Kansas church plans to picket victims' funerals

April 20, 2007
A fringe church that has garnered attention and scorn for protesting funerals of troops killed in Iraq is planning to picket services for the victims of the Virginia Tech shootings.

Members of the Westboro Baptist Church have disrupted funerals across the country over the past few years with profane signs saying that deaths in Iraq are retribution triggered by America's tolerance of homosexuals.

A church news release explains: "God is punishing America for her sodomite sins... The 33 massacred at Virginia Tech died for America's sins against WBC (Westboro Baptist Church). Just as U.S. soldiers dying in Iraq each day for America's sins against WBC."

Attorney General Bob McDonnell is warning protesters that they could be arrested if they interrupt the funerals. McDonnell's spokesman sent out an e-mail detailing the section of the Virginia Code that can be used to quell disturbances at funerals.

McDonnell's e-mail did not explicitly say protesters would be arrested and charged, but did say that the state's top lawyer "wants to ensure that those who perished on Monday receive the dignified and tranquil services that they, and their families, deserve."

The state code states that a person can be charged with disorderly conduct for willfully disrupting any funeral or memorial service.

A handful of protesters picketed outside of Quantico Marine Corps Base last December during a memorial service for a fallen Marine. The group has threatened to protest at other events but not shown up.

Pastor Fred Phelps and his congregation at the church in Topeka, Kan., travel the country preaching damnation to a "nation of sinners,'" routinely glorying in the death of U.S. soldiers.

His church of 75 people, many of them his relatives, believes that God causes the deaths of soldiers as punishment for a society that condones homosexuality.

They routinely carry signs that read "Thank God for IEDs," referring to the improvised explosive devices that have killed many troops in Iraq.

The group has offended state and federal lawmakers, who have passed laws aimed at curbing their protests. Congress passed a law that restricts demonstrations at national cemeteries and last year Virginia's Gov. Timothy M. Kaine signed a bill making such protests in Virginia a misdemeanor. An online petition railing against Phelps and the protests had already gathered nearly 31,000 signatures.