![]() ![]() Phelps, his relatives and other members of the church brandished distinctive placards declaring “God blew up the troops,” “Thank God for 9/11” and other slogans that caused dismay, pleas to stay away, and – seemingly most important for Phelps – publicity. Photograph: Keystone USA/Zuma/Rex Photograph: KeystoneUSA-ZUMA/REX “The Lord is punishing this evil nation for abandoning all moral imperatives that are worth a dime,” Phelps said in 2005.īystanders discuss scripture with members of the Westboro Baptist church as they picket outside of the supreme court in 2010. They began picketing funerals of US troops killed in Iraq or Afghanistan, who they called victims of divine retribution for tolerance of homosexuality. “Matt In Hell,” said one of Phelps’s signs.Īfter several years spent picketing more memorial services, including those of people who had died of Aids, Phelps and his church provoked even more widespread anger after the terrorist attacks of September 11, which Phelps described as a “glorious sight”. Phelps, who according to the church had 13 children, 54 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren, founded Westboro in 1955 but earned notoriety in the 1990s when he began leading followers on noisy protests against gay people around the US.Īn era of intense national media coverage was kickstarted by their picketing the 1998 funeral of Matthew Shepard, a gay 21-year-old student from Wyoming, who was tortured and killed in what was said to be a hate crime. “God forbid, if every little soul at the Westboro Baptist Church were to die at this instant, or to turn from serving the true and living God, it would not change one thing about the judgments of God that await this deeply corrupted nation and world,” it said. In a defiant post on its official blog, the church – from which Phelps had reportedly been excommunicated in recent years – declared that its controversial work would go on.
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