Westboro Baptist threatens to picket funerals of marathon victims

Tweets the church: “God sent the Boston Marathon Bombs for the sin of Massachusetts passing same-sex marriage!"

Published April 16, 2013 12:00PM (EDT)

            (Reuters/Kevin Lamarque)
(Reuters/Kevin Lamarque)

This article originally appeared on GlobalPost.

Global Post Today has been a day that has tried the soul of a city.

In the hours since the two explosions rocked the streets of Boston, messages of love and support have saturated the internet — but these inspiring and compassionate posts were not universal.

In fact, the commentary streaming across the Twitter feed of the Westboro Baptist Church was both hostile and hateful.

The Westboro Baptist Church, based in Topeka, Kansas, is a small, virulently homophobic, anti-Semitic hate group that regularly stages protests or pickets institutions and individuals they think support homosexuality or otherwise subvert what they believe is God’s law.

WBC even protested the funerals of children who were slain in the horrific Newtown shootings this past December.

Given their history, perhaps it should come as no surprise that members of the Westboro Baptist Church have vowed to picket the funerals of those killed at the Boston Marathon today.

In one tweet, the church wrote, “God sent the Boston Marathon Bombs for the sin of Massachusetts passing same-sex marriage!”


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Boston Bombings Boston Marathon Globalpost Massachusetts Newtown Westboro Baptist Church