URGENT NEW PRAYER REQUEST!!

[Anna]

I recieved this today and am just devastated.

Please remember the families and community in prayer today as it is all that I know of that we can do.  Very sad and helpless feeling.

NOTICE:

Some of you may not be aware, but Westboro Baptist Church, the radical protesting church that spews hate language, is planning
to protest at the funerals of the children who were killed in the bus accident this week in Huntsville, Alabama.
The funerals have nothing to do with their venom.  It's simply a format to inflict pain and suffering on people already filled with
the pain and suffering of losing a loved one.  They use funerals as a means to get attention for their hate agenda.  
I am sickened to the core at this.  This is the same group that showed up at the funeral procession of the Amish girls that were
killed by the gunman in Pennsylvania and they also frequently show up at soldiers funerals.  
The saddest part is the do this in the name of serving God.  
Please join me in praying a barrier of protection around these grieving families.  Pray that God will keep these hate filled people away from
these families who are hurting so deeply.  Pray God will use whatever method possible to keep the haters away.  Pray their tires go flat,
bad weather, whatever is needed to keep them out of Huntsville, Alabama this weekend.
God help us all.  If you have wondered what you could do to help these families so touched by grief this week, this is it.  PRAY!
Thank God for our blessings AND PRAY HARD ABOUT THIS.
 
Kelley Smith
Photographic Artist
on the web!  http://kusmith.home.hiwaay.net

[LilPuma]

I will, Anna.  Wanted you to know the board isn't deserted yet and a few of us are still around to see your post on the other board.  I don't know where that kind of hate comes from, wanting to inflict more pain on those already hurting.  I'll pray for them also.

[JerseyMom]

Anna!
I had never heard of this hate filled group ( refuse to call it a church and feel terrible they use Baptist in their name.)
They are sick!
I found a wealth of info on Wikipedia:

Here is the story of the Amish girls funerals:

"In the wake of the tragic Amish school house shooting, members of Westboro Baptist Church planned on picketing the funerals of the five girls killed in the shooting. Their signs were going to call the girls "whores" and that they are "burning in hell". In an attempt to stop them, news radio personality/host Mike Gallagher attempted to dissuade them. After first rejecting a monetary offer, Gallagher offered them an hour of unrestricted airtime on his show. WBC accepted, and the picket was called off.[25] On October 5, 2006, members of WBC were "hosts" of the Mike Gallagher's radio show, with Gallagher giving periodic warnings to viewers that they (the members of WBC) did not represent the views of him or the station."

They showed up at the memorial for the Sago Miners with signs saying, "Thank God For Dead Miners."  They danced and laughed at the Memorial.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westboro_Baptist_Church

Sick, sick, sick.
There are many more things they have done.  They hate America.  One slogan was "Thank God for 9/11."
Disgusting.
I will pray they don't make the funerals.

[pdh3]

Anna - I saw this on the news tonight. I live in a suburb of Huntsville, and I am just disgusted by the thought of these kinds of people being in our area. Bob Riley let it be known that they were not welcome, and the permit they received is for 2 blocks away from the funeral home. There is also a group who comes in to shield the families from this type of harassment, and I'm hoping they can be in Huntsville  to protect these families from this hate group.
What kind of person would want to hurt grieving families at the worst moments of their lives? I cannot understand that kind of callousness.

I hope there won't be trouble out of it. Many people are furious about the planned protest.

[A's Fever]

This is just unbelieveable!  Anna, like you I am a totally disgusted that this groups does such hateful things, and is allowed to do such things.  Is there anything more we can do about this, in addition to praying?  Any way to protest this?  These poor families have suffered enough.

[Mere]

Anna....these are the most disturbing people....who call themselves a religious group....I am so glad that they do not have permission to be close to the families....will remember all of the kids and their family and friends during this time.....

[nonesuche]

I don't understand how these radicals can heap more pain upon these poor families, losing a child as they have isn't painful enough? I will pray that someone/anyone can deter these people from making this tragedy one bit harder for any of these families.

[justinsmama]

What a bunch of sick bastards. We need to do whatever we can to pass laws, ordinances, whatever it takes to legally stop these evil people from doing these things. Something to do with a very broad perimeter (1/2 mile?) that may not cross without being arrested. That perimeter should include the funeral homes, processions and cemetaries.

Any ideas on how to get this started? Write federal and state legislators? Ask media outlets to get the word out to the public to write those letters?

[mishy]

Thanks for posting this Anna. I will join you all in prayer that something happens and that these protesters never see Huntsville, AL!! I can't believe they call themselves a <gasp> Baptist church!! I will pray for their souls as well...

What is wrong with these people!?!?!?!?!?!? There ain't no time to hate!!

[shadow]

WTF!! I am appalled. And don't understand what this group's agenda is? How sick and disturbing. My prayers are with the families of those lost in this tragedy.

[Anna]

At least some of them are in Huntsville as they applied for and had to be granted a permit to protest.  Huntsville Police say they will do everything within their power legally to keep the two groups separate.

One of their favorite things is to say the deceased is burning in hell, things like that.  Real sick.  How could they call those little Amish girls whores?  They were just babies!  Not even reached puberty, etc.

I hope some of the bikers who help with this group will show up as they rev their bikes real loud so the family can't hear them.  Two blocks is not far enough for they use bull horns, etc.  I am sure these families never heard of such and won't know what is happening.

At least one of the girls is Seventh Day Adventist so that alone may make her family a target of them since they don't like other denominations or churches.  

You may recall recently that they were going to protest the funerals of our military as a way of protesting Bush.  A liberal judge ruled they had this right thinking this would prove to be am embarrassment to Bush and the War on Terror in Iraq.  I guess he didn't count on their doing so at the funerals of little Amish girls as well.  I don't think that this is freedom of speech but instead a verbal assault, a hate crime directed at those of other beliefs.  They should be arrested instead of being told this is their right.  There is no such right and this is a case of judicial activism or a judge rewriting law to suit his politics.  Shame on this a$$bite that ruled they have a right to do this.  No one does.  It is a verbal attack I don't care who says otherwise.

Shouting that your loved one is burning in hell at their funeral has nothing at all to do with any kind of freedom of anything.  It is harassment at the least if not an outright attack of ones senses.  And I am sure they are no part of any Baptist mainstream, either.  They'd have been long ago kicked out of ANY legitimate denomination.  They do have a sizable following which is VERY troubling.  Hating gays seems to be a very big deal to them.  Just about all religions teach love for all, love the sinner and hate the sin if you must, etc.

You don't select one or tow scriptures and use that to exclude the other and more general and comprehensive messages such as God is Love.  

It is a sign of the insane and perverted times in which we live where evil is glorified and tolerated.  And these people make their money suing people who try to stop them.  Many of they hold law degrees, etc.

What an awful thing for these parents to have added to their already burdened hearts.  At the beginning of the current lively discussion thread are some posts by Blah who has dealt with them and knows of others who have.  Those are very comforting and I hope that there will be some support for the family like this in Huntsville this coming weekend for the funerals start tomorrow.

But this hate group should have been stopped their first trips before a judge.  Like the ACLU, they suddenly have far more rights than the rest of us and are a protected group.  I don't know what it will take now to stop them, now that they have legal sanction backing them.  Maybe literally an act of congress but whatever it takes, they do need to be stopped before somebody gets hurt.  Sooner or later, if they keep this up, they are going to push some aggrieved parent or relative too far and they will hurt them badly.  

They should have already been put out of the business of showing their rear ends like this at funerals of all places.  I did think when they did NOT get the media coverage they desired that they would give it up but they haven't.

Yet another thing to write our congresscritters and ask them to do their jobs and put an end to this harassment of already grieving people before somebody gets hurt physically as well as to put an end to adding to the grief of innocent people.

What a sad commentary on our times.    I can't imagine hating enough to do such a thing over an opinion.  And I will be the first to say I am a VERY opinionated person.  I just would never use mine to hurt people like this at this most vulnerable of times and can't imagine anybody who would but there they are doing it.  I understand having an agenda, too, but this in my opinion borders on the insane.

And these are educated people, too.  Well, let me put it differently, many of them hold law degrees.  

So once again, let's email and protest this to congress and ask that they put a stop to this some way or other.  It's this group today but tomorrow could be another if this is legal.  Could get to the point we cannot even bury our dead without being assaulted.

Enough is enough and this more than enough.

.