When Aussie comedian and talk show host Adam Hills heard that the humanitarians of Westboro Baptist Church were threatening to picket Robin Williams’ funeral, he responded with fiery vehemence. Hills suggested that the Westboro folk go to ISIS-controlled Iraq, instead. Terrorists there are beheading Christians. Surely that is worth protesting. Hills offered to buy any Westboro member who wanted to go to Iraq a first-class ticket.
The problem was, the Westboro folk were ready to take Hills up on his offer. “Show us the tickets!” they demanded.
Hills, likely with some legal advice, rethought his offer, and instead made a donation of that amount to St. Jude’s Children’s Hospitals in the name of Robin Williams. He considered this answering hate with love.
But the Westboro folks are not going away that easily. On the blog section of their GodHatesFags website, they piled on about “the demon-possessed pervert, Robin Williams”, and demanded Hills keep his promise. They taunted that Westboro had already been to Iraq and were unafraid to return, ISIS or no.
“[Hills] made an oath before God and everyone that he would purchase these tickets, and he reneged on the oath, so the least he could do is stop being so stingy with his money. We have, in fact, already gone to picket in Iraq. The last time we went, we flew into Amman, Jordan and drove the rest of the way.”
If Hills is not willing to cough up the tickets, Westboro challenged that he should pay $188,302.50 to St. Jude’s, the price they calculate for tickets to Ammam.
“[T]he cheapest ticket I can find [to Ammam] is $2,510.70. Let’s use 75 as a nice round number of people who attend Westboro Baptist Church. If I’m doing my math right, that comes to $188,302.50. You can’t pay your way out of hell, Adam Hills, but you ought to put your money where your big mouth is. Cough up the full amount to St. Jude’s.”