Army Times
By Jeff Schogol
Staff writer
Mar. 18, 2014
Countless military families have been tormented by the Westboro Baptist Church, which pickets service members’ funerals as part of its campaign against gays and lesbians. Now church founder Fred Phelps Sr. is reportedly near death and in hospice care.
The father of a fallen Marine whose son’s funeral was targeted by the Westboro Baptist Church hopes Phelps is afforded more respect than church members showed his son. “I believe he has the same rights as everybody else should have, that he should be buried in peace,” Al Snyder told Military Times on Tuesday. “Two wrongs don’t make a right.”
Al Snyder sued Westboro Baptist after its members picketed the funeral of his son, Lance Cpl. Matt Snyder, who was killed in Iraq on March 3, 2006. Snyder did not see the protest during the service, but afterward he saw television coverage of church members holding signs that “God hates you,” “You’re in hell,” and “Semper Fi fags.”
The case went all the way to the Supreme Court, which ruled in the church’s favor in 2011, deciding the protest had been held peacefully in a public place and the issues the church raised were a matter of public concern.
Since the ruling, Phelps has been excommunicated by the church and is being treated at a Kansas hospice for health problems, according to the Topeka Capital-Journal. A spokesman for the church could not be reached by phone or email on Tuesday.
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