Posted on 06/04/2006 10:08:47 AM PDT by aft_lizard
Ralph Rojas doesn't figure Pastor Fred Phelps has earned any converts in his forays to southwest Kansas.
"Absolutely not," said the Patriot Guard Riders member from Garden City.
Members of Phelps' Topeka-based Westboro Baptist Church have traveled to Reno County, Dodge City and Garden City in recent months to protest at the funerals of area servicemen killed in Iraq. They say such deaths are God's punishment for what they see as acceptance in the United States of homosexuality.
Rojas questions if Phelps' message is sinking in. He thinks the church's methods - besieging a grieving family with shouts and pickets reading "Thank God for dead soldiers," among other things - only enrage and appall.
"Personally, I don't think anybody has found a calling listening to him," said Rojas, who participates in counter-protests with the Patriot Guard Riders.
The guard, a pro-military motorcycle group, formed in response to Phelps, though leaders now say their main mission is honoring fallen soldiers.
Similarly, Linda Klaus thinks Westboro activities are solidifying support for service members overseas. Klaus' stepson, Jessie Davila, a Kansas National Guardsman from Greensburg, was killed last February in Iraq
Attention toward fallen soldiers lagged, she said, until Westboro church tactics spurred a backlash, which resulted in increased consciousness of those serving in Iraq and heightened patriotism. Indeed, 700 Patriot Guard Riders and others countered the 20 or so Westboro protesters who picketed at the Dodge City funeral for Davila.
"It was immense, the statement they made was huge," Klaus said. "I think what (Phelps) has done has actually worked in reverse."
Likewise, Rojas thinks the Patriot Guard Riders help offset the Westboro group's message, at least in southwest Kansas. Members typically rev their motorcycles to drown out Phelps' group, and serve as a buffer by placing themselves between grieving families and Westboro protesters.
"I don't believe anybody can hear his message, can even see him," Rojas said.
Phelps and company planned to picket at the funeral last month for Lance Cpl. Jose Marin-Dominguez, a U.S. Marine from Liberal who was killed in Iraq. But they never showed and Rojas thinks the prospect of facing a large group of Patriot Guard Riders figured in the decision.
"You know it has an impact on him," Rojas said of Phelps. "Out here he cannot deliver his message ... because we have such a large crowd."
Whatever the case, the Westboro group still protests at military funerals across the country, and critics remain offended by the group's message and tactics.
Klaus, now a member of the Patriot Guard Riders herself, was struck by the news report of her stepson's funeral, which included footage of the Westboro group.
"Actually, I didn't realize the extent of what (Phelps) was saying until I watched the news that night," she said. "And I was appalled."
Fred Phelps biography
The Associated Press
NAME - Fred Waldron Phelps.
AGE-BIRTH DATE - 76; Nov. 13, 1929 in Meridian, Miss.
EDUCATION -A.A., John Muir College, 1951; B.A., Washburn University, 1962; J.D., Washburn University, 1964.
BACKGROUND - Ordained a Baptist minister in Vernal, Utah, on Sept. 8, 1947.
FAMILY - Married Margie Simms in Phoenix, May 15, 1952; 13 children; 54 grandchildren; six great-grandchildren.
QUOTE - "That's one of the luxuries of being 100 percent right, absolutely 100 percent right. If you can read, you would agree with me."
The fact that these scum are still alive bears silent witness to the civility of the families of the fallen soldiers.
PGR ping alert.
Those people are a bunch of unemployed lawyers who are desperate for someone to sue.
They do this hoping that someone will attack them. Then they will sue their pants off.
But, then, do you really think that if he just disappeared like Hoffa, that anyone would really waste any time or resources looking for him?
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