Free Republic

KILLEEN — About 30 Killeen residents quickly gathered Tuesday afternoon to drown out four members of a fringe Kansas church who arrived at Fort Hood to protest the soldiers killed in Thursday’s shootings. The members were from an organization known for picketing at public events and funerals, often those related or peripherally related to gay people or soldiers in the military. On Tuesday, the members stood just outside Fort Hood carrying signs that said things such as “Thank God for dead soldiers” and “God sent the shooter.” Heather Baker, a Killeen resident whose husband is deployed to Iraq, was eating...

Westboro Baptist Church, a Topeka, Kan.-based church known for picketing at the funerals of American troops who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan, announced Monday that it would protest at the funeral of Lance Cpl. David Raymond Baker. The funeral for Baker, the 22-year-old Painesville Township Marine who was killed by an improvised explosive device Oct. 20 in the Helmand Province of Afghanistan, is scheduled for 11 a.m. Saturday at Zion Lutheran Church in Painesville. Regarding the protest, Painesville police intend to enforce the laws outlined in Ohio Revised Code Section 2917.11, which defines disorderly conduct, Capt. Rick Kline said....

KANSAS CITY, MO. - The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear Missouri's appeal to allow the state to enforce it's law restricting protests near funerals. The law targeted a Topeka Baptist church that protests military funerals. The Westboro Baptist Church filed a lawsuit against the state after it passed two laws creating a no protest buffer zone around funerals and processions. Westboro Baptist Church out of Topeka protests the funerals saying soldiers deaths are God's punishment because of U.S. policy toward homosexuals.

(The link is for info on Pvt. Wm. Long's funeral, FR wouldn't let me link the source for the crap below) From their upcoming protest schedule page: "06/08/2009 09:15 AM - 10:00 AM Conway, AR Harlan Park Baptist - All the lies won't help only hurt 1895 Dave Ward Dr. Are you kidding me? You are really going to have a session of lies and deception over the body of another dead DOOMED american soldier? The ones who survive these wars will stand on the ready to do whatever the Beast Barack Obama tells them to do. So, in reality...

A candlelight vigil has been scheduled for 8 p.m. today at Old Town Square to show support for George Tiller's family and to oppose violence. Dustin Deckard, 20, organized the vigil and is hoping it will be "a quiet show of support for Dr. Tiller and a moment to remember his medical and political triumphs." Deckard, who supports abortion rights, called today's shooting of Tiller "akin to the murder of Harvey Milk," an openly gay California politician who was shot to death in 1978. "With the situation today, I think that what side people are on is the last thing...

The Westboro Baptist Church, whose members tour the country protesting at military funerals because they claim America is tolerant of homosexuality, is thanking God for record flooding in North Dakota. “God sent the flood waters to cover the evil people of Bismarck and Fargo, ND, where you flipped off God and raised your hands against His anointed by criminalizing WBC’s gospel preaching against” gays and their supporters, declared a statement released Wednesday by the church, which is in Topeka, Kan. The statement referred to House Bill 1040, a North Dakota state law passed in January 2007 that bars protestors from...

An anti-gay U.S. Christian preacher and his daughter have been barred from entering Britain as they could spread "extremism and hatred," the British government said Thursday. The Reverend Fred Phelps, founder of the Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas, had been due in Britain to protest at a play about the murder of a gay man. But British Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said she had decided to prevent Phelps and his daughter Shirley Phelps-Roper from entering the country....

The Home Secretary has banned two extremist anti-gay preachers from entering Britain, a move that follows a decision to refuse entry to Geert Wilders, the Dutch anti-Muslim MP. Fred Phelps and his daughter Shirley Phelps-Roper, who belong to the US Westboro Baptist Church, were planning to come to the UK to protest outside a performance of a youth play called The Laramie Project, which recounts the death of gay university student Matthew Shepard who was killed in Laramie, Wyoming, in October 1998. It was due to be performed at Queen Mary's College in Basingstoke, Hampshire, tomorrow. The pair have been...

Members of a controversial Kansas church known for protesting military funerals plan to picket Caylee Marie Anthony's memorial Tuesday.

Pastor Fred " Freakin' Loony" Phelps and his followers like to sing hateful Christmas carols. So what kind of Christmas gift can you get for someone who elects to celebrate the season in this manner? Read "Geeks On Caffeine" and see for yourself! NOTE: The author of this comic has requested that you visit his web site and please refrain from copying the cartoon within this thread.

A Kansas-based church that has blamed deaths in Iraq on U.S. tolerance of homosexuality has asked Gov. Christine Gregoire's office to approve a "Santa Claus will take you to hell" message to display among other religious statements in the Capitol's third-floor hallway.

Here is the Schedule, as released by the Freaks at the Westboro "Baptist Church"... http://www.godhatesfags.com/schedule.html 12/01/2008 5:15 PM - 5:45 PM Virginia Beach, VA Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base 12/03/2008 07:30 AM - 08:00 AM Virginia Beach, VA Fort Story Army Base 12/03/2008 08:45 AM - 09:15 AM Norfolk, VA Norfolk Naval Station 12/03/2008 09:15 AM - 09:45 AM Virginia Beach, VA Oceana Naval Air Station 12/03/2008 10:15 AM - 10:45 AM Portsmouth, VA Portsmouth Naval Medical Center (If you go to counter any of these, this is the one to do so at) 12/03/2008 12:45 PM - 1:15 PM...

Leaders of a church that's drawn national controversy for its protests at U.S. military funerals say they plan to picket Friday's services for two Scott County High School cheerleaders and sisters killed in a weekend crash.

<p>A Maryland State Police trooper from Westminster who was killed in a helicopter crash in Prince George’s County early Sunday morning is being remembered by those who knew him as a great father and a nice person who took his job seriously.</p>

Blogger Michael Crook, known for Forsake the Troops and other such sites, pays veterans a little "visit", at a veterans' cemetery in Southern New Jersey. This video is a protest against veterans, and the military pay structure.

Today's Phelps-Roper v. Strickland upholds a ban on "'picketing' or 'other protest activities,' within 300 feet of the funeral or burial service, from one hour before until one hour after the funeral or burial service." ("Other protest activities" is defined as "any action that is disruptive or undertaken to disrupt or disturb a funeral or burial service or a funeral procession.") The court concludes that the ban is content-neutral, serves the important government interest in "protect[ing] the citizens of Ohio from disruption during the events associated with a funeral or burial service," including disruption in the sense of "unwanted communication...

I saw this at their vile website. Fred Phelps is at it again. Here is how the flyer goes: NEWS RELEASE God Hates Texas. Yes, indeed. The irreversible curse of God upon fags and fag-enablers - the "botch of Egypt•••that cannot be healed." Ct. 28:27. God is punishing Texas for passing laws against WBC by devastating bus crashes & many natural disasters. Thank God for 13 dead Vietnamese Houstonians in a bus crash bound for idolatry. Pray for many more dead. We will picket their funerals. WBC will picket their funerals in religious protest and warning; to wit: "Be not...

Members of the controversial Westboro Baptist Church are threatening to picket the funeral of Tim McLean, the young man decapitated on a Greyhound bus last week. The Kansas-based church - a small fundamentalist sect led by Fred Phelps - is reviled in the United States for protesting the funerals of hundreds of soldiers killed in the Iraq war. The sect gained notoriety in the 1990s by picketing the funeral of Matthew Shepard, a young gay man beaten to death in Wyoming. Seven members of the church originally planned to picket theatre performances in Toronto and Red Deer, Alta., later this...

It's an AP story but you can go to www.kansascity.com to read article, if interested.

The toxic Fred Phelps brigade known as "God Hates Fags" invaded the Tony Snow Funeral in Washington, DC. Video

On one side of Bragg Boulevard on Wednesday, American flags whipped in the wind, from toothpicks, from veteran’s hands, from the top of a pole attached to a pickup.On the other, American flags were being dragged on the ground.On one side, Army wives, veterans and bikers held signs that read "I Love My Soldier," "Our Husbands, Our Heroes," and "God Loves The World."On the other, four members of Westboro Baptist Church — including a 22-year-old woman and 7-year-old boy — held signs that read “God is Your Enemy” and "America is Doomed." The child’s read: "God Hates the U.S.A."The two...

A Kansas church well-known for its protests at the funerals of fallen American soldiers plans to picket at this week's funeral of former Press Secretary Tony Snow, declaring that Snow is "a very bad monkey" who is "now burning in hell." "He had a platform, he was given some small talent by his Creator. He was an unfaithful steward, and is now residing in hell," says a schedule on the website of the Westboro Baptist Church. "Each opportunity he had to faithfully report what the servants at WBC had to tell this country/world, Tony Snow besmirched and vilified the words...

Dear God, please let the Patriot Guard Riders know about this ahead of time. The Phelps gang is ready to strike, and they outline their intent here.

Immediate Alert for Saturday Morning, Waterbury Connecticut, June 7, 2008 IN an e-mail alert from the Patriot Guard, there is supposed to be a presence of antiwar types at the FUNERAL of a fallen Marine from Waterbury TOMORROW morning early! If you can attend, be there before 9 AM maps to the location of the cemetery below, the presence of the antiwar types is supposed to be north of this location http://maps.google.com/maps?ie=UTF-8&dq=Riverside+cemetery+loc:+Waterbury,+CT&daddr=496+Riverside+St,+Waterbury,+CT+06708&geocode=15632629214542374654,41.548818,-73.046660&ll=41.548818,-73.046660&iwstate1=dir:to&iwloc=A&f=d The original Patriot Guard posting is here: http://www.patriotguard.org/Forums/tabid/61/postid/886371/view/topic/Default.aspx The Obituary for this Marine is located here: http://www.rep-am.com/Obituaries/346098.txt If you will not fight for right when you can easily...

Thursday, May 8, 2008 Westboro to picket...Westboro? Topeka,KS- If anyone thought they were safe, surely the actual members of the Westboro Baptist Church did, but this weekend plans are underway for a picketing, that's right, the Westboro Baptist members will picket themselves. "It's a shame we have to do this. America is doomed, and we've allowed ourselves to become overwhelmed by the stupidity of this doomed country," said Frank Phelps, a distant cousin of Shirley Phelps. "We have become too pro-homosexual, so now we have to warn ourselves of God's doom and wrath against our own church." The zealous...

Even Cindy Sheehan concedes this would be too tacky...but the Westboro Cult has never let something small like tact get in the way. I'm not sure how these attention whores twist a heterosexual marriage into an appropriate place to protest homosexuality, but then I don't see how they twist any of the funerals they protest at as appropriate settings either. Anything that will make a headline, I guess. The crowd from the Crawford Texas Peace House may be sitting this one out, but the sanctity of President Bush’s daughter’s wedding Saturday won’t necessarily stop anti-homosexual protesters from the Westboro Baptist...

The crowd from the Crawford Texas Peace House may be sitting this one out, but the sanctity of President Bush’s daughter’s wedding Saturday won’t necessarily stop anti-homosexual protesters from the Westboro Baptist Church from trying to crash the blessed event. Shirley Phelps Roper, daughter of the leader of the Topeka, Kan., church whose members picket at locations where they believe homosexuality is being encouraged, said eight church members will picket near Jenna Bush’s wedding Saturday night. The protesters will set up at Prairie Chapel Road and Farm-to-Market Road 185 from 6 to 7:30 p.m., Roper said. Meanwhile, peace activist Kay...

The family and friends of two teenagers who died in a car accident over the weekend are puzzled as to why a fundamentalist church group plans to demonstrate at the teens’ funerals. Tracey Burke, whose daughter Emily died in the crash near Finksburg late Saturday night, said she doesn’t understand the logic of Topeka, Kan.-based Westboro Baptist Church unless its members, "are just people of hate." "It makes no sense," Burke said. "I can’t believe they’d choose to [demonstrate at] the funeral of a child." Julio Calderon, whose brother Rodolfo Calderon also died in the crash, said he was...

BALTIMORE - A federal judge in Baltimore ordered Westboro Baptist Church members to post their church building and nearly $500,000 more in cash and property while appealing a judgment for protesting a Marine’s funeral. The Kansas church members had hoped to avoid posting a bond while delaying payments in the $5 million judgment a jury awarded Albert Snyder, the father of Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder who died in Iraq. Westboro church members preach that God kills American soldiers as punishment for the country’s tolerance of homosexuality. They protested Matthew Snyder’s Westminster funeral in March 2006 by waving signs...

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Members of a nationally known church will be picketing outside of several Central Florida churches on Easter Sunday with a message pastors say is more about shock value than God's words. A group from the Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church has announced they will be outside Easter services at St. Luke's United Methodist, First Baptist Church, Calvary Assembly of God and Mary Queen of the Universe churches early Sunday. Westboro church members said they believe school shootings, 9-11 and solider deaths are "God's revenge" for America's moral decline and tolerance for homosexuality and abortion. "This nation is awash...

Hey y'all. I'm sure you've heard now about the terrible events at UNC this past week. Now, as her family prepares to lay her to rest in her home town of Athens, GA another storm cloud gathers. It appears that the Westboro Baptist Church crazies are planning to picket Eve's funeral. Something has to be done. This is absolutely unacceptable.

Westboro gang to picket funerals: 03/09/2008 2:15 PM - 3:00 PM Athens, GA First United Methodist Church 327 Lumpkin St. Funeral of Eve Carson 03/09/2008 4:45 PM - 5:30 PM Marietta, GA Temple Kol Emeth 1415 Old Canton Rd. Funeral of Lauren Burk

I ran across the Phelps clan a few years ago when they were protesting a church I was attending in Wichita Kansas. I had never heard of the group before and I suddenly found myself within swinging distance without any context of who I was dealing with. I assumed from their colorful “GOD HATES FAGS” signs that they were a pro-homosexual advocacy group possibly angry about a bible lesson on Sodom and Gomorrah that they might have heard at the church that did not fit their lifestyle. I later found that the Westboro Baptist Church was a small, crazy, dysfunctional...

A federal judge in Baltimore today substantially reduced the amount of damages Westboro Baptist Church, the Kansas-based anti-gay group, and three of its members will have to pay for their protest at a Marine's funeral in Westminster. In a 52-page decision, U.S. District Judge Richard D. Bennett upheld a jury's verdict awarding the father of Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder multimillion-dollar damages for enduring emotional distress and having his privacy invaded by Westboro members waving anti-gay signs at the Marine's funeral in March 2006. "There was also more than sufficient evidence to support the jury's verdict on defendants' liability," Bennett wrote....

Thousands waited outside the Flour Bluff entrance to Naval Air Station-Corpus Christie, expecting a confrontation with the members of the Westboro Baptist Church members, but they never came. The crowd instead showed support for U. S. Soldiers.

Emotions ran high as members of a small anti-war group were met with opposition, mistaken for the Kansas based radical group known as Westboro Baptist Church. Members of the infamous Westboro Baptist Church, had planned to picket outside NAS Corpus Christi this morning. The group claims they wanted to thank God, for the January 16th helicopter crash that claimed the lives of 3 US sailors based here. The group never showed up, but hundreds of people anticipating their arrival did. An estimated crowd of more than one thousand people including riders with the Patriot Guard took to the streets with...

Nueces County Republican ClubMessage from the President of the Republican Club Thursday, January 31, 2008 Counterprotest at NAS Corpus Christi If you haven't heard of it, the infamous Westboro Baptist Cult (I refuse to call them a Church!!), famous for protesting American servicemen who are killed in combat is planning to make an appearance in Corpus Christi this Saturday at 10:00AM outside NAS Corpus Christi's main gate. I am as freedom oriented as the next guy, but I've just about had it with these guys. The so-called church is really just a single family of miscreants that think that God...

Homophobic Church Group to Picket Navy Air Station Members of a radical Kansas church who say God punished three Navy officers killed in the recent helicopter crash are planning to picket outside Naval Air Station-Corpus Christi. Members of the infamous Westboro Baptist Church believe God punished the officers because of the sins of the nation. Picketing is set to start at noon Saturday at the main gate at SPID and NAS Drive in Flour Bluff. Church members are expected to carry signs that read "God Hates the Nation," and to thank God for the Jan. 16 helicopter crash that claimed...

Jacksonville, North Carolina, January 26, 2008— The NC Gathering of Eagles sponsored an Operation to demonstrate support for and celebrate the American Military. Hundreds of people came to Jacksonville, from all over North Carolina, Virginia, South Carolina and West Virginia.They spread out along Highway 17 waving American and Marine flags and holding signs proclaiming respect, admiration and gratitude to the men and women of the United States Military. GOE National Director, Larry Bailey reports: In response to the pitiful gathering of Westboro Baptist Church miscreants near Camp Lejeune, NC, on 1/26/08, the North Carolina chapter of Gathering of Eagles organized...

Church group draws counterprotest Law enforcment prevents physical interaction BY HEATHER GALE January 26, 2008 - 7:24PM DAILY NEWS STAFFFive people versus 40. The notorious protesting church, Westboro Baptist Church, turned out five women, — two older and three who appeared to be in their late teens or early twenties — to express their viewpoints about the Marine Corps and the circumstances surrounding the death of Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach. However, more than 40 counterprotesters were across the street from the church members on Lejeune Boulevard, holding signs and supporting the military. Many of the supporters of the troops said...

Shirley Phelps-Roper of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka said that she and other members will picket Ledger’s United States memorial services, not those held in his native Australia. “You cannot live in defiance of God,” she said. “He got on that big screen with a big, fat message: God is a liar and it’s OK to be gay.” A press release circulated by the church references Leviticus 18:22 in the Bible, which states that “thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.”

The inbreds in the ACLU buddy, hate cult have decided to picket outside Camp LeJeune in order to spread their message of hating homosexuals. Of course this is predictable of them now, yet still no less disgusting. They are protesting at the funeral of the recently murdered Marine. Yes, the pregnant one that the media has been talking about so much. What this murdered Marine's death has to do with gays, nobody knows, but somehow in this cult's attention seeking, twisted minds I'm sure they think it does somehow. What do these freaks think of her death? They think it...

While only a handful of the anticipated Westboro Baptist Church members actually appeared to protest near a local soldier’s funeral Friday, hundreds more showed up to show their support for the man’s family and denounce the protesters. For hours, dozens of people with signs and American flags blanketed all four corners of the Bethel and Lund intersection, while hundreds more drove by honking and displaying flags on their vehicles. In contrast, the members of Westboro were reportedly there less than a half hour. Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office Spokesman Deputy Scott Wilson said that only a handful of Westboro church members...

<p>A federal appeals court Thursday sided with a Kansas woman who believes that God’s hatred of homosexuality requires her to picket funerals for American soldiers holding signs that read “Thank God for Dead Soldiers” and “God Blew Up the Troops.”</p>

Members of a small Kansas congregation known for its anti-gay message say they plan to demonstrate during a memorial service Friday for a Bremerton soldier killed in Afghanistan. That comes following passage of a state law in January, which requires protestors to remain 500 feet or more from funeral processions, the grave site and the funeral home or building where a funeral service is taking place. The law was passed in response to protests at soldiers' funerals. The funeral is for Sgt. 1st Class Johnny C. Walls, a 1985 Bremerton High graduate who died Nov. 2 of wounds suffered when...

TOPEKA | Countless flights across the country. Car rentals, gas money, food and lodging. All those cardboard signs. For the 71 members of Fred Phelps’ Westboro Baptist Church, the costs of doing business must add up. And those costs could soon grow a lot higher. A Maryland jury recently ordered Westboro to pay nearly $11 million to the father of a fallen soldier whose funeral was the subject of one of Westboro’s protests. Many hope the lawsuit, and future ones like it, will put the notorious church out of business for good. It’s something that new funeral picketing bans, now...

Daughter Of Fred Phelps, Westboro Baptist Church Founder, In Court Today by Susan @ 8:04 pm. Filed under ACLU, 1st Amendment, Child Exploitation, News, Fallen Heros Recently we saw Albert Snyder, father of Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder, take the Westboro Baptist Church, which is no more than a cult disguising itself as a church, to court for disrupting the funeral of his hero Marine son with protests. Then we showed you that the father won his lawsuit and was awarded $11 million dollars in damages. You hear Phelps reaction to that news here and you can see all of Stop...

Vandalism at Westboro Baptist Church Friday November 2 2007 9:44 TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) - Topeka police are investigating vandalism at the Westboro Baptist Church, known for its protests at the funerals of soldiers killed in Iraq. Police said graffiti spray-painted on the church read, "God hates intolerance'' and "God hates the Phelps,'' an apparent reference to the church's belief that God is punishing the United States for its support of homosexuals. The vandalism was discovered on the day after a Baltimore jury awarded 11 million dollars to the father of a fallen Marine who sued the church over its protest...

...The fiery message of the Westboro Baptist Church has led its followers into a fight for what they say are their First Amendment rights. After what would appear at first glance to be a setback in one court, the group heads to another one on charges that include flag mutilation-and members of the Topeka, Kan.-based church could not be happier. "Our message has exploded all over the world," a delighted Shirley Phelps-Roper said Thursday...... Phelps-Roper,50,is to appear in Sarpy County Court on Monday on charges of flag mutilation, negligent child abuse, contributing to the delinquency of a minor and disturbing...

Topeka police removed two suspicious items from the area around 3701 SW 12th Thursday afternoon. The items were found outside the address shortly before 10 a.m. by a police officer who was investigating a report of vandalism. The Topeka Police Bomb Unit was called to the scene and removed the items. They are being examined at this time, but appear to be small, homemade firecrackers......