THEY'RE DOING WHAT IN GOD'S NAME!?!?

There is a group of parishoners from Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas in the Tampa Bay area this weekend, and they protested in front of several churches this morning which they believe support homosexuality. They plan to protest tomorrow in front of a high school and the Hillsborough County School District administration building against gay-straight alliance clubs.

That's fine. They have a right to protest and to their opinion. But my question is this: Why would you want to picket at the funeral of a Army soldier who was killed in action in Iraq? That, my friends, is way over the line in my book. The group says that they did so because "America bombed our church with an IED made by fag students at Washburn U. in Topeka. In his retaliatory wrath, God is killing Americans with Muslin IEDs."

And this isn't the first time the group has picketed an American soldier's funeral. From a story in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reposted on the site of Wausau, WI TV station WAOW on January 7:

REV. FRED PHELPS AND MEMBERS OF THE WESTBORO BAPTIST CHURCH PROTEST DEC. 2 IN TOPEKA, KAN., ACROSS FROM THE FUNERAL OF SGT. DOMINIC SACCO, 32, WHO DIED IN IRAQ. CHURCH MEMBERS HAVE ALSO PROTESTED WISCONSIN SERVICES. THEY SAY GOD IS PUNISHING SOLDIERS FOR DEFENDING A COUNTRY THAT HARBORS GAYS.

AMONG THOSE WHO STOPPED BY WERE FOUR ADULTS AND THREE CHILDREN FROM THE KANSAS-BASED WESTBORO BAPTIST CHURCH WHO HAILED THE SOLDIER'S DEATH, SAYING IT WAS GOD'S REVENGE ON A COUNTRY THAT ACCEPTS HOMOSEXUALITY.

THEY DRAGGED A U.S. FLAG ON THE GROUND WHILE CARRYING SIGNS THAT SAID "THANK GOD FOR DEAD SOLDIERS" AND "THANK GOD FOR IEDS," A REFERENCE TO THE IMPROVISED EXPLOSIVE DEVICE THAT KILLED WALLACE.

This sounds as though they learned from the Pat Robertson School of Hatemongering. They certainly don't worship the same God I and most Christians do. The God we worship is a loving, caring Creator...not the type of Creator they portray.