Westboro Baptist Church defended its protests at funerals of fallen troops and renewed its claim that God hates America.
“It is a very sorrowful thing that we have to do any of this, that this nation is in the position it is in,” said Rebekah Phelps-Davis, a defendant in the first lawsuit against Westboro. “They have put themselves in the cross hairs of an angry God.”
She, her sister and brother said they had no remorse over protesting at churches and service members? funerals with signs reading, “Don?t pray for the U.S.A.” and “God hates fags” more than 33,000 times the past 17 years.
The family members took the stand in the suit brought by Albert Snyder, father of fallen Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder, whose funeral church members picketed in March 2006 at St. John Catholic Church in Westminster.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court, claims intentional infliction of emotional distress, invasion of privacy and civil conspiracy.
The Phelps family says it protests to save the world from its own sinful pride and America?s tolerance of homosexuality.
“This isn?t something we dreamed up,” said Timothy Phelps. “It?s been known for centuries what this doctrine is, millennia, what this doctrine is, and we just follow it.”
The Topeka, Kan., church has about 70 members, 50 of whom are related.
The Phelps family compared itself to Noah, who, according to the Bible, built an ark to save the world from God?s flooding but got mocked by most people.
Meanwhile, Snyder?s attorneys brought their third expert to testify that such a protest would severely damage the emotional health of people trying to grieve.
As he grieved the death of his son, who died in Iraq in March 2006, Snyder said he felt as if he were being attacked.
“It would be horrific; it would traumatize,” Maj. Terry Callis, an Army battalion chaplain, said of the protests. “It would disable the progress of moving through grief.”
Callis, dressed in an Army uniform, shook his head when the Phelps family proclaimed its beliefs, removing his glasses and sinking his face into his palms.
When Phelps-Roper took the stand, Snyder turned away and refused to look at her.
