Posted on 04/19/2007 9:16:55 AM PDT by FewsOrange
The 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 don’t 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 God’s 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 Tech’s 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 they’re using people’s deaths and people’s grief to further their own agenda and it’s just disgusting,” he said.
Dahn was friends with Ryan Clark, a resident assistant in Ambler Johnston 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 don’t want the families to be affected by this at all,” he said. “I don’t even want the funerals’ locations to be public knowledge. I don’t want a protest, I don’t 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 state’s disorderly conduct statute. Other states have adopted similar measures to allow police to keep WBC protesters out of earshot.
Does that go for Jesus too? I seem to remember him being killed or something.
As an aside, I hope their bus goes off a good high bridge on the way there.
Yep - I are a woman. PGR ping coming up!
I would say I’m disgusted and speechless, but nothing these morons do surprises me anymore.
Sick, sick, sick.
There’s not a sinner on this planet, not even a single homosexual, that will get to hell faster than Fred Phelps and company.
“Hopefully someone in Cho’s mental state will take them up on it.”
They are ghouls.
Just when you think that they’ve gone as far as it is possible to go, they pull another rabbit out of their hat.
These people are evil, pure and simple. They should hope to never attend the funeral of any family member of mine.
I have never felt compelled to comment on the Westboro bunch, but it seems a good counter-tactic would be a rather large amplifier, the kind you’d see sitting on the stage at a stadium concert. Then you haul it somewhere nearby these fools and crank it up so that it feeds back. Wouldn’t that be a low-tech version of what the military uses or is developing? Who’d want to be near that? I’d be willing to bet they’d disperse accordingly.
They’re going to keep pushing until someone opens fire and kills several of them. They’re obviously too stupid to understand that. They’re too full of hate to see it. They remind me of Muslims! They try to justify what they do by using the name of Christianity.
Understatement of all time...
In a way, Phelps has pulled off one miracle in his life.
He has gotten us freepers and the DUers to agree on something.
‘Gay on the Brain’ is a serious problem.
I have ridden in a couple of PGR runs here in North Carolina to show my undying respect for the warriors that were being laid to rest. A few of the “Phelpsholes” were in attendance each time but, when they saw the bikes, the leather, the flags AND all the Patriots arrive, they quickly tucked their tales and ran away from the area. Not only are they sick-minded individuals, they are cowardly to boot.
I don’t usually hate people against God’s will and all, but I am going to risk a sin here and say I really hate these people. I pray to God that the motorcycle group gets together and block all these freaks. Sorry for my ignorance on not remembering the motorcycle group’s name.
Thet will make a mistake some day, and start a fight.
What sick, twisted creatures.
I totally do not understand the mindset of these people. Why someone would protest at a funeral is just beyond my understanding. Even in the case of Cho, Klebold, and Harris. Their parents have a right to grieve also. It is just Wrong, on so many levels. That these people call themselves Christians, makes me sick. There are no words left to say, that won’t get me banned. So I will leave it at that.
They are not Christians and they will not be pleased with their reception when they meet their Maker.
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