Listen to this articleMembers of the virulently anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church are threatening a two-day picket in Utah in six locations this month.
Beginning at Congregation Kol Ami in Salt Lake City, a Jewish reform synagogue, WBC will picket at 8 a.m. Jan. 23 to “remind the Jews that the smiting rod of God’s wrath is on them for their role in killing Christ.” There was no mention in the announcement on the group’s site of the fact that Kol Ami’s rabbi is a lesbian.
The group will move to St. Mark’s Cathedral at 10 a.m., calling it the “Episcopal Dog Kennel masquerading as a church” whose “clergy have made a living out of lying about all sins.”
The next stop at 11 a.m. is the LDS Church’s Salt Lake Temple, a favorite spot for them to protest, calling the religion “silly” and “idolatrous.”
On to the Sundance Film Festival, the group will picket the Eccles Theatre in Park City at 2:45 “to remind this nation that God Hates Fags, Fags Doom Nations, America is a Fag-infested Nation, ergo, America is doomed! The actors, producers, directors and fans of the Doomed American motion picture industry enjoy nothing more than engaging in drunken, wanton, riotous behavior and mocking the servants of God from WBC. Of one accord, they raise their clenched fists to God and say “NO, We will not obey!”, according to the announcement. “These Hollywood heathens celebrate movies that blaspheme the Lord such as the 1985 winner of the Special Jury Prize The Times of Harvey Milk glorifying a filthy fag, the 1986 winner Working Girls glorifying prostitutes, and various others that won for endorsing fornication, adultery, and the mocking of God’s word. WBC is here to warn you that there are consequence to these actions: death and eternal Hellfire.” [sic]
The group is also angry about Kevin Smith’s film, Red State — a horror film inspired by Westboro and its leader Fred Phelps, and will return to the Eccles Theatre at 6 p.m. before its showing
At a release party last month, Smith explained the premise of the movie.
“It’s certainly not Phelps himself but it’s very much inspired by a Phelps figure,” said Smith. “And to me, too, the notion of using a Phelps-like character as a villain, as horrifying and scary as that guy can be, there’s even something more insidious than him that lurks out there in as much as a public or a government that allows it and that’s the other thing that I’m trying to examine in a big, big way.”
On Jan. 24, the group will be in front of West High School at 7:10 a.m.
In their announcement, they call West High students, teachers and parents “worthless brats” and “reprobates.”
“God does not love everyone and it is not okay to be gay or to fornicate with anyone or thing you please,” the statement said.
The group has announced pickets in Utah in the past and failed to show up.
