Photo: Courtesy of Lava/Republic.Things aren't going so well lately over at Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, KS. Their hate-mongering leader, Pastor Fred Phelps, just died, and now their bilious prejudices are all floating adrift. While their incredibly insensitive protest strategies have never made much sense to normal humans, we were still surprised when they announced they'd be protesting at Lorde's Kansas City show. Why Lorde? Why, indeed. Lorde is simply an international musical prodigy who is vocal in her support for equal rights. Maybe that's crime enough for the increasingly desperate Westboro drones. But, hilariously, their demonstration didn't exactly go as planned.
When Lorde caught wind of the planned Westboro protest, she took it all in stride (as she always does). She took the news to Twitter, turning it into the instant satire it deserves to be. "Everyone wear rainbow clothing to that show," she wrote excitedly. "Everyone try to kiss church members who are same sex as you they will so love it." Her management ended up making her delete those Tweets, but obviously tens of thousands of people saw them anyway.
No word on how many of Lorde's devoted ended up donning prismatic clothing, or attempting same-sex smooches, but if Westboro's hate troops were looking to create a scene, they were out of luck. While a handful showed to pull their usual anti-humanistic canvassing, Lorde fans and activists took the high ground, waving banners right back. "We are sorry for your loss," the posters read. How could any lost soul even know how to respond to such a courtesy? As they say, go kill 'em with kindness. (KSHB)