Students here and across the country are getting the wrong education, according to members of the Westboro Baptist Church.
Parents and teachers are wrongly teaching students to accept gays and “fornication,” according to Sara Phelps, 29, a member of the group.
“We’re here to tell the young people you’ve been lied to all your life,” said Margie Phelps, 54, a member and attorney of the Westboro Baptist Church. “You’re as entitled to the truth as anyone.”
With feet planted firmly on American flags and gloved hands grasping signs like, “THANK GOD FOR IEDS” and “GOD HATES YOU,” four members of the Westboro Baptist Church protested homosexuality and fornication on the northwest corner of Massachusetts Avenue, near Glover Gate.
Margie Phelps said she was standing on a flag because she didn’t have a permit to burn it and couldn’t use it as toilet paper.
The group also picketed Islamic Center on Massachusetts Avenue and diplomat Richard Holbrooke’s memorial service at the Kennedy Center earlier in the day.
The other protests didn’t get any media attention or counter-protests, said Jonathan Phelps, 51, even though they saw President Barack Obama at the Kennedy Center.
“No one cares about Holbrooke,” Jonathan Phelps said.
Margie Phelps said AU’s gay community had no effect on their decision to come here.
“Frankly, I don’t care,” she said. “One is too many.”
When a few snowballs and eggs came flying near them, the four just stepped aside.
“It happens,” said Sara Phelps. “They’re brute beasts, they can’t control themselves.”
But she said it was still a “privilege” to protest here.
“I could be one of those people across the street,” she said. “That could be me over there holding one of those signs, and I’m not because I have, for some reason, found favor on the side of my God and I am so incredibly thankful and happy for that.”
Holding signs that said, “GOD HATES YOU” and “YOU’RE GOING TO HELL,” Sara Phelps talked about the discrepancies between her theology and those of the students across the street.
“If I’ve misinterpreted a thing, and you guys are all right about God loving everybody, then what do you care about?” she said. “Why do you care if we’re out here?”
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