The Internet Just Trolled the Bejesus Out of the Westboro Baptist Church
Sometimes, a little bit of Internet trolling can do actual good.
Last month, The Facebook God, a Facebook parody account with 1.7 million followers that posts from the perspective of a frustrated God, launched an Indiegogo campaign with one clear target: the Westboro Baptist Church (WBC).
Their mission: to show the infamous WBC congregation that spreading homophobia and other forms of extremist bigotry is not cool with God.
Their plan: to put up an awesomely pro-gay billboard in the WBC's hometown of Topeka, Kan.
The billboard has been already put up, and the campaign will go toward keeping it up there for the next year. "Some people will argue that it is better to ignore the bigots, that all that Westboro wants is more attention. That it's better for good people to do nothing, to ignore the evil and just wait for it to go away," the Indiegogo campaign pitch reads. "While I respect this opinion, I contend that evil is only allowed to exist because good people do nothing. The time has come for good people to fight back. With love!"
And more than 3,500 people responded to the idea: With a month still left to go, the campaign has raised well above its $50,000 goal, with additional funds being used to buy similar bus ads in Topeka and getting donated to The Trevor Project and the National Alliance to End Homelessness.
You can also hear the pitch straight from the Big Man Upstairs himself:
This isn't the first time that the WBC has been trolled for its hateful ways. Last year, a man bought a house directly across from the church just to paint it in rainbow colors. But the WBC seems to be taking the peaceful protests in stride.
"Thank God for that lying billboard! Every soul that sees it will either rejoice for the lie and the vain hope of afflicting the servants of God at WBC," Shirley Phelps-Roper, a representative for WBC, told Mashable. "Or, they will sigh and mourn for that awful sin and all the parts of it, knowing that every single soul that weighed in with money or words, in favor of that lying billboard, will stand before God in the Judgment, so very ashamed. Knowing also, that when they stand before God in the judgment, it will be TOO LATE for repentance, and eternal torment will follow."
Still, while a single billboard or a rainbow-painted house might not change the WBC's extreme tactics, it is a show of force against the hateful group and indication that a lot of people — 3,758 and counting, according to the Indiegogo campaign — are not going to take the church's hateful bigotry lying down.
As for now, it looks like the Facebook God is going to continue to do what he does best: dropping peace-loving gems on Facebook and Twitter.