Church, soldiers countering message of hate with love

Thursday, June 30, 2005

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Followers of the Rev. Fred Phelps held up these signs and wore these shirts at a funeral of an Army Sergeant who died in Iraq.

Three weeks ago, a pastor began traveling with a small group of followers around the country, showing up at the funerals of American servicemen and women.

The Rev. Phelps, pastor of Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas, does not attend the funerals to comfort family members, however.

He is there to express thanks for the soldiers' deaths.

Phelps and his followers believe that the deaths of American soldiers is God's retribution for society's acceptance of gay Americans.

Although Phelps says he's targeting servicemen and women of all sexual orientations, he's perhaps best known for showing up with vicious signs at the funerals of AIDS victims, as well as gay victims of a hate crimes.

Phelps and other followers say they're going to create the same scene at a St. Petersburg Church where a funeral will be held Monday for Sgt. James Stewart, who died last week in Iraq. Stewart spent most of his boyhood in St. Petersburg and his mother still lives there.

James Stewart spent most of his boyhood in St. Petersburg, and died in Iraq.

The church is distancing itself from Phelps.

"It's important that folks do understand that this isn't normal behavior for Christians," said Dan Jeffers, pastor of the Park Street Baptist Church.

Jeffers didn't know about the Kansas minister's intention to disrupt the funeral until told about it by Bay News 9. Since the plans became public, the church has received countless calls.

"It's just an amazing thing how people have been very sympathetic," Jeffers said. "It's like everybody's sympathetic toward the feelings of the

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mother and their family. And they're very outraged that this group would choose such a venue."

One call the church received was from a local Army reservist. He said he and dozens of his fellow soldiers plan to be at the church on Monday in a show of respect and support for the family.

Click here to e-mail Chris Hawes, the TV reporter for this story.