Albert Snyder threw up when he saw what members of the Westboro Baptist Church wrote about his son: That he was raised for the devil to be an idolater.
Snyder can?t get out of his head the protesters at the funeral. They intrude on the fond memories of his son, Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder, who died serving in Iraq last year.
“I look at this as an assault,” the father said Wednesday, testifying in his lawsuit against the fringe, fundamentalist group. “Somebody could have stabbed me in the arm or the back, and the wound would have healed. I don?t think this will heal.”
His testimony came during the second day of the trial in the lawsuit he filed against the Topeka, Kan., church, its founder, Fred Phelps, and two of his daughters.
The suit, seeking unspecified damages, claims invasion of privacy, intentional infliction of emotional distress and civil conspiracy.
At the March 2006 funeral at St. John Catholic Church in Westminster, Westboro protesters held signs reading, “God hates fags” and “Don?t pray for the U.S.A.”
Snyder?s doctor and psychiatrist testified that the protesting, 1,000 feet from the funeral, interrupted Snyder?s grieving process, plunged him into depression and eroded his health.
“I felt perhaps the closest I could feel to when a women gets raped,” Snyder said. “I?m the victim here, and yet I had to see a psychiatrist.”
Jonathan Katz, Westboro?s attorney, said in his opening argument that Westboro intended no personal attack on the Snyder family.
Church members, he said, expressed their belief that America is proud of its sins and, if it did not change its ways, God would destroy it.
“Their sincerely held belief is that that?s what is happening; we are figuratively approaching God setting fire on the nation,” Katz said.
Church members believe God kills American troops because the country tolerates homosexuality, and Katz argued that they were trying to save the country.
Snyder looked away from Katz during the attorney?s opening statement.
“My son should have been buried with dignity, not with a bunch of clowns outside,” Snyder said.
