Westboro Baptists protest in North Myrtle Beach

Using the roar of motorcycles and traffic in the background, six people of Westboro Baptist Church stood around the corner of Eighth Avenue North and U.S. 17 in North Myrtle Beach wearing T-shirts and holding placards with messages such as "God Is Your Enemy" and "Divorce + Remarriage = Adultery."

The fundamentalist group from Topeka, Kan., was led by Shirley Phelps-Roper, who brought four of her 11 kids - Isaiah, 21; Zachariah, 19; Noah, 11; and Luke, 8; in addition to her 6-year-old niece, Mariah - to picket at Our Lady Star of the Sea Catholic Church, Ocean Drive Presbyterian Church and Barefoot Church on Sunday.



The team says it plans to picket six location large schools Friday - Conway, Socastee, Carolina Forest, Myrtle Seaside, North Myrtle Beach and St. James - protesting homosexuality, based on its schedule. Mother and father and students plan a counter protest.

Phelps-Roper will be the daughter of Fred Phelps, the leader of Westboro, which has grow to be internationally regarded for its protests at funerals of gay folks who have been murdered, victims of loathe crimes and military folks, as well as its potential to push its agenda on the legal limits in the law.

The class famously picketed the funeral of Matthew Sheppard in 1998 following Shepard was beaten to death in Wyoming because he was gay. The church members have also protested the funerals and memorial providers of Fred Rogers, TV's "Mister Rogers," Coretta Scott King and Jerry Falwell.

The church runs many different web sites, such as godhatesamerica.com, which says God hates Americans for their "filthy method of life," the government and since Americans are the "poster kids for sin," and Phelps-Roper told a BBC documentary maker that the church spends $200,000 on protests a year to "spread God's detest."

The church may be involved in quite a few court instances, at times winning, often losing, and also Phelps-Roper continues to be arrested as a consequence of her strategies of voicing her disapproval.

In 2007, she was arrested on suspicion of contributing towards the delinquency of an minor following police said she allowed her son to trample an American flag whilst protesting the funeral of the soldier in Bellevue, Neb., a misdemeanor within the state.

But nothing went that far Sunday.

Our Lady Star in the Sea was the 1st stop, exactly where parishioners followed church officials in not recognizing the picketers, which was relatively easy to try and do.

With this sort of a little class on the corner of U.S. 17, Westboro members stood nicely aside through the entrance on the church so they may very well be greater observed by people in passing cars, plus a group of counter protesters, not a lot bigger than the Westboro party, got closer on the building.

"We're in opposition to them because of the kind of hate they spew," explained Sabrina Hilliard of Longs, who was counter-protesting together with her husband, Henry. "It's not perfect to possess that a lot detest with your heart."

The Hilliards had been joined by numerous others. One particular man carried a substantial wooden cross, and there have been a few placards and some American flags. Most attended separately but grouped together at every single on the church web sites.

At Our Lady, Deacon Peter Casamento said the church had worked with North Myrtle Beachfront public safety officials in contacting Westboro attorneys, plus the Westboro team experienced been amenable to the spot through the highway.

Casamento told individuals opposed to Westboro, "We ask which you ignore them, and also you pray for them."

North Myrtle Seashore police officers ended up plentiful and kept opposing groups at each and every site separated by a road.

They had been fast to query the couple of who attempted to get close to Phelps-Roper, who altered lyrics to songs this sort of as "The Marines' Hymn" and told individuals inside earshot that they came to this spot since "there are men and women and beaches here."

"You're in full-on rebellion in opposition to our God," explained Phelps-Roper, who cited preachers who minister to homosexuals, the divorced and remarried, in addition to Gov. Mark Sanford, who experienced a very publicized affair that led to divorce. "We have a message from your creator ... you're in the tidy South, right, blah, blah, blah ... your destruction is imminent."

Later in the morning at Ocean Drive Presbyterian, just before the protest and away on the cameras, Phelps-Roper talked about her father in Topeka.

"He does really little coming on the road today," she explained.

"He is our preacher, and also, he's 80. Daily, he's there. People can go at 7:30 and sit and understand with him, and now they're going at lunchtime, as well."

Phelps-Roper stated you will discover about 70 those who meet at their church, and not all of them are necessarily folks. She explained they recently began employing iPhones to hook up followers with their message.

Across the street, Thomas Darminio of Myrtle Seashore was a person of several who sang the right version of "The Marines' Hymn."

"I wear my flag in my heart," proclaimed Darminio, a retired Marine and sheriff's officer, originally from New Jersey. "I wanted to show my support for that flag, the country and especially the military."

Farther off the road, 19 associates of an youth team from Foothills Community Chapel in Columbus, N.C., were being vacationing at a rental house and had been informed by police with the morning demonstration.

In response, the group created a circle and raised their voices in song.

"We don't agree with them," explained Cristi Yoder, "but we pray that God will touch their hearts."

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