My True Soul

*tear falls*

Anti-gay group plans protest in Bay Minette

(BAY MINETTE, Ala.) Sept. 8 - The horrible murder of a local
teen is something worth celebrating: that is according to a
group out of Kansas that plans to come here for that very
purpose.

Several years ago, the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas
made national headlines when it celebrated the murder of a gay
man in Wyoming.

Scottie Weaver was beaten and burned in July. Prosecutors say in
part Weaver was murdered because he was gay. The crime has
sparked a call for a more inclusive hate-crime law in Alabama.

The Kansas group says Scottie Weaver is burning in hell right
now. They plan to come here next month and protest outside the
church where Weaver's funeral was held.

Pickets are also scheduled for other Bay Minette churches, and
the offices of Bay Area Inclusion, a Mobile gay rights advocacy
organization.

Last week in New York and next month in Bay Minette. Westboro
Baptist Church, an anti-gay group, is planning to protest five
churches here, including Crossroads Church of God, where gay
murdered teen Scottie Weaver's funeral was held.

“Those churches all preach the big lie that God loves everyone,
thus enabling sin,” said Shirley Phelps-Roper, a member of
Westboro Baptist Church that organizes the protests nationwide.

“They are responsible for killing that child. They are
responsible for teaching him that it is okay to be gay, contrary
to the scriptures and the commandments of the Lord his God.”

While Crossroads Church of God has no comment on the planned
picket, leaders of other targeted churches do.

“That's very troubling,” said Rev. Bruce Fitzgerald of the First
Methodist Church of Bay Minette. “Troubling that they would pick
on this family's tragedy, this loss of human life to be
condemning, when the gospel of Jesus offers grace.”

Westboro Baptist also opposes the teachings of Southern Baptist
churches, including Bay Minette's First Baptist Church.

”They would feel that the Southern Baptist message is not strong
enough, not anti-gay enough,: said Rev. Dr. Henry Cox of the
First Baptist Church of Bay Minette. “There is no person ever
excluded from the saving grace of Jesus Christ as far as we're
concerned. We don't exclude a person or a group of people."

“What kind of games are you playing when you say love the sinner
but hate the sin?” asked Phelps-Roper. “It is the sinner that
splits hell wide open.”

Westboro Baptist is also targeting Morris Dees, the founder of
the Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights group which has
studied this group's tactics.

“These are people who will really stop at nothing,” said Mark
Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center.