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Group Plans To Picket Va. Tech Funerals (Phelps' Phreaks)
CBS News ^ | April 18, 2007 | David Miller

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 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 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 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.

By David Miller © MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.


TOPICS: Front Page News; News/Current Events; US: Kansas; US: Virginia
KEYWORDS: fredphelps; phelps; vatech; vtech
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To: pissant

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.


21 posted on 04/18/2007 10:04:19 PM PDT by weegee (Libs want us to learn to live with terrorism, but if a gun is used they want to rewrite the Const.)
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To: weegee

Becasue they are “baptists”. The MSM tries to tar baptists by highlighting these freaks.


22 posted on 04/18/2007 10:06:07 PM PDT by pissant
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To: The Spirit Of Allegiance

Gonna need air support over here..activate the alert klaxon and flush the bombers!


23 posted on 04/18/2007 10:08:17 PM PDT by Mr. Silverback (A pacifist sees no distinction between the arsonist and the fireman--Freeper ccmay)
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To: All

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.


24 posted on 04/18/2007 10:08:51 PM PDT by jeffers
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To: El Conservador

We need to petition Gore to call his friends off.


25 posted on 04/18/2007 10:10:30 PM PDT by highlander_UW (I don't know what my future holds, but I know Who holds my future)
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To: El Conservador

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.


26 posted on 04/18/2007 10:19:42 PM PDT by Southack (Media Bias means that Castro won't be punished for Cuban war crimes against Black Angolans in Africa)
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To: jeffers

See #26


27 posted on 04/18/2007 10:21:14 PM PDT by Southack (Media Bias means that Castro won't be punished for Cuban war crimes against Black Angolans in Africa)
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To: El Conservador

Looks like the gunman will have some company in hell.


28 posted on 04/18/2007 10:22:00 PM PDT by SmoothTalker
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To: El Conservador

WBC = Lunatics


29 posted on 04/18/2007 10:23:37 PM PDT by bamahead (I think I am better than the people who are trying to reform me -- E.W. Howe)
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Comment #30 Removed by Moderator

To: Southack

Lawyers are good.

They taste a little like chicken.

;-)


31 posted on 04/18/2007 10:47:36 PM PDT by jeffers
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To: El Conservador
"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.”

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?

32 posted on 04/19/2007 12:36:42 AM PDT by John 6.66=Mark of the Beast? ("If God is your Father then I am your Brother" Larry Norman)
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To: El Conservador
As a public service, to help dispel some of the Phoul Phelps Phumes to which this string will inevitably expose us, I offer this photo of another Phelps target, Princess Madeleine of Sweden:

Doesn't look gay to me and, if she is, who cares?

33 posted on 04/19/2007 12:44:16 AM PDT by atomic conspiracy (Rousing the blog-rabble since 9-11-01)
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To: El Conservador

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...


34 posted on 04/19/2007 1:13:29 AM PDT by WestVirginiaRebel ("I am not a number! I am a free tagline!")
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Comment #35 Removed by Moderator

To: Timbo64

No jury would convict. I’m so sick of these effing inbreds.


36 posted on 04/19/2007 1:32:36 AM PDT by WestVirginiaRebel ("I am not a number! I am a free tagline!")
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To: Southack

They can’t sue if they’re dead


37 posted on 04/19/2007 1:35:42 AM PDT by TheRealDBear
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To: El Conservador

I new this was coming. I wouldn’t be surprised if they regret it.


38 posted on 04/19/2007 3:34:47 AM PDT by Toadman ((molon labe))
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To: El Conservador
The ONLY thing I have ever agreed with the Southern Poverty Law Center!!

These people are so VILE and EVIL!!

39 posted on 04/19/2007 4:44:54 AM PDT by Suzy Quzy (Hillary '08...Her Phoniness is Genuine!!!)
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To: El Conservador

Someone said Fred Phelps is a friend of AL Gore’s....anyone know if that is true?


40 posted on 04/19/2007 4:45:28 AM PDT by Suzy Quzy (Hillary '08...Her Phoniness is Genuine!!!)
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