Tag: Westboro Baptist Church

Zaltzman: Phelps’ Death Was “Tragically Late”

Trish

There’ve been two main stories that have been absolutely bombarding our inbox this week. One, I’ll come to in due course. And the other is the tragically late death of the Westboro Baptist Church leader, Fred Phelps, the massively anti-gay, hate-fueled preacher who died at the undeserved age of 84.

— Andy Zaltzman, asking co-host of the Bugle Podcast John Oliver (most recently of the Daily Show) if he was preparing one of the show’s “fuckeulogies” for Phelps. Oliver responded that Phelps was unworthy of a fuckeulogy, heretofore reserved for the likes of Osama bin Laden and Moammar Gadhafi, calling him a “sniveling little prick” who doesn’t deserve the oxygen it would take to create one. Oliver continued that the sooner Phelps is forgotten, the better. Which kind of sounded like a fuckeulogy.

Kansas Hate Group Will Protest at Elizabeth Edwards’ Funeral in Raleigh on Saturday

Jon Ponder
Left: Counter-protesters use American flags to hide hateful signs carried by Westboro cult members. Right: Elizabeth Edwards.
Left: Counter-protesters use American flags to hide hateful signs carried by Westboro cult members at a funeral earlier this year. Right: Elizabeth Edwards.

Raleigh News & Observer:

Westboro Baptist Church, a group with a history of staging protests at funerals and issuing anti-gay statements, is planning to picket the Saturday funeral of Elizabeth Edwards.

The group said it will picket outside Edenton Street United Methodist Church in Raleigh from 12:15 until 1 p.m. when the funeral is scheduled to begin.

The group, based in Topeka, Kan., travels nationally to picket funerals.

The group came into the national spotlight when members picketed the funeral of Matthew Shepard, a young man from Wyoming who was beaten to death by two men because of his homosexuality. Westboro has protested at the funerals of soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan and well-known people such as Fred Rogers, Coretta Scott King and Jerry Falwell.

Lately, decent Americans have been peacefully counter-protesting this hate group by blocking their signs with large American flags. If you live in the Triangle area and you’re free on Saturday, the church is at 228 West Edenton Street downtown, a few blocks from the state capitol. Flags are optional.