Stoffa: Will an Anonymous vs. Westboro Baptist Church battle occur?

Gabriel Stoffa

More war is not something this world needs; no matter how epic it may be. Hate and intolerance tend to fuel war, and both those notions only end in loss. Luckily though, the following is really just more of a skirmish at the moment, and I am always amused by a good throwdown:

The Anonymous organization has thrown down the gauntlet of challenge against the Westboro Baptist Church.

Well, at least one proclaimed member of Anonymous appears to have done so, as no one really knows who is who or the actual numbers involved in the rebel organization.

Regardless, I have not been this tickled at the thought of a fight since hanging out in high school parking lots during my teenage years.

The detestable scum populating the Westboro Baptist Church have taken any semblance of a religion’s potential “goodness” and smeared it in ways I do not even believe Islamic extremists can.

By my reckoning, the Westboro Baptist Church is everything that is wrong with society. I put them on roughly the same level as al-Qaida. The only difference between the two involves murder, and I firmly believe the Westboro Baptist Church would commit such crimes if they honestly believed the flimflam they vomit forth about their “God’s” support.

But, like a shining light cresting the horizon to usher in dawn’s new hope comes the idea of Anonymous.

I will not commend Anonymous’ every action, but I will certainly argue their side on a great deal of issues and cheer them on as they take on a guerrilla war against the tyrants and misanthropes trying to keep this world from becoming a better place.

In Anonymous’ newest feat of informing and entertaining the population of planet Earth possibly an ultimatum was given to the Westboro Baptist Church in an open letter Feb. 16: ” … We give you a warning: Cease & desist your protest campaign in the year 2011, return to your homes in Kansas, & close your public Web sites … we will not relent until you cease the conduction & promotion of all your bigoted operations & doctrines.

The detestable group that pickets funerals of murdered homosexuals, aligns itself with Nazi propaganda and blindly declares hatred for every other religious view anyone not completely “white” could believe, took the threat to their websites and hard drives with a fairly casual attitude; still adhering, though, to their constant message of, “You’re going to Hell.”

Megan Phelps, granddaughter of the leader of Westboro Baptist Church Rev. Fred Phelps and fountain of ridiculous antics on the church’s behalf, tweeted in an image response that included, “Bring it!” along with the usual poppycock rhetoric about God’s support for whatever idiot notion the church is busy scrambling for attention for.

The Anonymous group itself has not, as far as it seems, declared outright war on the church.

“They’ve got their ports wide open to harvest IPs to sue. Don’t DDoS, and boycott Operation Westboro,” according to a post on AnonNews.org.

There is a possibility this is all just a hoax, as merry pranksters on the Internet are given to creating events such as this. It could even be possible that the Westboro Baptist Church set the whole thing up in order to gain more attention and hopefully draw in some hackers or protesters for arrest.

My conspiracy-theorist mind tells me that so long as Westboro is involved, I trust nothing and seek only to find that Westboro is quashed.

So, will this fight be like the pushing and shouting pissing contests that so often left me standing disappointed in the high school parking lot after some schmuck yelled “fight,” or will this be battle of surprise tactics and backdoor hacks with WikiLeaks-like information coming forth to hopefully help demolish the awful bastards working within the Westboro Baptist Church?

I must again state that due to the unknown numbers and leadership, if any, of the Anonymous group, this challenge is not supported by all, nor are any actual numbers of supporters known.

So, until the other shoe drops, I will continue to hope Westboro is severely damaged at some point in the future due to a wrathful meteor from the heavens sent crashing down on the Westboro Baptist Church organization thanks to the divine wisdom of whatever higher power/s out there that have grown tired of the church’s abominable antics.