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Canadian Border patrol told to stop Westboro hate group

Religion News Blog, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Aug. 8, 2008
News Summary
www.religionnewsblog.com

ReligionNewsBlog.com • Friday August 8, 2008

Border guards told to stop U.S. church fanatics

WINNIPEG — Canadian border guards have been told to bar members of a fanatical American church from entering the country after they announced plans to protest at the funeral of the man decapitated on a Greyhound bus, says a Winnipeg MP.
Westboro Baptist Church, a Kansas-based fundamentalist sect, said the protest is to let Canadians know that the slaying of Tim McLean on July 30 was God’s response to Canadian policies enabling abortion, homosexuality and adultery.
Westboro Baptist Church
The Westboro Baptist Church is a hate group masquerading as a Christian church.
Led by Fred Phelps, members of this ‘church’ — who have deluded themselves into thinking that they are followers of Jesus Christ — target homosexuals and others with messages of hate.
The Westboro cult is largely known for its despicable practice of picketing funerals.
Any group of people can call itself a ‘Baptist church’ even if, as is the case with this hate group, the vast majority of Baptists reject that group’s claims.
Theologically, the hate group’s extremist views and despicable behavior mark it as a cult of Christianity
Sociologically the group has cult-like elements as well
• How various religions and denominations view homosexuality
• More articles about the Westboro Baptist Church
• Note: For obvious reasons we often file articles about this hate group under the heading of ‘Religious Insanity.’
Research resources on the Westboro Baptist Church
Comments & resources by ReligionNewsBlog.com
NDP MP Pat Martin said his office was flooded with phone calls Thursday from Winnipeggers offended by the group’s plan.
“These people (the WBC) are almost as crazy as the murderer,” he said, referring to the protesters’ intentions.
“If they are here to disrupt the social order, that constitutes grounds to deny them entry. There is no redeeming virtue in the message they are bringing.”
Martin said Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day’s office sent an alert to border patrol to “look out” for people with signs and pamphlets that fit the hateful messages that the church promotes and to keep them out of the country.
[...]
Shirley Phelps-Roper, daughter of church’s founder, Fred Phelps, said a small group of protesters was stopped at the Canada-U.S. border Thursday afternoon.
“They won’t let us in, but we have a group that will cross in another spot,” she said. “They’ll have to strip search everyone who crosses that border or they won’t know who we are. They’ll have to see the WBC (Westboro Baptist Church) tattoo on our butts.”
The Westboro group has been branded as a hate group and is known for protesting the funerals of American soldiers.
The group failed to show Thursday night for a scheduled protest of the opening night of Toronto playwright Alistair Newton’s “The Pastor Phelps Project: a fundamentalist cabaret” which satirizes their leader’s fervent anti-gay stance.