A fringe church group protests at fallen soldiers? funerals to continue a tradition of religious fundamentalism dating back centuries, witnesses testifying on behalf of the church said Friday.
Westboro Baptist Church, founded about 50 years ago by Fred Phelps, follows in the footsteps of militant, fire-and-brimstone evangelists such as Jonathan Edwards, a Puritan from the 1700s, and Carl McIntyre, an anti-Communist picketer and preacher from the 1960s, said Randall Balmer, a religious history professor at Columbia University.
Westboro Baptist Church, Phelps and two of his daughters are defendants in a lawsuit brought by the family of Marine Cpl. Matthew Snyder after the group protested outside the fallen soldier’s Westminster funeral in March 2006.
Westboro members waved signs reading “You?re going to Hell” and “God hates fags.”
“I?m not trying to dismiss it because it?s hateful rhetoric, but it certainly is consistent with fundamentalist principles,” Balmer said in U.S. District Court. “I regret that it was directed at an individual person or individual family.”
The Topeka, Kan., church believes its message could save people from sin and sees that as more important than whether the protests hurt grieving people, Balmer said.
Fundamentalists expect to be rejected by others, and that gives them a feeling of vindication, he said.
Another expert played down the suffering the protest caused Albert Snyder, Matthew?s father, who is suing for intentional infliction of emotional distress, invasion of privacy and civil conspiracy.
Timothy Boehm, an endocrinologist from Arkansas, called the funeral protest a “petty irritant.”
“Mr. Snyder was chronically depressed, and he had a major life experience, which was the loss of his son, and that would be far more significant than a petty irritant,” Boehm said. “I would hope he would be able to dismiss this as absurd and leave it at that.”
Boehm was called to rebut testimony that the protest exacerbated Snyder?s depression and worsened his diabetes.
The case began Tuesday and is expected to last through next week.
