Sundance 2011: Westboro Baptist Church to Protest Red State

The abhorrent hate group known as the Westboro Baptist Church (you know them as the jerks behind all those “God Hates Fags” signs), have announced in a press release that they will be protesting the premiere of Kevin Smith’s new film Red State. The film, which premiers at the Sundance Film Festival on Sunday, January 23rd, has been picking up steam as rumors over its content and the hush-hush nature of its release has gained buzz. To read the press release, learn about counter-protests, and hear festival director John Cooper’s take on the controversy, check out the rest of the story after the jump…

Red State is the story of a group of teenagers on a quest to get laid, but they fall prey to a hateful religious group’s (guess who this is meant to be?) increasingly violent actions.

For a group of such shameless publicity whores, the rhetoric of their Red State protest press release is surprisingly tame:

Eccles Theatre – Sundance Film Fest Red State Screening in Park City, UT    January 23, 2011  6:00 PM – 6:30 PM

WBC will picket the Sundance Film Festival Screening of Kevin Smith’s Red State, a movie dedicated to mocking the servants of God for preaching His word in season and out of season. WBC rejoices that, of one accord and one voice, the motion picture industry mocks and scoffs and rejects the Gospel message. Our Lord promised that if we preached the truth this is exactly what would happen!

Jude 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.

Matthew 5:11 Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely,  for my sake.

The actors, directors, producers and fans of the Doomed American motion picture industry celebrate the nation-destroying sin of sodomy with all their might. Then they castigate the humble sheep of WBC who warn them to flee the wrath to come just as the ancient men of Sodom harassed just Lot for his timely warning before God rained down fire and brimstone on them. Of the city of Hollywood, and indeed of every city in Doomed America, it can be said:

Castigate. That’s an awfully big word from a group whose family tree likely has one branch.

Also, at the annual Sundance Film Festival press conference, when asked about the scheduled protests, festival director John Cooper said:

“I think there are two protests scheduled for that day, one for Red State and another for a different film.  I think they’re more protesting the fact that over the years Sundance has shown a lot of films that feature prominent homosexuality, which is their big sticking point.”

He must not follow Smith’s twitter account. He went on to quote prior festival film These Amazing Shadows, and said:

“‘Stories unite us, and theories divide us.’ Film is all about stories, and we rally around stories here, to bring people closer together.”

Smith himself has called upon fans to stage their own peaceful counter protests. We at ScreenCrave are currently brainstorming what our signs are going to say.  So far we’ve got:

• God Hates Gags
• Smod Hates Hags
• God Hates Frogs
• God Hates Figs
• God Hates Signs
• God Hates Irony
• I don’t know what we’re yelling about!
• God Loves Lamp
• Crackpots for Christ

Got any more ideas for our silly posters? Let us know!