We will seldom counsel our readers to take injustice, intolerance, bigotry and hatred lying down, but that is exactly what we all should do this Sunday and Monday. By now, most people in and around Thibodaux know that a hate-filled group of people from Kansas will descend this weekend on our fair city in an attempt to mar the good names of our churches and on our proud institution of higher learning.
Incensed by a group of students at Nicholls State University that is promoting communication between gay and straight members of the Nicholls community, the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka is sending a group to picket six churches on Sunday and the university on Monday. The church, led by pastor Fred Phelps, is nearly intolerably intolerant. Phelps’ Web site - which is a nonstop assault on, among others, Catholics and homosexuals - spouts hatred and claims the church is doing the righteous work of God.

We know that is nonsense and we are sure most, if not all, of our readers know it is nonsense.

And that is enough.

There is no reason for any of us to rush out and argue with these people as they protest in front of our churches and our university. They are obviously oblivious to logic and reason, and any attempt to use those tools will be an utter waste of time. The U.S. Constitution gives people the right to think and say pretty much anything that crosses their minds. We support those rights, and vigorously defend the Westboro Church’s right to gather on our city’s sidewalks. Although our residents have those same rights, we would rather see our people exercise restraint and simply ignore the ugly presence.
To engage these people in argument or confrontation would be to give them more legitimacy than they deserve. The inflammatory language used to insult just about everyone who does not think just like Phelps is evidence of the church’s marginality.

The Web site, for instance, says that the group’s visit to Thibodaux is “to celebrate Pope John Paul II ’s second full week in Hell …”

What would any of us - reasonable, decent people with respect for ourselves and those around us - possibly have to say to these folks. So hold your tongue, know that you are right and do not indulge Phelps’ desire to bring us down to his level.

What these people crave is notoriety. What they fear is being ignored, but that is what they so richly deserve. Let’s give it to them.

Editorials represent the opinions of this newspaper and not of any one individual.