Who is the "radical Kansas church" protesting at a soldier's funeral?

[Mrs. Overall]

I was just reading a local Seattle story about a church who planned to protest at a soldier's funeral:

(excerpt)
"The group rumored to have planned a protest outside the service is with a radical Kansas church. They travel in small packs with signs meant to incite, reading 'Thank God for dead soldiers' and 'God hates America.'"

http://www.komotv.com/stories/38567.htm

Does anyone know who or what this "church" is and its agenda?

[arcane1]

1. that would be the vile Fred Phelps

of "God hates fags" fame

:puke:

[Mrs. Overall]

7. How totally disgusting...

So I suppose they knew that this soldier was gay, but why would their signs say "Thank God for dead soldiers" (and not say "gays")?

[wicket]

10. They claim that the soldiers are being killed by God...

...in retaliation for an attack on their chuch in the 1990s. They were protesting a soldier's funeral here in Mass. last month- they are sick sick people.

[Mrs. Overall]

13. Wow, that is sick and twisted.

[wicket]

15. They are also known to hold up signs that say "Thank God for 9/11"

I made a mistake one time by visiting their site- some of the most vile, disgusting crap on the web.

[Mrs. Overall]

17. I remember this group in connection with Matthew Shepherd

and their hatred of gays, but had absolutely no idea that they wanted soldiers dead as well.

[ET Awful]

2. Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church

The most hate-filled anti-gay group of nutjobs in America.

Go to www.godhatesfags.com for a vomit fest of their agenda.

[youthere]

3. Isn't that Fred Phelps crew?

They were protesting at funerals there for awhile. Asshats.

[Qanisqineq]

the same creeps that protested at Matthew Shepherd's funeral

the kid in Wyoming that was beaten to death for being gay.

[sui generis]

4. that would be our dear dear friend Fred Phelps

may his balls rot and fall off along with his duodenum

the same guy who protested Matthew Shepard's funeral.

He's such a rotten piece of human excrement that even some of his own superconservative kids have disowned him.

[shifting_sands]

5. Fred Phelps

It's a church run by this Fred Phelps out of Topeka, they have been doing this for years. They came with their god awful signs and rhetoric to the funerals after Columbine in Littleton, CO. His granddaughter ran for something in Kansas in 2004, thankfully she lost by a landslide, makes me think Kansas isn't completely down the tubes.

[shaniqua6392]

14. I looked at his website once....

absolutely horrifying!! They actually have a counter that counts how many days Matthew Shepperd has been rotting in hell. He is a loser who runs this so called "church" out of his basement with only his family members in attendance. godhatesfags.com I told my sister, who is gay, about it and she was so afraid of this maniac. People like him are capable of violence and should be being watched by police. He is not a Christian any more than Bush is.

[LSparkle]

6. The "God Hates Fags" guy Phelps for sure....

He's possessed by the devil ...

[FiveGoodMen]

16. i.e. self-possessed

[davidinalameda]

8. our dear friend the Rev. Fred Phelps

who also staged a protest at Fred Rogers (Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood) funeral

the guy is a whacked out nut case

[LeftyMom]

9. Westboro Baptist

Which just means Fred Phelps and whateverdecendents he hasn't run off yet. He's a real nut, lemme dig up a link for you.

Here's a whole book about him (it was part of a lawsuit which is how it wound up on the internet) http://www.rslevinson.com/gaylesissues/features/collect/phelps/bl_phelpscover.htm

If you don't feel like reading it all (can't say I blame you) really all you need to know is that he's even more hateful than you thought.

[Wickerman]

11. And the RW worries that Cindy is disgracing the war dead?

:eyes: :puke:

Christ, I ventured over to his site just now. How utterly vile. Whatever happened to Judge not Lest Ye be Judged?

[formerrepuke]

12. They have a website, godhatesfagsDOTcom...if the you think the URL

is horrible, the actual content is unbelievable; a hate group posing as a 'church'. They also run sites called godhatesamerica..; godhatescanada..; godhatessweden..; and, for a while after the Tsunami in the Indian Ocean, something called godsentthetsunami. Howard Stern occasionally has Fred's daughter Shirley Phelps-Roper on his show- and once even had her on a "hate-showdown" with a guy from the KKK; it turned out that the KKK guy was the more likeable of the two.

[atreides1]

18. That would be

The "Reverend" Fred Phelps and the congregation of the Westboro Baptist Church from Westboro Kansas.

At first his agenda was anti gay, now he's saying that it was the U.S. government that burned down his church, and that God is showing his displeasure by killing off military personnel in Iraq.

If I didn't believe in the freedom of speech....never mind.