Westboro Church Takes Issue With Protest Story

AccessNorthGa.com/March 5, 2005
By Dean Dyer

Cleveland -- White County law enforcement officials say they are ready to implement whatever action is necessary as a group of protesters from Westboro Baptist Church hold demonstrations in connection with the Gay-Straight Alliance issue at White County High School.

Meanwhile Westboro Church officials have taken issue with a story that aired on WRWH Radio and posted on AccessNorthGa.com Thursday. In that story we reported that a number of church officials in the county had advised their members to ignore the demonstrators, saying they want to set off a controversy - that's how they fund their operation, by getting into a controversy and then suing the church.

In a news release from the Church Friday they said, "We have never sued a church or any other person or entity to finance our humble ministry. We do not solicit "nor will we accept- contributions. When people send us contributions, we respectfully return them with a letter of appreciation. The past 14 years we have conducted more than 20,000 such demonstrations in all 50 states and some foreign countries. Our people have good jobs, work hard, earn good salaries, and pay their own way."

The news release further states, "militant sodomites have filled cyber space with such lies, quoting each others lies as source material in their hundreds of publications."

Police officials have been critical of the front page report by the White County News Telegraph in which the newspaper listed each of the locations and times for the Westboro Church protest.

White County Sheriff Neal Walden says the best thing local citizens can do to help them out is to stay clear of these locations during the times of short demonstrations.