These people have no shame:
Anti-Gay Kansas Church Cancels Protests at Funerals for Slain Amish Girls Wednesday, October 04, 2006 By Sara Bonisteel The controversial anti-homosexual Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan., has canceled its plans to stage a protest at the funerals of the five Amish girls executed in their Pennsylvania school, a church official said Wednesday.
Shirley Phelps-Roper, the daughter of church’s pastor, told FOXNews.com the group canceled the protests in exchange for an hour of radio time Thursday on syndicated talk-show host Mike Gallagher’s radio program.
“We’re not going to any of the Amish funerals — that’s the agreement we’re making — that we won’t go to any of them,” Phelps-Roper told FOXNews.com.
On Tuesday, the church posted a flyer touting the demonstrations in response to the attendance of Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, who has spoken out against the church publicly. Both Amish and non-Amish residents of Lancaster County — where the shooting took place — have vowed to not allow any protesters anywhere near the funeral services; Rendell called the church members “insane.”
Phelps-Roper, daughter of Rev. Fred Phelps, said the church had planned to cancel the protests if given media time on radio and television as a platform to espouse Westboro’s beliefs.
Gallagher said that church officials would have to sign a document making them liable for the airtime if they broke their promise not to demonstrate.
“It’s awful for me to give up an hour of my radio show … but I think it’s worth the sacrifice to keep them away,” Gallagher said.
But she defended the church’s initial decision to protest at the Amish girls’ funerals.
“Those Amish people, everyone is sitting around talking about those poor little girls — blah, blah, blah — they brought the wrath upon themselves,” Phelps-Roper said, adding that the Amish “don’t serve God, they serve themselves.”
On Monday, Charles Carl Roberts IV killed five girls — Naomi Rose Ebersole, 7; Anna Mae Stoltzfus, 12; Marian Fisher, 13; Mary Liz Miller, 8; and her sister Lena Miller, 7 — in a rural Amish schoolhouse in Lancaster County, Pa.
Donald Kraybill, a professor of sociology at Elizabethtown College in Lancaster County, Pa., calls the church’s plans a publicity stunt.
“I don’t think there’s any connection between the Amish incident and their agenda. They just want to get in the spotlight,” Kraybill said. “It’s giving them national attention and it’s a cheap and easy and really terrible way to gain some visibility.”
The church’s latest flyer, posted on its Web site notes these protests will be against Rendell for “slanderous” statements against the church.
Westboro’s latest rhetoric is in line with the other beliefs of it’s 70 church members, who hold that the deaths of U.S. troops are God’s punishment for America’s tolerance of homosexuality.
The Westboro Baptist Church has made its name demonstrating at the funerals of soldiers killed in the Iraq war. Their controversial and colorful placards proclaim their anti-gay stance with slogans such as “Thank God for Dead Soldiers,” “America Is Doomed” and “Soldier Fag in Hell.”
Before it garnered national attention, the church made its name around Kansas, where 16 years ago, it started protested the funerals of AIDS victims. And while their demonstrations of late have focused on the funerals of U.S. soldiers, Westboro church members have taken their picket signs to the memorials for the 12 Sago miners who perished in January in West Virginia.
Earlier this year, prompted by the church protests, Congress passed a law that banned protesters from military funerals at federal cemeteries. More than a dozen states have passed similar legislation creating protest-free buffer zones around cemeteries during funerals.
Phelps-Roper told FOXNews.com in February that the church has a right to protest.
“We are delivering a message,” Phelps-Roper said. “God is punishing this nation and he is using the IED [improvised explosive device] as his weapon of choice.”
These people are not Christians. They’re hypocrites. They’re crazy. They do not represent the majority of Christians. Instead of going around, carrying hateful signs and looking like a bunch of lunatics, they need to open up the Bible and read up on what makes a good Christian…or even better, a decent human being.
Â

Tags: 

























They’re sick fucks. Bah! I hate them. They came up for the funeral of Cpl. Baucus, our Democrat Senator’s nephew who was killed in Iraq.
By Jen on 10.04.06 5:30 pm | Permalink
I don’t normally use the word insane for anyone, but this – this is insane. I don’t even like to believe that there are people on this earth who would protest a funeral. Any funeral.
By jay on 10.04.06 6:03 pm | Permalink
WTF is wrong with people? I know that group tried to protest a funeral here in MD but were stopped dead in their tracks.
By ANO on 10.04.06 6:03 pm | Permalink
[...] The whole Westboro Baptist Church thing has really pissed me off, so much so that I’ve spent the last hour scouring the internet for information on the group and that senile heffer, Shirley Phelps-Roper. And in that search, I stumbled across something really interesting: [...]
By Dizzy Girl on 10.04.06 7:13 pm | Permalink
Well, I think the only thing that needs to be said about any group of people who pick a certain group to focus all their anger and hate at, must have some serious personal confusion within themselves. What is hate, but fear of the unknown; That being said….the leader of the WBC has got to be a closet ‘fag’. Sucks to be him. He would enjoy life more, and probably have far fewer hemmrhoids to look forward to, if he would just deal with his sexuality.
By anti wbc and proud lesbian! on 10.15.06 10:50 pm | Permalink