Free Republic

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.

About 10 anti-abortion protesters gathered across the street from a downtown Wichita vigil where supporters of George Tiller remembered the slain abortion provider. The protesters outside Sunday's vigil were from Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, which also pickets military funerals. The protesters held signs emblazoned with such messages as "Abortion is bloody murder" and "Baby killer in hell." The protesters and about 20 Tiller supporters shouted at each other. A large number of police officers stood by to make sure the scene stayed under control.

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...

Oklahoma City -- A local church hosted a demonstration of peace and love to counter the demonstration put on by members of the Westboro Baptist Church held at Moore High School. Westboro members protested in Oklahoma on Monday for various reasons. Members of Beth Haven Baptist Church held a prayer vigil at the same time the Westboro demonstration took place. Pastor Rick Carter says they wanted to spread what they feel is the true message of the bible. He says God doesn't likes sinners, but that he has nothing but love, not hate, for people. Carter also says many people...

This is part #2 of the best of 2008 of the Conscience of Kansas radio program. Listen to excerpts of such interesting interviews as those with Myrna Sokoloff of "An American Carol", Paul Shanklin of the Rush Limbaugh program and Duane Dog Chapman the Bounty Hunter. Listen to the debates with Westboro Baptist Church and CODE PINK. A great wrap up to a great year! enjoy!

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.

Scott County Schools will be closed Friday because of an announced protest by a controversial Midwestern church, the district’s superintendent said this afternoon. “We have been notified that we have a group coming in from Kansas to picket our high school in the wake of our losing four students last week,” Superintendent Sharon Wilson said.

<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.

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...

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...

The creeps from the Westboro Baptist Church are planning to protest Tony Snow's funeral:

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.

Free Republic Exclusive Fred Phelps, leader of the "God-hates-faXs" movement, is planning on crashing the funeral of one of our War Dead on July 4th. Why? To spread his message of anti-homosexual SPAM in the most inappropriate way imaginable. There's a time and a place for everything. He's a publicity whore, as far as I'm concerned. Here are snips from an earlier FR Report: "A SF SGT E-5, James Stewart, will be buried in St. Petersburg, Florida on July 4, 2005. It's wholly appropriate that he be buried on our nation's birthday, because Sergeant Stewart gave his life for our...

BALTIMORE - Two members of the Westboro Baptist Church have failed to post bonds needed to delay the collection of a $5 million jury award while their case is being appealed. As of 5 p.m. Monday, the deadline imposed by a federal judge, Shirley Phelps-Roper and Rebekah Phelps-Davis had not posted their bonds of $125,000 and $100,000. The women had argued in April for lesser bond amounts. The jury award followed a finding in November that the Kansas church intentionally inflicted emotional distress upon Albert Snyder, of York, Pa., by protesting the Maryland funeral for Snyder's son. Marine Lance Cpl....

Hi all, several years ago those of you who were around FR might remember a band of young rocker brothers who did a song "Hateful Lies" that skeweed Michael Moore. Well, the band is still around, and has just released a music video for its new song "Westboro", inspired by the lunacy of the WBC. We thought some of you might be interested, if so the video can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PD0oSIyBUBQ. If you like their music video, let them know please, they have a myspace at http://www.myspace.com/attilahuns. FYI, here are the lyrics: Westboro, words and music by Andrew O'Donnell...

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...

It's expected hundreds will attend the funeral services for the Sueppel Family, and it's likely there will be an outside presence there--for an entirely different reason. Westboro Baptist church--a controversial group based out of Topeka Kansas-- travels state to state protesting at high-profile funerals for their own cause. Now comes word the group plans to be outside the Sueppel services, when emotions will no doubt be running high. The religious group, led by Reverend Fred Phelps-- plans to be outside The Sueppel family funeral, simply because it's expected to be a large gathering.

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...

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

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.

LDS President Hinckley's funeral has been targeted as a protest site by members of the Westboro Baptist Church. Members of the Topeka, Kan., church have picketed several military funerals out of a belief that the war in Iraq is a punishment for the nation's tolerance of homosexuality. The group issued a press release Monday saying members will picket President Hinckley's funeral. In 2007, a federal jury in Baltimore, Maryland, awarded $10.9 million to a father of a Marine whose funeral was picketed by members of the Westboro Baptist C Church members showed up at the soldier's funeral chanting derogatory slogans...

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...

Three of the members from the “Westboro Baptist Church” dared to enter Nevada today to picket at the funeral of one of our fallen soldiers. The family of Staff Sergeant Sean Gaul was holding an open memorial service for their fallen son today at 11:00am in Reno, NV. The three scum were met by over 200 Patriot Guard Riders and FReepers. They stayed for about 10 minutes and then fled to their car about 500 feet from their original site across the street from the Church, where the services were being held. None of the family or attendees was exposed...

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.”

Today's memorial for a Parkville family killed in a drunken driving crash in Ohio was protested by a group that was recently ordered to pay millions for protesting the Westminster funeral of a soldier killed in Iraq. Three members of the Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church, known for protests at military funerals, were demonstrating about a block from St. Luke Evangelical Lutheran Church, the site of the service...

A True Crime Update on current ongoing true crimes plus some old ones pop up again. Seems beautiful sexy teacher Deb LaFave is back in the news. She had sex with a young boy and was supposed to keep a low profile. Well she didn't. Plus more on the kooks in the Westboro Church, and, no surprise, Aruban murderer Joran Vandersloop gets off again. The Omaha mall shooting, a toddler that saved her mother's life, and Mike Huckabee's hero, an Arkansas rapist who, once Huckabee jumped through hoops to free him for one rape, promptly went out and raped and...

<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>

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.” Shirley Phelps-Roper is part of a Topeka, Kan. church that contends God is punishing the United States for permitting homosexuality by killing soldiers. In response to a August 2005 protest by Phelps-Roper and other members of her church at the funeral of Army Spc. Edward Lee Myers in St. Joseph, Mo., the Missouri legislature passed a par of laws that...

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...

PAPILLION, Neb. - Shirley Phelps-Roper and her attorney want to know exactly why she has been criminally charged for protesting at a Bellevue soldier's funeral in June, so they can challenge the charges. Phelps-Roper and her attorney, Bassel El-Kasaby, asked a Sarpy County judge Monday to order prosecutors to spell out in writing why she is charged with flag mutilation, negligent child abuse, contributing to the delinquency of a minor and disturbing the peace. They say the details of those charges will be important to Phelps-Roper's defense. "This case clearly raises some substantial constitutional issues," El-Kasaby said. Phelps-Roper is a...

A fundamentalist Kansas “church” notorious for protesting at the funerals of troops killed in Iraq was ordered Wednesday to pay $10.9 million in damages to the father of a fallen Marine. The Westboro Baptist Church believes that U.S. deaths in the Iraq war are punishment for the nation's tolerance of homosexuality and appeared last year at the funeral for Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder, bearing signs that read: "Thank God for dead soldiers" and "God hates fags.” A nine-member federal jury found members and three leaders of Westboro – Fred Phelps and his two daughters, Phelps-Roper and Rebekah Phelps-Davis –...

-- Members of a fundamentalist Kansas church ordered to pay nearly $11 million in damages to a grieving father smiled as they walked out of the courtroom, vowing that the verdict would not deter them from protesting at military funerals. Members promised to picket future funerals with placards bearing such slogans as "Thank God for dead soldiers" and "God hates fags." "Absolutely, don't you understand this was an act in futility?" said Shirley Phelps-Roper, whose father founded the Westboro Baptist Church. The group believes that U.S. deaths in the Iraq war are punishment for the nation's tolerance of homosexuality....

BALTIMORE, Oct. 25 — Before the March 2006 funeral for Lance Cpl. Matthew A. Snyder, a marine who was killed in Iraq, protesters from the Westboro Baptist Church, a tiny fundamentalist splinter group, picketed the service with signs that read “God Hates You” and “Thank God for Dead Soldiers.”Albert Snyder, Corporal Snyder’s father, sued the church in United States District Court here, claiming invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress. - - - Mr. Snyder, who said Westboro members turned his son’s funeral in Westminster, Md., into a “media circus,” is seeking unspecified damages in the jury trial,...

A Kansas woman was arrested Tuesday after she had her 10-year-old son stomp on an American flag. Shirley L. Phelps-Roper, 49, of Topeka, was protesting at the Bellevue funeral of Spc. William Bailey with a group from Westboro Baptist Church. The church, founded by her father, has protested at the funerals of numerous soldiers. Bellevue Police Capt. Herb Evers said an officer saw a young boy stomping on an American flag. Phelps-Roper was then cited for contributing to the delinquency of a minor and desecration of a flag. Both are misdemeanors. She was released from Sarpy County Jail after posting...

Funeral flag man FOUND By SHAWNE K. WICKHAM New Hampshire Sunday News Staff 14 hours, 10 minutes ago Hampstead – Monika McGillicuddy got to meet her hero last week and, true to form, he brought her an American flag. Frank Downs Jr. of Wilmington, Mass., a former Marine, was the man who held aloft a large American flag and stared down a trio of Kansas protesters who came to town for the April 18 funeral of Army Capt. Jonathan Grassbaugh. "My first reason for being there is that kid in the box," Downs told the Sunday News. "My second reason...

Fred Phelps and his merry band of misanthropes at Westboro Baptist Church plan to picket the funerals of those killed in the Virginia Tech shootings, according to a message on their website: "WBC will preach at the funerals of the Virginia Tech students killed on campus during a shooting rampage April 16, 2007. You describe this as monumental horror, but you know nothing of horror -- yet. Your bloody tyrant Bush says he is 'horrified' by it all. You know nothing of horror -- yet. Your true horror is coming. 'They shall also gird themselves with sackloth, and horror shall...

BALTIMORE (AP) -- A federal judge in Baltimore is ordering Topeka's Westboro Baptist Church to pay more than $3,000 in costs related to the funeral of a Marine the group picketed. Albert Snyder of York, Pennsylvania, is suing because church members demonstrated at the funeral of his son, Lance Corporal Matthew Snyder. Church members also posted pictures of the protest on their Web site. Corporal Snyder was killed in Iraq in March. The lawsuit was filed in June. It says church members violated the family's right to privacy and defamed the Marine and his family at the funeral and on...

The Most Hated Family in America They call themselves the most hated family in the US and they picket funerals of soldiers killed in Iraq. So what did Louis Theroux make of the Phelpses after three weeks? In any country, let alone one as patriotic as the US, few actions are as provocative as protesting at a soldier's funeral. The Phelps family pickets mourners across the country, to mark what it describes as God's revenge on the US for tolerating homosexuality. Their actions are in the name of the Westboro Baptist Church, which numbers 71 and is headed by "Gramps",...

Heard on local radio station this morning, Fred Phelps' hate American parade (Westboro 'Baptist' Church) will be protesting the recent deaths of ten individuals who perished in a housefire in Bardstown, KY. These are NON-MILITARY deaths, declared by the group to be part of God's punishment on America. Currently, no official news article URL is available. I will try to post one as soon as one becomes available.

Law rushed into place after threats from Kansas churchOLYMPIA – Rushing a new law into place in time for today's threatened protests at military memorial services in Yakima and Spokane, Gov. Chris Gregoire on Friday signed "the Washington Rest in Peace Act." The law, which a handful of lawmakers opposed due to freedom-of-speech concerns, bans "tumultuous conduct" and other disruptions within 500 feet of funerals. "It's a bill, candidly, that I wish I did not have to sign," Gregoire said Friday, flanked by lawmakers and veterans, including her husband, Vietnam combat veteran Mike Gregoire. At his request, she said,...

Members of a Kansas church who protest homosexuality at military funerals suffered a setback Tuesday in their case challenging Missouri's "funeral protection law" when a federal judge ruled that the law could be enforced while under review. American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) lawyers representing the Westboro Baptist Church asked the U.S. District Court in Western Missouri to prevent the state from enforcing the law, which prohibits demonstrations near military funerals. The controversial church is known for demonstrating outside military funerals, proclaiming that God allows U.S. soldiers to be killed because they are fighting to defend a nation that tolerates homosexuality....

The day Army Sgt. Brent Dunkleberger's body was brought home to Perry County, a fundamentalist church announced it would picket at his funeral next week. Dunkleberger, 29, of El Paso, Texas, formerly of Elliottsburg, was killed Dec. 12 in Iraq after a rocket-propelled grenade hit the Humvee in which he was riding. Shirley Phelps-Roper, a spokeswoman for the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan., and a daughter of church pastor Fred Phelps, said yesterday that roughly 10 protesters will be near the West Perry Middle School, where Dunkleberger's funeral will be held Wednesday. They will hold signs, sing songs and...

Just got word of a protest by the thugs of Westboro Baptist Church at the funeral of Cpl. Joshua Conard Sticklen at the Little Creek Amphibious Base Chapel. I cannot be there to join in the counter protest, but I'll try to post updates from any sources I can gather. The funeral is scheduled for 2 PM EST, and the announcement of the protest is posted on the WBC website, which I will not gratify with hits by posting here.

The Westboro Baptist Church has been ordered to pay $3,150 for costs and fees associated with a summons and complaint filed by the father of a Marine whose funeral was picketed by the extremist group. Albert Snyder of York, Pa., is suing the Rev. Fred Phelps and his Topeka, Kan.-based church after church members demonstrated at the funeral of Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder of Westminster, and posted pictures of the protest on their Web site.

Click Here Notice the backs of their t-shirts: God Hates America It's only a matter of time before one of those maggots get seriously hurt or worse.

Men and women of the Patriot Guard Riders have one main mission: Show respect for soldiers killed in war and shield the mourning families and friends from protesters. Protests and military funerals President Bush signed a law on Memorial Day banning protests within 300 feet of national cemeteries. Last month, he said it "ensures that families of fallen service members will not have to endure protests during military funerals." Florida law also states that anyone who willfully interrupts or disturbs a military funeral honors detail commits a first-degree misdemeanor. On Saturday, the men and women of this national motorcyclists organization...

ALAN COLMES, CO-HOST: Members of the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas, have been protesting at military funerals since June of last year carrying signs with anti-gay slogans. Yesterday, they announced they were planning to protest the funerals of the Amish schoolgirls shot to death to death in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, earlier this week, but they have since changed their plans. With us now from Westboro Baptist Church is Shirley Phelps-Roper. You changed your plans because Mike Gallagher has offered you airtime on his radio show, because you want to get your message out. What is that message? SHIRLEY PHELPS-ROPER, WESTBORO...