For those of you unfamiliar, Westboro Baptist Church is a church of mainly family members of Fred Phelps family, and they hold strong anti-gay views and contend that everything wrong with America today are a result of America becoming more tolerant of gays, and that God allowed 9-11 to occur and for soldiers to die.

Holding these views are one thing, but this church takes it to the extremes of protesting the funerals of military members, mainly those who were openly gay. Yesterday, Saturday, December 11, 2010, in Raleigh, NC, Elizabeth Edwards, the wife of former Senator John Edwards and 2004 candidate for Vice President, was put to rest at Edenton Street United Methodist Church. Westboro Baptist church decided that since she fought for gay rights, that she was a good candidate for one of their protests.

Immediately after finding out they were coming, counter protests were formed. The Conservative Coalitoin of North Carolina was a main one that fought for a counter protest against Westboro. The result was between about 11:00 and 1:00 on Saturday, the two sides would assemble about a block away from Edenton Street United Methodist Church, where the funeral was held. About 6 members of Westboro Baptist Church, including two elementary school aged children, assembled on one side of the street, while about 200-300 or so of us assembled on the other side of the street. They had way more signs than they had people.

With freezing rains falling around 12:00, the Westboro gang finally left to the cheering of our side of the crowd. While they were protesting, about 5 different motorcycles circled the blocks for periods of time reving their engines. There was a Volvo with a lot of temporary paint on it against Westboro, and a minivan kept riding around blasting patriotic songs such as courtesy of the red whtie and blue and Taps. A truck rode by with a huge American flag and the driver flipping off Westboro. Also, a Honda rode by at one point with two girls making out in the sunroof in front of Westboro.

Here are some pictures I took of the whole event.



There are officially more signs than there are people who can carry them. Signs in this picture that are not visible or unreadable in the other picture are "YOU WILL EAT YOUR BABYS (cites Leviticus)", "GOD IS YOUR ENEMY", there is an American flag dragging the ground, "GOD HATES *** ENABLER" Not visibile is a sign with Elizabeth Edwards face on it that read "ELIZABETH IN HELL"

The signs in this mans hand read "*** ENABLER IN HELL" "GOD HATES ADULTERY", and on the ground, the signs read "AMERICA IS DOOMED" and "BLOODY OBAMA"



The one man tried to sing a song to the tune of Santa Claus is Coming to Town, and I heard him singing something to the effect of , "He knows your false idols, he knows of all your sins", before our side broke out in a chorus of the real version of the song. An orange was thrown at one point ot their side of the street, and when they left 30 minutes before they really planned to leave, a chorus of "God Bless America" broke out.

Here are three people doing a vigil to peace, hope, and love.



Then there were these people..



And then my favorite guy. A lot of people had signs about Hope, Love, or something to that effect for Elizabeth Edwards. This guy had a double sided sign. May he be blessed by his noodly appendage.





So I hope you enjoyed my bit. Try not to make this thread too controversial. I just thought that Westboro should know that they are not appreciated in Raleigh, and a lot of people agreed with me enough to come out to the rally.

 

Not trying to take away anyone's right to express their views. But just think turning someone's funeral into a political protest is going a little far.

 

Cool post Duane. I am glad that those people were drowned out by people with common sense and intellect. People can have their views but dont bother other people about it, especially at funerals.

I hope this thread stays cool and calm. People dont event bother trying to start a political/religous debate because your posts WILL be deleted.

 

I struggle greatly with this. I understand free speech and the right to believe what you want. All though I disagree with what that church believes with every fiber of my being I know I am supposed to turn the other cheek. When they protest funeral services I feel that they are violating the rights of those honoring the life lost. They intentionally inflict emotional and psychological harm, and that is where I believe they cross the line of free speech. I have some other very strong opinions, but I will leave those out.

 

Nice...

 

If it were a family funeral and this happened, the first nut to come at me would get a punch squared on the mouth.`

Everything has its time and place, and a funeral is no place for this type of things to go down.

 

Makes you wonder why you even bother sometimes don't it?

 

I'm waiting for that person who, say, has been diagnosed with a terminal cancer/illness, or just plain psycho enough after a funeral of a beloved one occurs and these people picket..., for them to go off and kill a couple of them. It's not right, no, them being wrong doesn't make your wrong right...

But, after a loved one of yours dies, and these people show up claiming your loved one is in hell for all eternity, and you were to inflict some serious harm on them... you find me 12 jurors who will convict.

This guy missed his opportunity.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_1...58-504083.html

The worst ones I feel for are the children. There were 2 7-8 year old children out there.... really? There weren't any children that young on our side. We can get numbers without brain washing our children!

 

Thanks for sharing this with us Duane.

 

Man, I hate to see stuff like this. I am a Christian and I do have conservative views, but I can't understand why anyone would protest a funeral no matter who they were. I am not a fan of the WBC, or of Phelps. He does everything the wrong way, and I hope that someday he is no longer able to lead people to doing this. Jesus taught to have mercy, not to protest funerals.