The Huffington Post announced that the funeral services for Geraldine Ferraro will be held at the Church of Saint Vincent Ferrer in Manhattan at 9:30 a.m. The Westboro Baptist church plans to be there in full force (such as it is) to protest.
Margie J. Phelps announced on Twitter that the Westboro Baptist Church would be picketing the funeral. In her usual ranting style, Margie J. Phelps went on and on about the many of sins of the former Congresswoman and vice-presidential nominee. She tweeted about how Geraldine Ferraro "had the ear" of America before the country "crossed the line" with God.
No one will know if the Westboro Baptist Church will even show up. They have failed to make good on their threats to picket funerals in the past. Westboro Baptist Church failed to protest the funeral of Elizabeth Taylor. In fact, they failed to picket the funeral of three young people in Oklahoma in the past few weeks. They even stated that one reason they failed to make good on their threats was because they would be picketing the services of Elizabeth Taylor.
It seems that Westboro Baptist Church is making more news on their failure to protests funerals than with their actual protests. They also failed to picket the services of Heath Ledger and Natasha Richardson. They exchanged air time on the radio for their protest of the memorial services of those killed in the Tucson, Arizona shooting of Representative Gabrielle Giffords and several others.
The Westboro Baptist Church is a huge failure. Not only do they not carry through with their threats, but their church is also a failure. From all the media coverage they get, it would appear that the Westboro Baptist Church is a giant church in Topeka, Kansas. That is certainly not the the case. The church has less than 100 members and almost 100% of those members are in the Phelps family. The membership almost entirely consists of Fred Phelps, his children (except for those who managed to escape him and his hatred), the spouses of his children and his grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Perhaps a better name would be the Westboro Baptist Church Phelps Family.
We had the Phelps family here in Raleigh, NC picketing near the funeral service of Elizabeth Edwards. Local folks came out with a counter protest to show their support for the Edwards children.
ReplyDeleteI love your quote at the top of the blog....couldn't agree more! We have to draw the line somewhere. Funerals and grieving families need to be protected from the Phelps family or any other unwelcome disturbances.