Westboro Baptist Church

Westboro protester gets a faceful of Marine Corps pride outside the Supreme Court

By Dan Lamothe on October 8, 2010 Westboro Baptist Church

The Westboro Baptist Church’s showdown this week with Marine father Al Snyder in Supreme Court has been widely covered, including in a first-person account on this blog. However, a Battle Rattle reader pointed out an interesting thread that I had missed: One man’s quiet protest to the Westboro message. On Wednesday, dozens of Westboro protesters picketed outside the Supreme Court, with many of them carrying the same kind of signs used to protest outside the funeral of Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder in 2006. If you’ve been following along, you know the “Thank God For Dead Soldiers” drill. A Getty Images…

Inside one raw morning at the Supreme Court with the Westboro Baptist Church

By Dan Lamothe on October 7, 2010 Westboro Baptist Church

WASHINGTON — Should the Supreme Court make it all stop? At the base level, that’s the question that the nation’s highest court grappled with Wednesday, as Albert Snyder, the father of a dead Marine, squared off with one of the most notorious fringe religious groups in the U.S. The details are well known: The Westboro Baptist Church, of Topeka, Kan., protested outside the 2006 funeral of Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder in Westminster, Md., after he died in Iraq in a Humvee accident. They followed Maryland law, standing 1,000 feet away from the Catholic church where it was held. However, they infuriated hundreds of funeral…

Spray and pray: Westboro group targeted with mace

By James Sanborn on August 30, 2010 Westboro Baptist Church

A 62-year-old man who attempted to pepper spray members of a church group known for their inflammatory views on the military and homosexuality accidentally hit counter-protesters instead. [HTML1] Members of the Westboro Baptist Church stood on a street corner in Omaha, Neb., on Saturday about a block from the funeral of Staff Sgt. Michael Bock. Bock, a Marine, died Aug. 13 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province Afghanistan. The man, in a maroon truck, drove by the group and used an industrial sprayer to unleash a cloud of pepper spray, but he accidentally hit counter protesters who oppose the…

Comic book nerds clown on Westboro Baptist Church

By Dan Lamothe on July 26, 2010 Westboro Baptist Church

At this point, the Westboro Baptish Church has protested nearly everyone on the face of the planet for not agreeing with their hardliner view of the modern-day world. Most famously (or infamously), they protest outside military funerals with signs that say thing such as “God bless IEDs,” an activity that will soon be considered in front of the U.S. Supreme Court for its constitutionality. But the small, family-run church from Topeka, Kan., also has ripped everyone from Lada Gaga to the late U.S. Sen. Robert Byrd (D.-W.V.) this summer alone. Last week, the comic book lovers as the Comic-Con International conference…

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