Fred Phelps and Westboro Church

[SlimTarnishedDiva 1]

Do you believe in the practices of Fred Phelps who pickets funerals of men and women who have died in the Iraq war. He also believes that Gay people are responsible for the deaths of the men and women who die in the Iraq Conflict.

If you don't know who is... read up before you take the poll.

Fred Phelps

[Chris_NJ 9]

These people are sick on all points. I think that the funeral protesting is just the most sick thing. There is a major lawsuit against them by a family who's son died and they protested at the funeral. I will look up the information and post it if anyone wants me to.

[dezbus1 0]

He is one sick SOB

[Arria 0]

He and his church are a bunch of sick and twisted nutjobs! His wife and his daughters were on the Tyra Banks show last year, and just listening to them spew their hatred made me feel sick to my stomach. It's one thing to hold those kind of beliefs, but to make the worst day of someone's life even worse by showing up to protest their child's funeral is pure evil. They'll have to answer for it one day, and I hope they pay for it tenfold.

[anonemouse 1]

He and his followers are basically the scum of the Earth, IMO. Utterly disgusting people that use their religious beliefs to excuse their bigotry. Christians, my fat white ass. Every single person that is raising their children in that church needs to be prosecuted for child abuse, child endangerment, something. It's not right.

[Wheetsin 714]

They're based one state over from me. Seeing them once was too many times. At our last AIDS walk, they were trying to spit on (apparently) gay couples that walked by.

[LauraD 2]

Calling Phelps or any of his followers pond scum is an insult to both the pond and the bacteria in it.

He is a sick, hateful, evil man; and he takes joy in bringing others misery.

[babs0101 1]

I can't even express my discuss for this group of assholes. I am such a supporter of our military, regardless of my opinions on the war, but the men and women who are and have given everything for us as Americans. I just get this deep down anger when I think about it. I too hope it all falls back on Mr. Asswipe and his turds of followers tenfold.

[Chris_NJ 9]

Here are some articles of a lawsuit that is filed against them by Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder's father.

Posted on Tue, Oct. 16, 2007

Judge allows part of suit against Phelps church

BY MATTHEW DOLAN

The Baltimore Sun

BALTIMORE - The first individual lawsuit brought against Fred Phelps' Westboro Baptist Church for its protests at military funeral ceremonies will go to trial next week in Baltimore.

A father claims protesters from the Kansas-based anti-gay group destroyed his only chance to bury in peace the son he lost in Iraq. The picketers, who had carried signs with messages such as "Thank God for dead soldiers," countered that they were only trying to oppose gays in the military.

After the two sides presented legal arguments in a Baltimore courtroom Monday, a federal judge offered a split decision, ruling that a more limited lawsuit brought by Albert Snyder, the father of the slain Marine targeted by Phelps' church, can proceed to trial next week.

At times incensed over what he described as long-winded theological speeches given by a member of the Westboro Baptist Church, U.S. District Judge Richard Bennett nonetheless dismissed two of the five counts against the church and three of its leaders, saying in part that their statements, no matter how incendiary, amounted to protected speech.

Comments posted on the church's Web site that Snyder raised his son "for the devil" and taught his son how to "defy his Creator, to divorce and to commit adultery" did not defame the father because it was "not the kind of information that a reasonable person is going to assume was presented to be considered fact," Bennett said.

In granting part of the defendants' motion for summary judgment, Bennett found that church members did not defame Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder or his family by implying that he was gay or raised by adulterers because his parents divorced. Nor did the church members invade the family's privacy, the judge ruled, because their anti-gay and anti-divorce accusations were based on an general expression of the church members' fundamentalist beliefs.

At the civil trial set to begin Monday in federal court, the jury will be able consider whether Westboro Baptist Church is liable for an intentional infliction of emotional distress based on the message from its members' signs, Bennett said. The judge also will allow jurors to rule whether the Snyder family's expectation of privacy at their son's funeral was violated by the protest outside St. John Roman Catholic Church in Westminster.

The complaint filed in June 2006 does not seek a specific amount of damages. The trial is expected to last two weeks.

After only a month in Iraq, Matthew Snyder, 20, died in March 2006 from a vehicle accident in al-Anbar province. He served with the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, based at Twentynine Palms, Calif.

Albert Snyder filed the suit because he wanted to deter a group that has staged similar demonstrations more than 30,000 times, according to his attorneys.

One of the defendants, Shirley Phelps-Roper, is an attorney and church member whose father, Fred Phelps, helped establish Westboro in 1955. Representing herself in court Monday, she insisted that church members did not target the Snyder family personally.

"This is a religious opinion that was based on the words of the Lord Jesus Christ," she told the judge during the four-hour hearing.

The church's protests have prompted 22 states to enact or propose laws to limit the rights of protesters at funerals. Last year, a Maryland bill was signed into law that prohibits people from picketing within 100 feet of a funeral, memorial, burial or procession.

Marine Funeral Protest Trial Begins

Marine's Father Says Protesters Invaded Privacy

POSTED: 9:39 am EDT October 22, 2007

UPDATED: 10:08 am EDT October 22, 2007

BALTIMORE, Md. -- A fundamentalist church that protests at soldiers' funerals faces its first lawsuit today from the family of a fallen serviceman.

Members of the Westboro Baptist Church face trial in Baltimore for an invasion-of-privacy lawsuit filed by the father of a fallen Marine from Westminster, Md. Albert Snyder of York, Pa. says the church interrupted his grieving process at the funeral for his son, Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder, who was killed in Iraq last year. Church members say they were only exercising their free speech rights.

The lawsuit is the first in the nation to be filed against the church by a grieving relative. The church believes war deaths are God's retribution for America's tolerance of homosexuality, and their protests have inspired almost two dozen states to put new limits on protests at funerals.

Last week, a judge threw out defamation claims against the church, but Snyder's lawsuit is proceeding on invasion-of-privacy grounds. He also seeks damages for intentional infliction of emotional distress.

By Brent Jones | Sun reporter

October 24, 2007

A member of a Kansas-based anti-gay church told a federal jury yesterday that America's acceptance of homosexuality spurred her and fellow parishioners to picket a Westminster Marine's funeral, one of the demonstrations by the group that have become so frequent that 22 states have enacted or proposed laws limiting the rights of protesters at memorial services.

Representing herself in U.S. District Court in Baltimore, Shirley Phelps-Roper, a nonpracticing attorney, told jurors that she and her fellow protesters remained about 1,000 feet away from the funeral of Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder in March 2006 and never did anything to disrupt the service.

But a lawyer for Albert Snyder, the father of the Marine, said during his opening statement that his client has suffered worsened depression and health complications because of the protesters' actions. Snyder is seeking an unspecified amount from Westboro Baptist Church in the civil case.

Phelps-Roper is a member of Westboro Baptist, a 75-person congregation made up mostly of members of the same family in Topeka, Kan., and known for protesting at military funerals. Members of the church also picketed outside several Baltimore religious services last weekend.

Snyder's case is the first individual lawsuit against Westboro Baptist and its members. Phelps-Roper told jurors that her congregation holds daily protests at funerals, political rallies and other public forums across the country, making the trips at their own expense.

Last year, after Matthew Snyder's funeral, the Maryland General Assembly passed a law that prohibits people from picketing within 100 feet of a funeral, memorial, burial or procession.

Phelps-Roper told the nine-person jury that the church came to Westminster to spread its message of repentance, arguing that American troops are dying in Iraq because the country is allowing homosexuals in the military.

She said that Albert Snyder never saw the picketers on his way to his son's funeral. Phelps-Roper said the protesters - who included her sister, Rebekah Phelps-Davis, her father and some of her children - congregated 1,000 feet away from the funeral and down a hill.

Phelps-Roper's father, Fred Phelps, also a co-defendant, helped establish Westboro Baptist Church in the 1950s.

"We stood exactly where police asked us to stand," she said. "We were out of sight and sound. Our presence was completely blocked."

Jurors will decide whether Westboro Baptist is liable for an intentional infliction of emotional distress based on the message from its members' signs and whether the family's expectation of privacy at Matthew Snyder's funeral at St. John Roman Catholic Church was violated.

Last week, U.S. District Judge Richard D. Bennett dismissed two of five counts against the church and three of its leaders, saying in part that their statements amounted to protected speech. Bennett is presiding over the case.

Rebekah Phelps-Davis told jurors that church members carry signs with provocative language to catch people's attention.

Seven people - three adults and four children - marched on public city property outside Snyder's funeral waving fluorescent placards, including one that read "Thank God for dead soldiers."

"When the war started and the soldiers started dying, we saw that the funerals were turned into public spectacles," Phelps-Davis said. "We concluded that we need to go because this nation is proud of its sin."

Another lawyer for the defense, Jonathan Katz, also gave a 30-minute opening statement.

Sean E. Summers, Snyder's attorney, told jurors that his client was aware of the protest as he headed to the funeral.

"The whole time he's thinking, 'I can't believe this is happening,'" Summers said.

He said Snyder has suffered complications from diabetes since the protests. Summers said he will call expert doctors and a psychologist who have treated Snyder.

He said the funeral was a private service and should have been treated as such.

"The defendants recognized that their presence would not be welcome," Summers said. "We will ask if the defendants are sorry for what they did, and each and every one of them will say no. The defendants kicked him while he was down at his lowest point."

Snyder, 20, died in a vehicle accident in Anbar province. A 2003 Westminster High School graduate, Snyder had been in Iraq less than a month and served with the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force based at Twentynine Palms, Calif.

The trial is expected to conclude Nov. 1.

Lance Cpl. Matthew A. Snyder

[Chris_NJ 9]

Here is a FOX News interview with Snyders father and Phelps. Phelps gets a new one in this interview!

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3PyoUPcobA]YouTube - Shirley Pehlps-Roper on Fox News[/ame]

[Telecia 1]

Sick, warped, twisted, mental and probably 100 other words that would fit this guy. How is it in this day and age a certified nutcase like this isn't in a padded room somewhere?

[phyllisc 0]

It's hard to believe that someone hasn't put him out of his misery. Then he will be attending a funeral where he belongs.

[SlimTarnishedDiva 1]

Federal Court in Baltimore has found Phelps and the Westboro church liable, and they have to pay 10.9 million in damages to Snyder.

Thanks Chris for posting the information..

[anonemouse 1]

Federal Court in Baltimore has found Phelps and the Westboro church liable, and they have to pay 10.9 million in damages to Snyder.

Thanks Chris for posting the information..

Awesome! Maybe they'll go bankrupt and go away, now.

[anonemouse 1]

Here's the CNN article:

Church ordered to pay $10.9 million for funeral protest - CNN.com