Westboro Church Plan Joe Paterno Funeral Protest

By Myles Collier, Christian Post Contributor Monday, January 23, 2012

As decent Americans solemnly remember a man who was a college football icon for so many years a very small group strives to incite more hate while causing others added stress while they grieve.

The infamous Westboro Baptist Church has announced that it plans to picket the funeral of the legendary head coach.

Margie Phelps, the wife of WBC leader Fred Phelps, sent out a series of absolutely deplorable and very troubling tweets Sunday morning in the wake of Paterno's death. This unfortunately is another opportunity for the non-compassioned to stir up the emotional pot to further their hate-filled agenda.

One of the tweets reads: "Joe Paterno is dead. WBC will picket his funeral. He's in hell. Don't partake in your neighbor's sin!!" Another despicable post reads, "No RIP Joe Paterno. No peace in hell."

The WBC has garnered national attention for the hate filled rhetoric and the disrespectful act of picketing funerals of fallen soldiers while also calling for the deaths of innocent individuals. The church has also previously targeted services for Michael Jackson and Apple founder Steve Jobs.

On the WBC website there is a headline that reads, "Thank God for 12 more dead troops. We are praying for 12,000 more."

They have previously picketed the funerals of children who perished in a house fire, sent a letter of praise to Saddam Hussein, and stated that the attacks on Sept. 11 were God's way of "smiting f** America."

The only hope is those at the funeral, should they come across members from the WBC, show great restrain and not act out violently which would only further enable the hate-filled WBC.

Joe Paterno will be honored in services over the next three days in State College, Pa.

A public viewing for Paterno will be held from 1:00 p.m. until 11:00 p.m. Tuesday at the Pasquerilla Spiritual Center on the Penn State campus.

Another viewing will be held from 8:00 a.m. until noon Wednesday, with a private funeral scheduled for 2:00 p.m. A memorial service will be held at 2:00 p.m. Thursday in the Jordan Center.