What is going through their head? Don’t they have any sense of compassion for the family of the victims? What kind of vultures prey on these families just to score some publicity? These people didn’t do anything wrong, why protest against them? It makes no sense and there is nothing Christ-like in their actions.

Demonstrations are planned for Saturday at the funerals for two of the five women killed Feb. 2 at the Lane Bryant store in Tinley Park.

Members of Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas, who demonstrate at funerals for fallen American soldiers are planning to picket outside St. Damian Church in Oak Forest and at the Leak Funeral Home in Country Club Hills.
They’ll be picketing the funerals of Sarah Szafranski, 22, of Oak Forest, and Connie Woolfolk, 37, of Flossmoor.
[…]
“The wrath of God is pouring out on this nation,” said Shirley Phelps-Roper, an attorney and daughter of church founder Fred Phelps. Phelps-Roper said soldiers are dying in Iraq and Afghanistan because of the “homosexuals and other sins of America.”
Phelps-Roper, a prominent member of the WBC, suggested that the Tinley Park shootings were “God’s will.”
“We’re not obeying his commandments,” she said. “We’re being disobedient and rebellious to his standards. We live in a nation that is Bible-ignorant.”

I think this woman is demonstrating the truth of her words. They are not obeying God’s commandment to love their neighbors as themselves. There is no love in picketing those who have lost their loved one and need the compassion of others not the words of wrath that this church thinks they are delivering from God.
They also plan to picket a solider who was killed in Iraq. But the Patriot Guard Riders will be counter picketing:

Picketing at the funeral for Schultz will be countered by a group of Patriot Guard Riders, motorcyclists who attend military funerals at the request of family members.
Gary Bogolin, a senior ride captain, said the Patriot Riders’ primary mission is to provide a flagline to show support for the fallen soldier.
“But we also will form a shield between the mourning family and the (Westboro church members),” he said. “All the family sees is a line of American flags. That’s all the family should see. They don’t need any distractions.”

More from Beliefnet and our partners
Close Ad