Wacko Group Protesting At NIU Victims Funerals

Ed the Roofer

Tese members of the "Westboro Baptist Church of Kansas" must have no conscience and no sympathy for the surviving family members of the victims at the NIU shooting last week.

Not only do they plan on protesting several of the upcoming funerals being held, but I have also heard that they had protested at the funerals of some of the victims who were slain at the Lane Bryant Womans Clothing Store shooting that occurred in Tinley Park several weeks ago.

Ed



Group will protest at two victims' services today
By Lee Filas | Daily Herald Staff
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The group that has protested at funerals of military personnel killed in the Iraq War announced Sunday they will picket the services of two victims of the Northern Illinois University shootings.

Members of the Westboro Baptist Church of Kansas protest funerals because they believe horrible acts are God's revenge against homosexuals.
According to their Web site, they plan to protest the funerals of Catalina Garcia and Ryanne Mace today because Northern Illinois University once hosted a conference featuring by a preacher who did not share their views.
The Patriot Guard Riders, a group that has provided counter protests when the Kansas group has picketed military funerals, has no plans to be at today's services.

Ed Mueller, chairman of the Patriot Guard Riders board of directors, said the group was formed to honor veterans, not specifically to protest the actions of the Westboro Baptist Church.

"The organization will not be out there, but that's not to say some of the people in our organization won't be there," he said. "That's up to the individual."

Grumpy

I'm all for free speech, however people who disrupt funerals should be arrested. I know the argument is, funerals first, then what's next? Liberties are removed a nibble at a time... but something needs to be done about this.

joasis

They have not been back to Oklahoma since their own safety was seriously questioned....law enforcement basically said they might be "slow" in "protecting" the WBC members who are "foolish" enough to disrupt the funerals of fallen soldiers. Of course, a lawsuit is pending. I believe Oklahoma also passed a law, also under appeal, to keep these "protesters" away.

Reading between the lines, someone was going to get hurt or worse, and the law wasn't about to loose sleep over it.

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MIbeachbuilder

they also made a big media circus out of the amish shootings last year. They are ridiculous. They should all be lined up and slapped!

Susan Betz

Feel free to slap them here:

http://www.godhatesfags.com/contact.html

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jproffer

I'm about to say this...10% jokingly, 90% "this is what SHOULD be done, but I would never do it"...and I know "sinking to their level" and all that, I know...but:

We should find a funeral of one of THEIR relatives...gather 'round and "protest". Tell 'em God is punishing them because they're closed minded, short sighted, and just plain dumb.

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Jim P.

silvertree

Like other wacko groups they are not dissuaded from confrontation, they embrace it. Is this free speech? If it is, they should have to stay a certain number of feet away from the funeral, 280,000 feet away sounds reasonable.
When we inhibit free speech, we inhibit the rights of all Americans. Democracy is far from perfect, but it's a hell of a lot better than having a dictator do our talking for us. But protesting a funeral should be illegal. Typical cult behavior.

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Susan Betz

I don't care what they say in public forums. But they shouldn't have the right to infringe on other people's rights, in this case the right to mourn loved ones with dignity. They have the audience they have because they have chosen a truly outrageous way to speak their piece.

I like the Oklahoma approach myself.

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kevjob

I saw the documentary the church memebers are his family! no one else outside his family is involved. They were attacked with an IED at their church on a sunday but they missed.

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kevjob

:c lap:

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Cashking63

well i know this is not the same however seems to my simple mind kinda similiar. in Maryland it is a crime (read against the law) to interfere with a hunter taking game. So if that can be enforced they certainly should be able to enforce something in regards to funerals. I really wonder how these people sleep at night. Just seems so wrong and really kinda sick.

joasis

There are extremists in every religion....the literal interpretations they glean from the Bible are no different then the ons used by David Koresh to have sex with 9 year old girls, or Jim Jones, for his activities with children and their mothers. The charisma can sell BS.

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TimelessQuality

Makes me proud to be a Kansan....

They won't bother us here, they go to other states to get their 'publicity fix'

It is just a family, a 'preacher', a lawyer, and a bunch of n lemmings!!!

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vwovw

its a law here in Iowa. they have to stay a long ways away to protest. don't know the number but we haven't had any issues in a few years.

3-D Mason

no words can describe the taste that these people leave in my mouth, the thread alone has me so worked up that I'm finding it difficult to type, live and let live you ignorant mother%@#&*rs wheew now I feel better

Cashking63

I know exactly how you feel, just makes you want to
(censored in case something happens, don't want a paper trail)

Ed the Roofer

I can not fathom the twisted mentality to justify such obnoxious and disrespectful behavior, especially in the name of their God and Religion.

Ed



Here is another article about their actions at the funeral, which seem to have been stifled, yet still caused at least one funeral participant to voice his anger at these amazingly disgusting 3 pathetic excuses for human beings.

Leave your comments if you desire.


Sad, pathetic trio brings a bundle of hate to sorrowful time

By Burt Constable | Daily Herald Columnist
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• More from Burt Constable

An overwhelming sense of loss, grief, pain, agony, confusion, faith, empathy, sympathy and love for a beautiful life ended too soon flows inside St. Charles' Baker Memorial United Methodist Church for Monday's funeral of 19-year-old Northern Illinois University shooting victim Ryanne E. Mace of Carpentersville.

Hate sets up shop across the street.

It slithers into downtown St. Charles not painted on the side of some grandiose "Hate Talk Express" tour bus, but tucked inside a black canvas bag in the trunk of a rented gray Mercury Grand Marquis.

The repugnant Kansas "church" (I don't want to publicize the name) that has become infamous for protesting military funerals as evidence that God "hates" homosexuals and our decadent America has arrived. Standing in the official protest section behind six serendipitously parked snow plows and a parcel of riot police, three members unzip the bag and let loose the bile.
"God sent the shooter," reads an artsy sign with stylized, graphic blood stains, held by Taylor Drain, the 16-year-old daughter of one of the group's followers. Since she didn't have school Monday, she flew to Chicago to spew venom at two funerals.

A cross-country runner at a public school in Topeka, Taylor says kids sometimes yell and cuss at her. Of course, she hears plenty of that from stunned and angry people at funerals.

"I know they don't want us here, but it's our duty," Taylor says, her teenage smile beaming through the below-zero wind chill.

Why does your poster include drawings of wrapped Christmas presents?
"The shooting at the mall -- I think that's what that was made for," Taylor says sweetly, noting she is recycling the hate message used to protest funerals of victims of that mall shooting in Omaha in December.

Wearing stocking caps, sweat pants and winter coats, Taylor and the two women stand in the bitter cold for an hour, holding hate-filled signs. Drivers in passing cars occasionally roll down windows to hurl insults and profanities their way.

"When this is what you do as your hobby, as your leisure time, this is what you spend your money on," says Paulette Phelps, 47, whose father-in-law, Fred Phelps, is the "pastor" for their sad, little flock, many of whom are related. "This is our vacation. This is our fun time."

Sure enough, they snap photographs as if they were on a family cruise, a golf outing or a trip to Disney World.

"Rebekah thinks this is a trip for her birthday," says Phelps, who stands on a U.S. flag tossed on the icy sidewalk as she struggles to keep her hate signs vertical in the strong wind.

Rebekah Phelps-Davis, daughter of the group's leader, turns 47 today.
"There is no better place to be," Phelps-Davis says, as she rambles on about how God snuffs out lives as a way to make the same points that are spewing from their signs.

While I certainly don't want to spread their abhorrent message, you need to know how warped it is. These three believe God kills people -- especially young people -- in part because the victims are wicked. Asked for proof, a grinning, light-hearted Phelps-Davis notes that one female NIU victim had short hair, which apparently is enough for God to send forth an assassin.
It seems remarkable to me that people this demented have the wherewithal to run a Web site or make travel plans. Identifying herself as a lawyer with the family's law firm in Kansas, Phelps-Davis says she makes about $50,000 a year and spends her free money on these trips to funerals.

"The Lord makes sure we have the finances to do this," she adds.
Phelps says she also makes money working at the law firm.

If God wants you to preach hate to people mourning the deaths of loved ones, will you welcome protesters to the funeral of one of your four children or some other loved one killed?

"We would hope other people would come to protest that funeral," says Phelps, who says she'd greet a tragedy as a sign from God. "I'm going to wonder what I did to make the Lord angry."
Some might not wonder.
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Cashking63

I think what we need to do is band together a smaller group Fly down there one night and gather up all these worthless sacks of skin and then................................... problem is I relly cannot think of anything to do to them that would possibly be fitting. thinking of the uneeded pain and grief that they are causing those already in grief.

3-D Mason

amen brothers!!!!!!!!!