BILL GAITHER/The Register-MailKnox students Hayley Lerner, right, and Noah Magaram, left, stand in front of protestors from the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan., before Tuesday’s funeral services for Kyle Wehrly in front of Bethel Baptist Church in Galesburg. The Knox students stood silently in front of the protestors.
Knox students protest protesters
Kansas group brings message of hate to funeral
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
Editor's Note: The slurs used by Westboro Baptist Church members in referring to homosexuals have been deleted and replaced by "homosexual."GALESBURG - Karen Kinderman walked into Bethel Baptist Church about 10 minutes before the funeral service Monday and left a card for the Wehrly family.
But she immediately left to join 20 other Knox College students in the middle of Academy Street to protest - an act of civil disobedience she hoped the Galesburg community did not mind.
The members of Common Ground and the Alliance for Peaceful Action formed a single-file human wall along the street in front of protesters from the Topeka, Kan.-based Westboro Baptist Church, an anti-homosexual religious organization.
The goal of the Knox students was to block the view of Westboro Baptist Church's members from the view of cars and people traveling by on Fremont Street.
"We wanted to stand in front of them, so people don't have to see it," counter-protest organizer Ron Chernobrov said.
Gary Reed of Bushnell came for the same purpose. He heard from a Macomb police officer and his motorcycle club that a group would be at the church protesting the funeral of Galesburg's first casualty of the conflict in Iraq.
"I was never in the service, but my father was," Reed said. "A fallen soldier should be supported."
About 10 members of the Westboro Baptist Church came to Galesburg Tuesday to protest at the funeral for Sgt. 1st Class Kyle Wehrly, who was killed Nov. 3 by a roadside bomb in Ashraf, Iraq.
The group uses verses of the Bible to justify its anti-homosexual message. Group members believe homosexuals have taken control of the military and protest at sites where they believe homosexuality is being celebrated.
"This country has had (homosexuals) take control," Westboro member Paulette Phelps said.
She said the protest was about getting out the message that homosexuality is wrong.
Phelps said she does not believe that protesting during a funeral is inappropriate.
"There is never a bad time to get the message out," she said. "It's about spreading the message."
Kinderman said members of the two Knox student clubs did not say anything to the protesters, but silently stood in front of them.
When they did this, Kinderman said, members of the Wesboro Baptist Church became enraged and started yelling phrases such as "God hates (homosexuals)" and "God hates America."
The students remained silent.
