God Hates Fags Church Slammed With Hefty Bill

International News, By Christian Taylor, 1st November, 2007

Remember Westboro Baptist Church from Kansas? The homophobic church who are famous for their ‘God Hates Fags’ protests at funerals? A jury has just ordered them to pay $US10.9 million ($A11.7 million) in damages to relatives of a deceased US Marine after they picketed his funeral.

The church have been picketing funerals of gay people for years, the most famous incidence being in 1998 when they turned up to Matthew Shepard’s funeral, a young boy who was bashed to death in Wyoming for being gay.

Since then they’ve taken to protesting at the funerals of fallen soldiers as well. The folk at Westboro say that dead soldiers are signs from god that America is doomed for tolerating homosexuality.

Matthew Snyder was a US marine who was killed while fighting in Iraq in March 2006. Westboro took signs bearing slogans such as, “You’re Going To Hell” and “God Hates You” to his funeral.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the federal jury found that the church “invaded the privacy of the dead man’s family and inflicted emotional distress”.

The church have picketed at over 300 funerals, but this is the first time they’ve been taken to court over it. Snyder’s family will be getting $US2.9 million ($A3.11 million) in compensation, as well as $US8 million ($A8.59 million) in punitive damages.

“I hope it’s enough to deter them from doing this to other families. It was not about the money. It was about getting them to stop,” said the marine’s father.

Fred Phelps, the leader of the church, is obviously still in denial about the court’s decision.

“It will take the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals a few minutes to reverse this silly thing,” he said. “This case [will elevate me to something important]... The goofy jury threw a fit at god.”

Shirley Phelps-Roper, his daughter and one of the church leaders, is digging in her heels. They may be down, but they’re not out – she says they’ll keep on protesting and they won’t be stopped. Even outside the court room the Phelps family were waving signs, saying “Pray for more dead kids” and “God hates fag enablers”.

The compensation figure alone of $US2.9 million ($A3.11 million) is three times the church’s net worth, enough to financially decimate them, however the jury awarded punitive damages on top of that figure to deter them from doing it again.

Will they learn their lesson? Not likely. As Shirley Phelps-Roper has declared in the past, what happens on earth is meaningless – they have bigger fish to fry. “We pledge allegiance only to god and hope that he destroys America – more dead soldiers, more lost limbs, taking vengeance on the disobedient.”

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