Posted on 04/18/2007 9:28:04 PM PDT by El Conservador
he families of those killed in the Virginia Tech massacre may not be able to grieve in peace at the funerals of those they lost. An anti-gay religious group known for protesting at the funerals of American soldiers killed in Iraq is planning on appearing at services for those killed on Monday as well.
The Topeka, Kan.-based Westboro Baptist Church (WBC), which is not affiliated with any national Baptist organization, announced plans to protest at victims funerals only hours after 32 people were killed in the worst mass shooting in U.S. history. They also may protest at other events on the Virginia Tech campus.
The organization, founded and led by Fred Phelps, believes the United States has condemned itself to destruction by accepting homosexuality and other sins of the flesh. Phelps daughter, Shirley Phelps-Roper, said the Virginia Tech teachers and students who died on Monday brought their fate upon themselves by not being true Christians.
The evidence is they were not Christian. God does not do that to his servants, Phelps-Roper said. You dont need to look any further for evidence those people are in hell.
Cho Seung-Hui, the Virginia Tech student responsible for the killings who took his own life after the shootings, was sent by God to punish those he killed, and America as a whole, for moral decline, said Phelps-Roper, while adding that she believes Cho is also in hell for violating Gods commandment to not kill.
He is in hell, Phelps-Roper said. But he was also fulfilling the word of God.
Because of its virulent anti-gay message and condemnation of Catholics, Jews and other groups, the WBC has been classified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center and is monitored by the Anti-Defamation League.
Curtis Dahn, the president of Virginia Techs Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Alliance, said he reacted with immediate disgust upon hearing of the WBC's plans. Thirty-three people are dead and theyre using peoples deaths and peoples grief to further their own agenda and its just disgusting, he said.
Dahn was friends with Ryan Clark, a resident assistant in Ambler Johnson Hall, who was among the first people killed on Monday. He said he is working with other university leaders and officials to form a response to the WBC. Ideally, he said, the funerals will be nothing more than a chance for family and friends to mourn in peace.
Part of it is that I dont want the families to be affected by this at all, he said. I dont even want the funerals locations to be public knowledge. I dont want a protest, I dont want a counter-protest. I want people to be able to grieve and have what they want, not be made into public displays and mockeries.
Dahn and others may have the law on their side. In 2006, in response to protests at the funerals of dead U.S. soldiers, Virginia enacted a law that added funerals and memorial services to the states disorderly conduct statute. Other states have adopted similar measures to allow police to keep WBC protesters out of earshot.
By David Miller © MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
He is a lib of a different stripe. I don’t even know how much of his own BS he or his family believe.
He doesn’t seem to have attracted many followers, but he does generate a lot of press.
Becasue they are “baptists”. The MSM tries to tar baptists by highlighting these freaks.
Gonna need air support over here..activate the alert klaxon and flush the bombers!
Guys, I’m really busy this weekend. GF’s first ever camping trip, we need to get her up to speed for some trips this summer, the weather’s finally cooperating, etc. etc. etc.
I need a favor.
Can somebody please show up at this funeral and just kick the living dog snot out of anybody who maliciously adds to these poor folks’ misery?
I’ll owe you, and I’m good for it.
Thanks.
We need to petition Gore to call his friends off.
You have to remember that Phelp’s entire family are lawyers who make money suing people who attack them.
Their schtick is to *provoke* you into doing something that transfers your wealth into their bank accounts via the courts, and the news media does the world no favors by failing to investigate this scam.
See #26
Looks like the gunman will have some company in hell.
WBC = Lunatics
Lawyers are good.
They taste a little like chicken.
;-)
I am not abdicating any violence here but my question to this person would be if lets say some distraught parent of one of the victims shows up and blows all these protesters to hell then would their doctrine change? If someone began to shoot them one at a time and begin to ask if their doctrine stands up to practical application I wonder if their doctrine that no one would shoot one of God's true children holds up to the test?
Doesn't look gay to me and, if she is, who cares?
I understand quite a few of the students at Virginia Tech are ex-military. It would be interesting to see if something “Happened” to the Phelps Phreaks while they were there. I think in this case 25,000 students can keep their mouths shut...
No jury would convict. I’m so sick of these effing inbreds.
They can’t sue if they’re dead
I new this was coming. I wouldn’t be surprised if they regret it.
These people are so VILE and EVIL!!
Someone said Fred Phelps is a friend of AL Gore’s....anyone know if that is true?
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