Fred Phelps Planning To Picket Student Funerals
Four students have died as the result of a horrendous bus crash in Huntsville AL on Monday. I just received an email telling me that Fred Phelps and his sicko “church” are planning to picket their funerals, three of which are scheduled for Friday and Saturday. I hate to even link to this creep’s site, but here is the flyer announcing his intentions.
Fred is known for sending out this incendiary crap and then not showing up, and I pray that’s what happens this time. And if not, I hope the Patriot Guard Riders show up to protect the families from these evil, depraved people.
UPDATE: Pam is on this as well, and her post has links to a peaceful and productive counter-protest planned by the Unitarian Universalist congregation in Huntsville.
November 22nd, 2006 at 2:37 pm
What am I missing about the story that I cannot figure out why Phelps’ group would show up at the funeral?
November 22nd, 2006 at 2:40 pm
Me too. What would the connection between “school bus”, “dead children”, and “sodomites” be? I am usually not for locking folks up on principle, but this guy needs some serious treatment and medication. Free speech after he’s had a complete psych workup and undergone treatment.
November 22nd, 2006 at 2:48 pm
Who knows? Phelps & co. have been picketing military funerals for some time now, and I guess they got tired of it. They’re all so crazy they see “sodomites” everywhere.
November 22nd, 2006 at 3:21 pm
Fred Phelps to picket student funerals after bus crash in Huntsville, AL…
Because, you know, the schools in Huntsville are such a hotbed of gay sex. The kids were just asking to be killed horribly in a bus crash.
If there is counter-protest activity going on, I am there. Anyone in the Birmingham area who feels likewise and w…
November 22nd, 2006 at 6:21 pm
Kathy - do we know when the funeral(s) will be?
November 22nd, 2006 at 6:26 pm
When I had to deal with this Satan spawn in Santa Fe, we just stood out in front of all the churches they were protesting against. Totally peaceful and bearing witness to what God’s love really looked like.
At the first church, the Phelps people (is that an oxymoron?) parked their cars around the corner. Apparently the folks whose house they parked in front of didn;t like them much so they flattened all their tires. Those people, turns out, were in their 70’s. We were all hysterical, including the police.
November 22nd, 2006 at 7:00 pm
From the email I received:
Christine Collier
The funeral will be Saturday at 2 p.m. at Union Chapel Missionary Baptist
Church, 315 Winchester Road. Pastor O. Wendell Davis will officiate. Viewing
will be Friday from noon until 9 p.m. at Nelms Funeral Home, 2501 Carmichael
Ave. Burial will be in Berkley Community Cemetery.
Nicole Ford
The funeral will be at noon Friday at True Light Church of God in Christ,
6480 Pulaski Pike. Dr. H. Wendell Thompson will officiate. Viewing will be
today from 3 to 9 p.m. at Royal Funeral Home, 4315 Oakwood Ave. Burial will
be in Blutcher’s Ford Cemetery on Oscar Patterson Road at Macon Lane.
Tanesha Hill
The funeral will be Saturday at 11 a.m. at Oakwood College Church, 5500
Adventist Blvd. Pastor Craig Newborn will officiate. Burial will be in
Valhalla Memory Gardens, 698 Winchester Road.
November 22nd, 2006 at 10:41 pm
I’m not attempting to play down the situation. By all means, these families have a right to grieve in peace, away from Phelps and his followers. And if we truly believe that they will show up, a counter-protest or some form of counteraction should be taken.
But hopefully, what I’m about to say will make you feel somewhat better: If I’m not mistaken, the Alabama legislature just recently passed a law that disallows protesting within a couple hundred feet of a funeral. I believe it was in direct response to Phelps and his protests at millitary funerals.
BTW, Kathy, I hope you don’t mind me posting about this on my own blog to get the word out. I will, of course, include a link.
November 22nd, 2006 at 11:23 pm
Thanks, AM. I really hope Phelps doesn’t show up. I’ve seen his picketers twice here in Alabama, and they are truly disgusting.
November 23rd, 2006 at 7:54 am
TMP,
If I weren’t going to spend Thanksgiving with my father in law, I would be with you. And I don’t do protests, counter-protests or other forms of politicking. But this bastard is beyond the pale. Apart from his sick, evil actions, his prostituting my faith and blaspheming makes me vomit.
I have always been a believer in the First Amendment, without exception. But I was glad to hear about the Alabama law. Somehow I doubt the founders of our country were contemplating abuse of grieving parents and siblings when they wisely chose to protect free speech…..
November 23rd, 2006 at 8:01 am
I’m always horrified by these type of protests.
It’s one thing for people to be against “sodomites.” I think that it’s sick and twisted to hate someone for their sexual orientation, but God speed if you have to hate like that.
But, someone’s mother is grieving at this funeral. And, I don’t really care if that person is really going to hell (which, I definitely don’t believe in this case with a bunch of children…or gays for that fact). That mother and their family has the RIGHT to grieve for the loss of their loved one.
To think that someone has the constitutionally protected RIGHT to protest at such an event is vile. We all should have the right to bury our own family/friends without having someone standing outside of the funeral, protesting the person’s life and condemning them to eternal damnation.
If I wasn’t such a loving person (and I’m not *grins*), I’d say boycott some of the member’s family’s death and see how they enjoy it.
Sorry, that just always burns my toast. And I hate burnt toast.
November 23rd, 2006 at 8:05 am
Kathy and Pam, unless the Patriot Guard Riders (http://patriotguard.org/) stray from their stated main mission they won’t be there for the funerals because their mission is “to attend the funeral services of fallen American (military) heroes as invited guests of the family. Each mission we undertake has two basic objectives.
1. Show our sincere respect for our fallen heroes, their families, and their communities.
2. Shield the mourning family and friends from interruptions created by any protestor or group of protestors.”
Last month Phelps announced that they would protest at the funeral of Pfc Stephen Bicknell in Prattville. A large contingent of the PGR was there as were hundreds, possibly thousands, of citizens from the surrounding area who came to honor Bicknell and to stand as a human shield (NOT protesters) between the Phelps creeps and the mourning family and loved ones. Phelps never showed according to reports from one of the local cyclists who participated. Hopefully, a large and peaceful crowd will do likewise in Huntsville and Phelps’ folks will chicken out again.
Peaceful shielding of the families is preferable to having any confrontation at such times.
November 23rd, 2006 at 10:38 am
If Fred & co. do show up, I’d like to see something along the lines of what was done at Matthew Shepard’s funeral — people dressed as angels who simply stood around the family and used their wings to shield them from Fred’s hate.
November 23rd, 2006 at 6:55 pm
I saw an interview on local TV in Huntsville where they interviewed one of Phelps’ clan. They are 100% looney tunes.
As a born-again Christian, I am absolutely sickened by these morons misrepresenting God and His Son in such a manner. You know, Jesus Christ cleared out the temple of the moneychangers because they misrepresented God and what He stood for. Since Phelps and his idiot followers are doing the same thing, maybe we need to clear the temple of them if they do happen to show up in Huntsville tomorrow.
November 23rd, 2006 at 10:08 pm
What a freak!! I can’t even begin to fathom burying my child while some nutcase pickets about sodomites burning in hell. They say it takes all kinds, but these are the kinds I can do without!!!
November 24th, 2006 at 11:46 am
When I saw this on the news, I was sickened. Then I learned about your blog this morning. I hope these poor families will be protected by family, friends and community, and that these Phelps people somehow see how twisted they are! They are the complete antithesis of being a Christian!
I’ll be continuing to read your blog with interest in the future!
November 24th, 2006 at 12:34 pm
Thanks, Kiki. Come back anytime. I’m afraid Phelps and his family are mired in this sickness until they die off. They’ve been at it for years and just seem to get worse over time. I’m praying for the families.
November 25th, 2006 at 6:22 am
Kathy, the creeps did show up after all. This is extracted from The Huntsville Times @ http://www.al.com/news/huntsvilletimes/index.ssf?/base/news/11644498115340.xml&coll=1
Hundreds attended (Nicole) Ford’s funeral, including several of the 39 other students who were on the bus.
Protesters from Westboro Baptist Church from Topeka, Kan., set up across the street and about 100 yards down from the Pulaski Pike church before the funeral. The group frequently pickets soldiers’ funerals and spreads an anti-homosexual/anti-America message.
City buses were parked in front of the protesters’ cordoned-off picket space, and drivers going to the funeral saw barely a glimpse of them. Across the street, counter-pickets held signs that said, “God is love,” “Judge not and ye shall not be judged” and “Let them grieve in peace.”
November 25th, 2006 at 7:59 am
City buses, I love it. That’s even better than the angel wings idea, because it completely wipes them from the public view. If not for the counter-protesters it would have been a non-event.
And a cordoned-off picket space—guess they are taking a page from W’s book. I wonder if the officials chose a space behind where the buses routinely park, or if the drivers “just decided” to pull up there during the funeral procession.
November 25th, 2006 at 8:49 am
Either way, good for the bus drivers! I’m so glad the families didn’t have to see or hear those creeps.
I don’t know if the cordoned off space was due to a city ordinance or the new Alabama law about picketing funerals; perhaps Wheeler can fill us in when he comes back from his Thanksgiving break.