The White House vs. Westboro Baptist Church

[rug]

July 3rd, 2013
05:56 PM ET
By Eric Marrapodi, CNN Belief Blog Editor

(CNN) –The Obama administration will not label Westboro Baptist Church a hate group, saying it's not the government's practice to apply the designation.

More than 367,000 petitioners had called on the White House to "Legally recognize Westboro Baptist Church as a hate group." For months the Westboro petition was the top petition on the White House's "We The People" website.

Four related petitions, including one calling for the Internal Revenue Service to revoke Westboro's tax exemption, also garnered more than 300,000 signatures.

A White House official, speaking on background, told CNN that petitions that cross the threshold of 100,000 signatures are reviewed by policy staff and receive a response.

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2013/07/03/the-white-house-vs-westboro-baptist-church/comment-page-5/

The White House statement:

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/response/heres-what-we-have-say-about-westboro-baptist-church

[cbayer]

1. If this is not something the WH does, then they are right not to start now.

Frankly, anything that gives Westboro more attention is a mistake in my book. The SPLC already monitors them and the WH has called them "reprehensible".