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U.S.: Christian church protests soldier's funerals


The Caspian Hare

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Special Forces soldiers carry the casket of their fallen comrade, Army Staff Sgt. Christopher Piper June 27, 2005 during his funeral procession in Marblehead, Massachusetts. Piper, a special forces soldier, was killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan earlier this month.

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"A woman from the Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas holds a sign June 27, 2005 while protesting during a funeral for Staff Sgt. Christopher Piper in Marblehead, Massachusetts. Piper, a special forces soldier, was killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan. Members of the Westboro Bapist Church are outspoken activists that oppose homosexuality and believe the terrorist attacks on the U.S. on September 11, 2001 and all the following U.S. casualities are a result of tolerance for homosexuality."

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http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/228401...html?source=rss

His church was bombed, and now he protests funerals of the war dead

Kansas preacher says he's coming to Idaho

By CHUCK OXLEY

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

BOISE, Idaho -- A Kansas preacher and gay rights foe whose congregation is protesting military funerals around the country said he's coming to Idaho tomorrow to picket the memorial for an Idaho National Guard soldier killed in Iraq.

A flier on the Web site of Pastor Fred Phelps' Westboro Baptist Church claims God killed Cpl. Carrie French with an improvised explosive device in retaliation against the United States for a bombing at Phelps' church six years ago.

"We're coming," Phelps said yesterday.

Westboro Baptist either has protested or is planning protests of other public funerals of soldiers from Michigan, Alabama, Minnesota, Virginia and Colorado. A protest is planned for July 11 at Dover Air Force Base, the military base where war dead are transported before being sent on to their home states.

Phelps gained national notoriety in 1998 when he picketed the funeral of Matthew Shepard, the gay college student beaten to death in Wyoming.

Since then, Phelps said his church has been the target of hateful words and actions, including a bomb attack six years ago.

Phelps' church has picketed the funerals of AIDS victims for more than a decade.

French, 19, was a Caldwell High School graduate and varsity cheerleader. She was killed June 5 in the northern city of Kirkuk. French served as an ammunition specialist with the 116th Brigade Combat Team's 145th Support Battalion.

Phelps said the fact that French led an all-American life gives him all the more reason to picket her final public tribute.

"An all-American girl from a society of all-American heretics," he said.

"Our attitude toward what's happening with the war is the Lord is punishing this evil nation for abandoning all moral imperatives that are worth a dime," Phelps said.

Caldwell Police Chief Bob Sobba said he cannot bar Phelps from going to the public funeral, which is scheduled for 1 p.m. at the Albertson College of Idaho in that city.

"While we respect Mr. Phelps' right to protest, we would hope that he would respect the family and friends of this young person by not disrupting the memorial," Sobba said.

Idaho Air National Guard Lt. Tony Vincelli, acting as spokesman for French's family, said there were no plans to change the funeral arrangements.

The Rev. Brian Fischer, pastor of Boise's Community Church of the Valley, and himself a past target of protest by the Westboro Baptist Church, decried Phelps' plan.

"What Phelps is doing is a reprehensible thing, to take a funeral and turn it into a photo op for his hate cause," Fischer said.

"We hope everyone will ignore Phelps' group."

In 2003, Phelps demanded that he be allowed to erect an anti-gay monument in a Boise public park. To avoid a lawsuit from his group, city officials voted in 2004 that a Ten Commandments monument be moved out of the park.

* * * * *

These are some seriously deranged individuals. Free speech doesn't get much uglier than this.

Edited by Redneck
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What kind of bleeping way is that to show respect to the fallen?

"Thank God For IED's" "Thank God for Dead Soldiers"

Those signs right there, I would have laided that person out regardless of their right to free speech. It would be more then worth the fines I would have to pay. Truely disgusting people. no.gif

Those sons of * are in for my great words!

EMAIL THESE SLIME!!!

ghf@godhatesamerica.com

Address you email nicely so they get the nice surprise inside! Also, send this around the net to really show how you feel about these slimeballs!

Edited by __Kratos__
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Im supprised the SOldiers there didnt beat the livining sh** out of them, i would of if i was there. Sure the war is wrong but these American soldiers gave tehre lives doing there Duty and should be giving the respect they deserve.

Damn fanatics, and people say the Muslum finatics are evil.

~Thanato

p.s. I know the Muslum religion is peaceful

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I agree with you Kratos. Free speech my fist jurk. I can just imagine how that family felt. Makes me sick.

I can see why his church was bombed. You send out hate you get hate back. It is called karma.

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I have more respect for the enemy fighters in Iraq and afganistan then those protesting ****** ******* ********. I am surprised they are not dead. Contempt and disgust does not even begin to describe what I feel for those...

Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka Kansas...hmmm I see their website is down. God must have did it... innocent.gif

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Wow..... hmm.gif These people degrade the moral values of America much more than any person preaching homosexual tolerance ever would.

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Those jerks are going to get a TON of hate mail! I just posted this story on the military forum! devil.gif My AKO account isn't working right now so, that will have to wait.

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These are some seriously deranged individuals. Free speech doesn't get much uglier than this.

Free speech.... right... Is a person allowed to picket inside a church during a wedding? I doubt it. People like this should be fined for hurting the last memory these people will have of those who died.

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Fred Phelps is a fundamentalist wacko that should be put out of his misery. Anyone who follows his line of thinking needs serious therapy. I've followed the rantings this man spews out for years I and I'm getting tired of it. He is dangerous and his message is moronic. I don't hate many people but Fred Phelps is one of the few.

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What kind of bleeping way is that to show respect to the fallen?

"Thank God For IED's" "Thank God for Dead Soldiers"

Those signs right there, I would have laided that person out regardless of their right to free speech. It would be more then worth the fines I would have to pay. Truely disgusting people.  no.gif

Those sons of * are in for my great words!

EMAIL THESE SLIME!!!

ghf@godhatesamerica.com

Address you email nicely so they get the nice surprise inside! Also, send this around the net to really show how you feel about these slimeballs!

706491[/snapback]

I rarely agree with you Kratos but I do here. I can't believe it. Im so sick of self righteous zealots and theres a ton of them in this country. The church's, all of them, breed this hatred of their fellow man...who in this case was an honorable soldier. He died! I disagree with the war but thats besides the point. We should all go up there with our signs protesting that church and thier crazy pastor.

This reminds me of those nut-cases who say they are pro-life but will blow up abortion clinics killing innocent women and men. Hypocrites.

Their faith is worthless.

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Wow...the freedom of speech sure is a double edged sword...

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And people wonder why I'm authoritarian....seriously, this guy would just have disappeared in the middle of the night if we lived in my utopian society, never to be seen again.

For some reason, this guy turns my stomach more than Abu Hamza....I'm not certain why...maybe it's because I feel that Hamza, utter scum as he is, has at least picked a side to be on. This guy..."God killed our soldiers with a preset bomb!"...I mean seriously, shouldn't the guy have been locked up somewhere? He's quite obviously a nutter...

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I couldn't agree more about the freedom of speech issue. The things people feel free to say disgust me.

That poor family.

look at that America is doomed poster. I've got my fingers crossed for a lynch mob retaliation... disgust.gif

Edited by Kismit
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The only things I agree with is that America is doomed.. but not for the reasons these ... people... are saying it is. They are the reason this country is doomed, doomed because their intolorances hold us back.

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And people wonder why I'm authoritarian....seriously, this guy would just have disappeared in the middle of the night if we lived in my utopian society, never to be seen again.

For some reason, this guy turns my stomach more than Abu Hamza....I'm not certain why...maybe it's because I feel that Hamza, utter scum as he is, has at least picked a side to be on. This guy..."God killed our soldiers with a preset bomb!"...I mean seriously, shouldn't the guy have been locked up somewhere? He's quite obviously a nutter...

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Would it not be easier for Americans to turn up early at the funeral and make a circle of bidies with linked arms about 100 metres around the cemetry,and if any of these dunb **** holes tried to get near they would be causing an assault on another person and could be charged,have people there with cams to record it and fire it on the net to show all americans and the police exactly what these people are all about

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^ I'm sure some people do that, and the cops to put up barriers as well... you have freedom to spew your hate but there are other ways the cities could really mess up these guys.

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Im sure if you called homeland security you could get them all arrested for terrorism lol, because there saying America is doomed that could be seen as a threat.

~Thanato

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Ok... I posted this same story on the military forum and I just had to share this comment that I found to be extremely fitting to the situation:

KoKhara:

Well, the sign said "THANK GOD, FOR I.E.D.s".

OK, Let's put an IED in their church. Hey, they're thanking God for IEDs right? Well, we should give people every opportunity to thank God. I thank God for food, so I'd like it if someone give me a ham sandwich, right? Just trying to apply their principles. Don't say that I do not aim to please.

Source

I have no other choice in the world but to agree! thumbsup.gif

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The only things I agree with is that America is doomed.. but not for the reasons these ... people... are saying it is.  They are the reason this country is doomed, doomed because their intolorances hold us back.

706982[/snapback]

I think we're all doomed.

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I just have them lined up and shot. Problem solved

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I just have them lined up and shot. Problem solved

712683[/snapback]

Only if it was that easy yes.gif

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I just have them lined up and shot. Problem solved

Only if it was that easy

I know sad.gif Our governments are so pathetic now, they wouldn't even take action against a Nazi Party wannabe, openly taking about setting up death camps and is gaining power. And why? because 'they have human rights' ... how pathetic. disgust.gif I'm more concerned about the human rights of those people these fascists seek to harm.

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The minute your human rights impinges on another's human rights all bets should be off. Personally as military brat I would lay them out without one word of warning. This is what is wrong, there is too liberal an application of the phrase free speech. I think all speech that isn't inflammatory or hateful should be left alone period. But the minute you start spouting this kind of hate and stupidity you should get charged.

Its this kind of stuff that turned me from religion. There is no grey area with these people. Their little book teaches them that its okay to exclude people form their lives because they don't read from the same book. It labels peoples actions as finite when all situations are different. It breeds fanatisism by the bunch, it is populated by the weak minded in need of direction they can't find themselves. Its a crutch nobody needs but are brainwashed to think so. It threatens the existence of a state unmeasurable except at death if you don't follow "the rules". (read you'll burn in hell when you die here) It uses these tactics to usurp a persons free will, replacing it with musings of men long since dead.

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