December 9th, 2010
09:20 AM ET
10 years ago
Westboro Baptist Church says it will picket Elizabeth Edwards' funeral
(CNN) - Members of the Westboro Baptist Church announced Thursday plans to picket Saturday's funeral for Elizabeth Edwards in Raleigh, North Carolina.
The Kansas-based Church - monitored by anti-hate groups such as the Anti-Defamation league and the Southern Poverty Law Center - is known for its extremist opposition to homosexuals, Jews and other groups.
The church members also oppose the War in Iraq.
According to the church's website, members will hold a protest from 12:15 p.m. to 1 p.m.
Edwards, the estranged wife of presidential candidate John Edwards, died Tuesday after a six-year battle with breast cancer.
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Grow up already!
This country has become the ultimate bastion for every hate-mongering, right-wing, idiotic, dangerous group that can muster more than 1 person to a meeting. We need to show up at these events and take care of these idiots once and for all...show them where they stand. People in this country have become so weak-willed, fearful, timid, risk-averse, and professional victims of their own making and as such have lost all vestiges of what it means to stand on their own two feet and stand up for what they believe. Doing nothing about these whack-nuts is just conforming their beliefs and joining with them in their idiocy. We are a nation of lemmings ...
I am so very ashamed that these people are from this town. Quite often, there are counter-protests to them here. I've seen gay men in short shorts dancing among them as they picket on the street. We don't like them any more than you do, and I promise the rest of us are nice, normal people.
I don't think anyone would "protest" if these dumb fools were rounded up and deported.
Why would these small minded bigots protest Elizabeth Edward's funeral??! She has done nothing to them nor has she stated any extremist ideas that would make them want to oppose her. I cannot wait to read the story of someone plowing down these fools with a semi-truck!
You need to stop giving them the press. The only reason they do this is because you spew their crap for them in print and on Camera. Stop acknowleging their existance and they will cease to exist. You are partly to blame.
You know what kind of press on the Westboro loonies I'd like to see? The Westboro picketers being struck by lightening at 12:16pm ...
Now THAT'S a judgment I can get behind!
Honestly, these people will one day learn their lessons when karma comes back around. To tout religion as a weapon to verbally and mentally attack people in a situation like this is absolutely disgusting. Mrs. Edwards was gracious and respectful, and this group is only proving how low some people will sink to promote their own self-gratifying ideas.
What possible reason? Arrest them.
That's crazy. They should have more respect for the family than that. They're going against what they're supposed to believe in. No class at all, none. They should be on their knees praying for the Edwards family and this country, not being a complete ass by disrupting a family's grief.
The practice of the Westboro Church protesting at funerals is cowardly and demonstrates low morality of the protesters. The people that come out to protest the Westboro Church protests at these events are no better.
I was listening to an interview on NPR with the father of Matthew Snyder, a marine killed in Iraq. This church picketed outside of his funeral with obscene signs such as "Thank God for Dead Soldiers" and even worse. It is abhorrent that these people with their own political and religious agenda find that a funeral is an appropriate place for their voices to be heard. I started crying when I heard Mr. Synder recall the day in which he was supposed to be grieving his son because you could hear the mixture of outrage, grief and pain in his voice. Elizabeth Edwards family has been through enough, don’t you think? They’ve had to see their mother lose a battle with cancer, a brother killed in an accident at the ripe age of 16 and have a father who strayed. Let them grieve in peace. It is disgusting that they would use Ms. Edwards’ funeral as a cheap way to get attention. Let her be buried with the dignity she deserves.
Hope that lightning strikes them all.
Can't someone out there just get rid of these people already?
I wonder how long the real Baptist churches are going to let westboro Baptist church tarnish their name before they do something about it. To me they are the pits of humanity for what they do.
Why do you insist on giving these idiots coverage? They are not deserving of any recognition, but by reporting on them you are only aiding their miserable cause.
Can someone just pick up these nutcases and throw them in a jail cell for a month for being a public nuisance every time they turn an already painful experience for bereaved families into an even more difficult one? How far off the mark have we gone when we allow these creeps to disturb the sanctity of a person't last rites in the name of freedom of expression?
This makes me SICK!
And this is coming from a conservative Catholic woman! I am sickened to hear this!!!! SHAME ON THESE PEOPLE!!!!
Taking advantage of freedom. This church is no better than terrorist.
"and we are not saved..."
What a bunch of scumbags.
Is there any Agent Orange left from the Vietnam War? Can we do a flyover of these idiots and spray them really, really good? I understand that they have a right in free speech but other people have a right to oppose them. The police in the towns these idiots show up in need to stop keeping the two sides apart and this nonsense will end really, really fast.
Bunch of idiots..
Stop covering them and they will go away.
This church is an embarrassment to the State and Country in which I live.
What do they have to picket at Mrs. Edwards funeral? These people are sick deranged idiots. I think the FBI or CIA needs to conduct a few covert operations to make these people stop.