Westboro Baptist Church to Protest at Joe Paterno’s Funeral
January 24, 2012 at 10:26 AM 1 comment
Here we go again:
Joe Paterno will be honored in services over the next three days in State College, Pa., and there will not be an absence of controversy.
A public viewing for Paterno, the legendary former Penn State coach who died Sunday at 85, will be held from 1-11 p.m. Tuesday at the Pasquerilla Spiritual Center on the Penn State campus. Another viewing will be held from 8 a.m. until noon Wednesday, with a private funeral scheduled for 2 p.m. A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. Thursday in the Jordan Center, the basketball arena next to Beaver Stadium.
Officials of the Westboro Baptist Church intend to protest, according to the daughter of the church’s pastor, and bring their anti-homosexuality message to State College. The church has targeted services for Michael Jackson and Steve Jobs, as well as military funerals.
Margie Phelps tweeted that “WBC will picket his funeral,” adding, “He’s in hell. Don’t partake of your neighbor’s sin!”
I hope something like this happens in response:
People in Weston, Missouri banded together on Saturday. They wanted to protect loved ones who were saying goodbye to a fallen soldier and stood up to members of the Westboro Baptist Church who planned to protest at Sgt. First Class C.J. Sadell’s funeral.
Sadell died October 24 from injuries he suffered in a surprise attack in Afghanistan.
On Saturday, there was quite a turnout of people who wanted to keep the protesters away from the funeral.“I’d say probably half the people in Weston are here,” said Eric Moser, Marine Corp veteran.
Weston has less than 2,000 residents, and hundreds of people showed up to support the family of First Sgt. Sadell.
“If you think about it, they’ve all gone to serve just so we could be able to do this,” said Rebecca Rooney who organized the supporters. “He didn’t die in vain.”
Rebecca Rooney is a Weston resident who wanted to stand up against Fred Phelps and his followers.
“We got everybody here early so we could take up all the parking spots,” Rooney said. “We did that so Mr. Phelps wouldn’t have a contingency that was really close.”
Supporters came armed with patriotic music and American flags. The protesters didn’t stick around long once they saw the supporters.
The Westboro people have a right to protest but other people have a right not to hear it.
Entry filed under: GLBT, Religion. Tags: joe paterno, penn state campus, westboro baptist church.
1.
Jay Castor | January 25, 2012 at 9:52 AM
These religious wingnuts don’t even understand their own religion. If Joe Paterno has sinned in his life, what about their capacity for forgiveness? They don’t seem to have much. Perhaps they’re the ones going to Hell! For isn’t it true that according to their religion, only God has the power of judgement over those He/She/It/? has created?