Phelps At It Again!

This AP story ran on the front page of our local paper:

Debatable -- Should protests at funerals be banned?

(excerpt):

MILWAUKEE - Some of the people who attended Sgt. Andrew P. Wallace's visitation weren't there to remember the fallen soldier.

Instead, the members of a Kansas-based church said his death was God's revenge on a nation that accepts homosexuality, and they carried signs that read "Thank God for dead soldiers."


I sent the follow comments to the Opinion Page Editor:

I write regarding the front-page story on Monday, January 9th
about the Westboro Baptist Church protesting at the funerals of soldiers.

Whether or not such protests should be outlawed by the government,
or how they should be restricted may be a debatable question.

But what is not debatable is that common decency condemns such
inappropriate protests.

Christians are taught to speak the truth, but to do it in love (Ephesians 4).
Rev. Phelps and his associates are notorious for their unloving,
in-your-face, grandstanding demonstrations on this issue. They do
not speak for the mainstream of Christianity, or even for the vast,
vast majority of conservative Christians.

While faithful Christians who regard the Bible as God's word must
also regard homosexuality as sinful, there is a time and a place and a
manner for this truth to be told. The funeral of a fallen soldier,
gay or straight, is not the proper venue.

Rev. Thomas Chryst
Associate Pastor
Grace Lutheran Church, Racine