthy.
Nate Phelps, 51, son of Westboro’s founder, said he left the family when he was 18 because he had grown to hate his father.
As a child, he said he and his 12 siblings were forced to sell candy around Kansas, telling people that the money would be used for a new church organ and piano.
But Nate Phelps said it was a lie because the Topeka church also was advertising to obtain donated pianos and organs.
The candy money funded the family’s living expenses in the days before it began protesting, he said. The church now requires members to pay it 30 percent of income, rather than the traditional 10 percent tithe, he said.
Westboro insists he is lying on all his accusations.
Phelps-Roper said the money comes from God. She said, "He loans us what we need."
Times researchers Will Gorham and Shirl Kennedy contributed to this report.