Re: Funeral Westboro Baptist Protest In SC
http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-files/profiles/fred-phelps
<span style="font-size: 11pt"><span style="font-weight: bold">Fred Waldron Phelps,</span> Sr</span>. (born November 13, 1929) is an American pastor heading the <span style="color: #FF0000">Westboro Baptist Church</span> (WBC), an independent Baptist church based in Topeka, Kansas. Phelps is a disbarred lawyer, founder of the Phelps Chartered law firm, a past civil rights activist in Kansas.
Phelps's followers frequently picket various events, such as military funerals, gay pride gatherings, high-profile political gatherings, university commencement ceremonies, performances of The Laramie Project, mainstream Christian gatherings and concerts with which he had no affiliation, arguing it is their sacred duty to warn others of God's anger.
In response to Phelps' protests at military funerals, President George W. Bush signed the Respect for America's Fallen Heroes Act into law in May 2006,[1] and, in April 2007, Kansas governor Kathleen Sebelius signed into law a bill establishing a 150-foot no-picketing buffer zone around funerals.[2]
He is known for the slogans that he and his ministry use against people he deems sinful; his church is built around a core of anti-homosexual theology, with many of their activities stemming from the slogan "God hates fags", which is also the name of the group's main website.[3] Gay rights supporters have denounced him as a producer of anti-gay propaganda and violence-inspiring hate speech.[4] The church is considered by and monitored as a hate group by the Anti-Defamation League and Southern Poverty Law Center.-Wikipedia.
http://www.adl.org/learn/ext_us/WBC/defa...=3&item=WBC
http://www.nndb.com/people/908/000025833/
Difficult for me to understand how a majority of Supreme Court jurists aren't bright enough to fashion an exception to the Free Speech clause restricting Phelps' crud so a heart-broken mother might grieve peaceably at the graveside service of her child she carried in her and raised.
Phelps is the same one who lead a group and travelled to Laramie to protest at the funeral of 104 lb college student who was beaten to death with a handgun, hanged on a rail fence in below-freezing temperature overnight by two men because he was gay. But friends of Matthew Shepard encircled the graveside with sheets held spanned like angles in an unbroken circle that Phelp's filth was unable to penetrate so the family could bury their son. The officer who first responded testified his face was caked with dirt and blood except where tears had washed down.
