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Saturday, February 02, 2008
VANDALIA — Members of a fundamentalist Kansas church who protest at military funerals out of their professed belief that the Iraq war is God's punishment for American tolerance of homosexuality were outnumbered by counter-protesters and police at a Marine soldier's funeral Saturday.
The protesters, escorted away by police as counter-protesters waving American flags screamed and jeered at them, stayed about an hour and departed just before the funeral's 10 a.m. start. There were no arrests, Vandalia police Lt. Harry Busse said.
Extras
Police enforced a state law requiring that protesters stay 300 feet away from a funeral location, Busse said.
The four members of the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan., stood across National Road from St. Christopher Catholic Church, the Vandalia site of Marine Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach's funeral, chanting in protest. They held signs that read "America is Doomed" and "Semper Fi Fags," their apparent taunt to the Marine Corps' motto "Semper Fidelis," Latin for "Always Faithful."
"We are here to represent the sovereignty of God. God is mad at America," said Ben Phelps, 32, one of the protesters from Topeka.
Nearby, men in a crowd that police estimated at 150 counter-protesters shouted "shut up" and "go home" at the Westboro Baptist activists. Police stood between the groups.
At one point, an Army soldier in military fatigues angrily approached the protesters and called out something to them before police intercepted him and turned him back, without incident. The man, Army Staff Sgt. Bobby Brite, 40, of Dearborn, Mich., said he and a companion soldier had driven from Detroit to pay their respects to Lauterbach. Investigators believe that Lauterbach, of Vandalia, was killed by a fellow Marine who remains at large.
Brite said he supports freedom of speech, but not at a funeral.
"That's just offensive," Brite said of the Westboro Baptist protest. "If you want to protest, protest at the White House, not at a funeral."
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2242 or jnolan@DaytonDailyNews.com.
