Westboro Baptist Church to picket institutions they believe support homosexuality
The anti-gay, anti-Semitic Westboro Baptist Church plans to picket Mizzou Hillel, Congregation Beth Shalom, the Stephens College Macklanburg Playhouse and Hickman High School on Friday, according to the picketing schedule on their Web site.
The Westboro Baptist Church, based in Topeka, Kan., previously targeted soldiers’ funerals, Jewish institutions and any institution they believe supports homosexuality, according to a group summary of WBC on the Anti-Defamation League Web site.
The Macklanburg Playhouse at Stephens College will be presenting “The Laramie Project,” a play about the 1998 murder of gay student Matthew Shepard at 7:30 p.m. Friday, according to the Stephens College Web site. On their online picketing schedule, WBC wrote they believe that Shepard went to Hell, quoting Hebrews 4:7.
On Friday, WBC protestors will picket Hickman High School 2:40 to 3:10 p.m., Mizzou Hillel 5:30 to 6 p.m., the Macklanburg Playhouse 6:45 to 7:30 p.m. and Congregation Beth Shalom 7 to 7:30 p.m., according to their Web site.
According to the Jewish Student Organization listserv, Anti-Defamation League St. Louis director Karen Aroesty will discuss how Mizzou Hillel can appropriately respond to the WBC protests from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Thursday at the Jewish Campus Center at 1107 University Ave.
The Westboro Baptist Church also plans to picket the New Reform Temple and Rockhurst University’s Mabee Theater in Kansas City on Friday.
