Kansas Church to Stop Picketing Funerals
That’s the headline. Read further, and you find the church has been picketing soldiers’ funerals. American soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Okay, so this must be a particularly insensitive anti-war campaign, right?
Wrong.
Westboro Baptist has outraged mourning communities across the nation by showing up at soldiers’ funerals with signs that read “God Hates Fags” or “God Made IEDs,” a reference to roadside bombs. Members of the congregation contend soldiers are being struck down by God for defending a nation that tolerates homosexuality.
[Shirley] Phelps-Roper [an attorney and member of Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka] said the group will eventually protest in states with the new laws, but it will find a way to obey the new laws.
She also said the church is considering legal challenges to the laws. “We’re waiting until all the legislatures are over to see what tattered shreds they’ve left the Constitution in,” she said.