Controversial religious group might picket outside church
ANDERSON -- A religious group that achieved national notoriety in 2005 for picketing funeral processions for soldiers killed in action during the Iraq war is planning to picket Saturday's funeral for Joshua Munns, a private security contractor who was kidnapped more than a year ago and murdered in Iraq.
Shirley Phelps-Roper, a spokeswoman for her father's Topeka, Kan.-based Westboro Baptist Church, said Wednesday that fewer than 10 members from the religious organization plan to picket near the Anderson-Cottonwood Neighborhood Church, where the service for the 25-year-old Munns begins at noon.
The independent and controversial church group, which is not affiliated with any known Baptist conventions or associations, claims that God is venting his wrath and vengeance against a doomed America because it has become an immoral and decadent nation rampant with homosexuality.
"God killed that young man so we could tell you His word because you have forgotten God," said Phelps-Roper, adding that her group has contacted local law enforcement agencies to inform them about its plan.
Bruce Compton, a Shasta Lake resident and a captain with the Patriot Guard Riders, said Wednesday that his motorcycle group is well aware of the planned picket, but that the religious organization often does not follow through with its threats.
"We see this a lot," Compton said. He said that members of the Westboro Baptist Church crave publicity and are successful in upsetting families and communities with their publicized plans.
The church frequently cancels those plans.
"Morons," he said of the group.
In fact, the Westboro Baptist Church and its highly-publicized disruptions of soldier funerals brought about the creation of the Patriot Guard Riders a few years ago.
"Their protesting was the catalyst that got us started," he said, adding that the group, which is largely comprised of U.S. veterans has since expanded its activities.
In turn, the church has labeled the Patriot Guard Riders as lawless, violent and cowardly men who hate God.
But, it appears, church members feel much the same way about the Pope, Billy Graham and U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Roberts, all targets of its picketing.
Compton, who said he has been in contact with law enforcement agencies regarding Saturday's picket, said the religious group will demonstrate in a public area off Rhonda Road about 300 feet north of the Anderson church.
He said the motorcyclists will use U.S. flags to block sight of the protesters from the grieving Munns family.
Should the demonstrators get a little too vocal, he said, the Patriot Guard Riders will "fire up" their motorcycles to drown out their shouting.
"They can go back and crawl under their rock," he said.
Mark Munns, the father of the slain Anderson man, could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
Phelps-Roper said that her group does not want trouble and obeys the laws of both God and man. She said that the protesters won't be protesting outside the Northern California Veterans Cemetery following the church service.
Munns, a 2001 Anderson High School graduate who served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 2001 to 2005, is being buried there with military honors after the church service.
Munns' body was returned to Shasta County on Tuesday.
He was kidnapped with four other security contractors on Nov. 16, 2006, by a group of masked and armed men at a fake checkpoint near the Iraq-Kuwait border.
His body, as well as three others, was found late last month near Basra.
Of those security contractors kidnapped with Munns, only Jon Cote of Buffalo, N.Y., remains missing.
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