WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court provided the biggest stage yet Wednesday for the Rev. Fred Phelps and his message that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are punishment for America’s lax stance on homosexuals.
Jaws dropped, eyes widened and some moans of distaste colored the atmosphere as the Phelps’ family hoisted picket signs reading “God hates fags” and “You’re going to hell.” Inside, the justices heard arguments inside the court in the appeal of Albert Snyder, who wanted the high court to reinstate a $5 million verdict against Phelps’ Westboro Baptist Church and its members who protested outside the funeral of Snyder’s son, a Marine lance corporal killed in a 2006 Humvee accident with inflammatory signs.
“We’ve been here for three hours,” said one of Phelps’ children. “I’m getting bored.”
But onlookers were more engaged as a number of them prodded the family about their message. A young man asked Jonathon Phelps if the word “fag,” which he had quoted on his protest sign as a verse directly from God, is in the Bible.
“I can reference you to Amos 4:11,” Phelps said. “It says fag.” In fact, that verse does not include a reference to homosexuals.
The protest adds to a long list of demonstrations the family and Westboro Baptist Church members have conducted at funerals. Though the family has displayed its often-contradictory logic several times before, the fervor has yet to subside.
“Can you picture these people standing this long outside of our church?” said Phelp’s blue-eyed, smiling youngest adult daughter, Abigail. “No [you couldn’t]. So who cares why the came? The point is they came.”
But for every Phelps family member with a sign, there was a counter-protester to match.
A young man wearing only briefs got laughs when he walked in 50-degree weather from one end of the line of people waiting to enter the Supreme Court to the other, placing himself directly between the Phelps family’s “Thank God for Dead Soldiers” and “Bloody Obama” signs.
“Fred Phelps wishes he were hot like me,” according to the sign held up by briefs-wearer Sam Garrett, a student at George Washington University.
Other counter-protesters directed signs against the Phelps reading “love conquers all” and “if you’re going to heaven, hell sounds nice.”
One passerby cut through the bit of space between the onlookers and the protesters and, after looking at the anti-homosexual messages displayed, angrily stomped on a piece of plastic trash that was left on the sidewalk and mumbled under his breath.
But 12-year-old Zion Bethel and his sister, 14-year-old Kezia, said they came from Alabama with their parents and another family member to support the Phelps. Zion’s shirt displayed “God Hates Gays” across the front while Kezia’s read “God Hates Whores.”
According to Kezia, their church, New Life Gospel Production Ministries, has been conducting similar protests since 1996.
“Most Christians in the Bible are martyred,” said an eloquent Zion. “That’s why all of these people are persecuting Phelps.”
But the Bethel family, having read of the Supreme Court protest through the Westboro Baptist Church website, decided to show their support in person.
“Most people in our church chicken out,” Kezia said.