Posted on 06/15/2005 6:30:56 AM PDT by Hatman
BOISE, Idaho -- A Kansas preacher and gay rights foe whose congregation is protesting military funerals around the country said he's coming to Idaho tomorrow to picket the memorial for an Idaho National Guard soldier killed in Iraq.
A flier on the Web site of Pastor Fred Phelps' Westboro Baptist Church claims God killed Cpl. Carrie French with an improvised explosive device in retaliation against the United States for a bombing at Phelps' church six years ago.
"We're coming," Phelps said yesterday.
Westboro Baptist either has protested or is planning protests of other public funerals of soldiers from Michigan, Alabama, Minnesota, Virginia and Colorado. A protest is planned for July 11 at Dover Air Force Base, the military base where war dead are transported before being sent on to their home states.
Phelps gained national notoriety in 1998 when he picketed the funeral of Matthew Shepard, the gay college student beaten to death in Wyoming.
Since then, Phelps said his church has been the target of hateful words and actions, including a bomb attack six years ago.
Phelps' church has picketed the funerals of AIDS victims for more than a decade.
French, 19, was a Caldwell High School graduate and varsity cheerleader. She was killed June 5 in the northern city of Kirkuk. French served as an ammunition specialist with the 116th Brigade Combat Team's 145th Support Battalion.
Phelps said the fact that French led an all-American life gives him all the more reason to picket her final public tribute.
"An all-American girl from a society of all-American heretics," he said.
"Our attitude toward what's happening with the war is the Lord is punishing this evil nation for abandoning all moral imperatives that are worth a dime," Phelps said.
Caldwell Police Chief Bob Sobba said he cannot bar Phelps from going to the public funeral, which is scheduled for 1 p.m. at the Albertson College of Idaho in that city.
"While we respect Mr. Phelps' right to protest, we would hope that he would respect the family and friends of this young person by not disrupting the memorial," Sobba said.
Idaho Air National Guard Lt. Tony Vincelli, acting as spokesman for French's family, said there were no plans to change the funeral arrangements.
The Rev. Brian Fischer, pastor of Boise's Community Church of the Valley, and himself a past target of protest by the Westboro Baptist Church, decried Phelps' plan.
"What Phelps is doing is a reprehensible thing, to take a funeral and turn it into a photo op for his hate cause," Fischer said.
"We hope everyone will ignore Phelps' group."
In 2003, Phelps demanded that he be allowed to erect an anti-gay monument in a Boise public park. To avoid a lawsuit from his group, city officials voted in 2004 that a Ten Commandments monument be moved out of the park.
That's a sad shame. I don't know if I'll ever get used to seeing the faces of young American girls killed in war. It just doesn't seem right.
He is a lunatic! He sounds like a good companion to Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and Barry Lynn who also call themselves "pastors".
******
Fred Phelps (born November 13, 1929) is the controversial leader of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas, United States, which is notorious for its web sites godhatesfags.com and godhatesamerica.com. Gay rights activists, as well both mainstream and fundamentalist Christians, have denounced him as a producer of anti-gay propaganda and violence-inspiring hate speech. The church is located in the basement of his home, which is the center of a block-wide fenced compound, the other houses in which are occupied by nine of his thirteen children.
Ya think? Here's another warning from Fred.
When WBC [Westboro Baptist Church] members did in fact actually burn the Canadian flag in religious protest to Canada's approval of same-sex marriage, the so-called Christians of Canada were the loudest in denouncing WBC and "widely reviling" her Gospel message.
There is no hope for Canada. God hates Canada!
It would be my great pleasure to give him some attention.
Kansas Preacher Announces Plans To Protest Idaho Soldier's Funeral
http://www.klewtv.com/x5781.xml?ParentPageID=x5649&ContentID=x66219&Layout=KLEW.xsl&AdGroupID=x5781
(BOISE - AP) -
The Kansas preacher who tried to erect an anti-gay monument in a Boise city park says he's coming to Idaho this week to picket the funeral of a fallen soldier.
Fred Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas, says God killed Idaho National Guard Corporal Carrie French with an improvised explosive device. Phelps says God is retaliating against America for a bombing of his church six years ago.
French was a 19-year-old Caldwell High School graduate and varsity cheerleader. She was killed June 5 in Iraq's northern city of Kirkuk by an improvised explosive device.
French served as an ammunition specialist with the 116th Brigade Combat Team's 145th Support Battalion.
Phelps says there is no reason he is targeting French specifically. He says his church will protest any public funeral of soldiers killed in Iraq.
Caldwell Police Chief Bob Sobba said he can't bar Phelps from going to the public funeral. It's scheduled for Wednesday afternoon at the Albertson College of Idaho.
Here's another one in Anna, Illinois
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1424844/posts
bump
I just wonder how long it will be before he accidentally finds an explosive device??
The only reason he is still alive today is because most folks subscribe to the theory that "most folks that need killin ain't worth the time you would have to do for killin 'em".
I'd be in line to throw in for their bail and defense.
L
Although i agree with Phelps premise, that a nation in moral decline will be punished by the creator. I in no way support picketing a funeral of a fallen soldier. Way over the line Fred. There are better ways to get your message across.
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