WBC's attempts to protest at Leonard Nimoy funeral thwarted by inability to find it

[cbayer]

http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2015/mar/03/leonard-nimoy-funeral-westboro-baptist-church

Unaffiliated Christian group failed to find church where service to commemorate the life of Star Trek star was being held


Tributes laid at Leonard Nimoy’s star on the walk of fame in Hollywood. Photograph: Imago/Barcroft Media/Future

Ben Child
Tuesday 3 March 2015 08.34 GMT Last modified on Tuesday 3 March 2015 10.53 GMT

The Westboro Baptist Church were foiled in their attempts to protest at the funeral of Star Trek actor Leonard Nimoy on 1 March, because of their failure to find it.

The church posted a Twitter update lamenting its inability to picket the event, which it said was due to a lack of publicity over the location. The organisation also referenced the widely-publicised failure of Nimoy’s Star Trek co-star William Shatner to attend the funeral.

Westboro has become notorious for its uninvited presence at high-profile funerals of those whose sexuality and beliefs it disagrees with. The WBC, which is also anti-Jewish, anti-Catholic and anti-Chinese, believes that the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are God’s punishment on America for tolerating homosexuality.

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[Renew Deal]

1. This is their way of showing up without having to show up.

Publicity

[cbayer]

2. I think you may be right and I struggle with whether to give them publicity or not.

But this story was just to pass up.

[NewJeffCT]

10. You're probably right, but

it also makes them look like idiots for not being able to find it. I'm sure they could have found it if they really tried to look

[annabanana]

3. Just another way for the WBC to be

lost.

[Baitball Blogger]

4. Oh, good.

The roaming holograph worked.

[cbayer]

12. Lol, that's hilarious.

Maybe they kept getting teletransported?

[central scrutinizer]

5. How do people this stupid

make enough money to travel widely and stage their protests?

[cbayer]

6. This is a really good question.

I have often wondered who funds them.

[Act_of_Reparation]

11. How they get their money isn't a big secret.

Largely, they've funded themselves through lawsuits. Filing civil rights complaints against the city of Topeka and the State of Kansas, they have accrued more than a hundred thousand dollars.

Apart from that, they are self-funding. According to Nathan Phelps--Fred Phelps' estranged atheist son--several members of the Phelps family are employed by the state and funnel significant percentages of their paychecks into the WBC coffers, where, as a federally recognized religious organization, the money is kept, tax-free. There are also a few well-to-do families Fred Phelps recruited into the WBC years ago, upon whom the church has imposed exorbitant tithes.

The thing to keep in mind here is the WBC isn't doing anything particularly expensive. They're not setting up charities or soup kitchens or buying up hospitals. They're just packing themselves into cars and driving around the country yelling obscenities at people they don't know. I once drove from Eastern Connecticut to San Diego, California; it took me three days and cost me under $300. And they're a huge family; those not picketing funerals are back in Topeka, working and funneling their paychecks into the church.

[cbayer]

13. I did not know about the lawsuits. I also didn't know they didn't accept outside donations.

SPLC has a good overview on them:

http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-files/groups/westboro-baptist-church

WBC is registered as a 501(3)c and is tax exempt to the extent that those organizations are exempt. If the IRS wanted to, they could most likely find very sufficient grounds to revoke their status, but this is just one of a long list of utter failings on the part of the IRS when it comes to religious organizations. IMHO, it is the worst abuse of this exemption that there is.

[kwassa]

7. The funeral was held on the Starship Enterprise. Everyone knew that.

The WBC craft just couldn't keep up.

[hrmjustin]

8. I was glad that they did not come for my cousins funeral in 2005.

We were warned by the army that it might happen. I did get called the f word by the when I marched in the pride parade several years in a row.

[NewJeffCT]

9. aww, that's so sad

NOT.

LLAP