Westboro Baptist to protest Newtown?

As if things weren’t bad enough in Newtown, Connecticut already, word has begun circulating that they may be the recipients of some unsavory and most decidedly unwelcome “guests” today in connection with President Obama’s visit. The members of Westboro Baptist Church, (yes… those guys again) are apparently threatening to protest at the funerals of the slain children.

On Saturday, Shirley Phelps-Roper – a member of the extremely controversial Westboro Baptist Church – messaged with a tweet on the social media platform of Twitter:

Westboro will picket Sandy Hook Elementary School to sing praise to God for the glory of his work in executing his judgment.

The message on Twitter was sent the day after 20 children and six adults were killed by Adam Lanza in the horrific massacre at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

Words simply can not describe how disgusting this would be nor the possible reaction to it. But the Westboro clan won’t have all smooth sailing. Members of Reddit are planning a counter-march to block them if they show up. The Phelps folk have attracted some enemies of their own as well, including one of the most odd pairings I can recall seeing. The hacker group Anonymous has set their sights on Westboro, already hacking their web site and releasing the personal details of their members.

The hacking collective known as Anonymous renewed their war on the Westboro Baptist Church today. After the haters from the infamous church posted their intentions to picket the funerals of the twenty children killed in the shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School, Anonymous responded by re-posting the personal and professional information for members of the church on the Internet. Now the general public can contact the church members directly and tell them what they think about people who would desecrate the funerals of murdered children.

No matter how revolting this entire situation becomes, I still have one question about the key players here. Does the Baptist Church have any measure of control over who uses their name? I know that when there is a new Catholic church erected, closed or moved, there’s a rather lengthy process involved so they maintain some level of control over their locations. Do the Baptists have nothing similar, or can just anyone go throw a sign up on their garage proclaiming it a Baptist Church and begin slaughtering chickens? It just seems to me that they would have distanced themselves entirely from these Phelps idiots by now if they have any control over it.

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