OFF THE WIRE
To the dismay of pious people everywhere, a crusade for righteousness, which previously delivered its "God Hates Fags" and "Thank God for dead soldiers" messages in the Lehigh Valley area, ran into a real snag the other day near Harrisburg.
The Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church, which stages protests all over the nation, had announced plans to defile the funeral for six little girls and a little boy who died March 8 in a fire in a Perry County Mennonite community. The Westboro people travel around to noisily preach that God inflicts such deaths because he's angry over America's failure to eradicate homosexuals and other infidels.
Last year, they were expected at the funeral for an Easton soldier, Sgt. Sean Durkin, who had been killed in action in Afghanistan. But when services drew large crowds of very tough-looking soldiers, veterans, local police officers and firefighters, they took their "Thank God for dead soldiers" signs elsewhere.
In 2002, the Westboristas did show up in Bethlehem to demonstrate in support of a local preacher, who took some heat for saying terrorist attacks were allowed by God to punish America for condoning same-sex marriages. "Thank God for Sept. 11," said one sign waved in Bethlehem.
The Westboro church issued a list of "filthy fag churches," which included most American denominations, but did not include fanatic Islamic outfits because, as I put it then, some of them "are righteous enough to mutilate and murder homosexuals wherever they can find them."
Last spring, the Westboristas won a court ruling against a York man who sued them for invading services for his son, killed in Iraq. That ruling was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court this month. They were angry over the lawsuit anyway, and vowed to retaliate by desecrating other Pennsylvania funerals. They probably figured a Mennonite community would less likely be protected by tough GIs, etc.
Unfortunately, word spread through central Pennsylvania, and some of the people angry over that plan are not the sort to rely on lawsuits or appeals to reason.
My daughter, Kyomi, lives in York, a mecca for the Warlocks, the Pagans and other motorcycle, ahem, clubs. Just before the Perry County services, she called to say she was hearing a lot of discussion about the biker guys going there. "They were just going to go up and express their condolences to the family," she said, and then had a big laugh, meaning she actually expected them to express themselves in other ways.
News accounts said the bikers indeed showed up, along with police. In my experience, you need to be more concerned about getting on the wrong side of Pagans and Warlocks than the police.
In any case, the Westboristas may be crazy, but they are not stupid — and they and their signs were nowhere to be seen.
Sadly, we'll have to wait a while before they show up to teach the Mennonites what God does and does not want.
paul.carpenter©mcall.com
610-820-6176
Paul Carpenter's commentary appears Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
http://articles.mcall.com/2011-03-19/news/mc-paul-carpenter-westboro-20110319_1_mayor-donald-rehrig-district-judge-edward-lewis-lehighton-borough-annex/2
