By LORRAINE SWANSON
Editor
The Kansans, four adults and two young children, show up as promised at 11:15 a.m. across the street from Emanuel Congregation after notifying local police districts earlier in the morning of their arrival in Chicago. Ringed by 20th and 24th District police officers, Westboro Baptist Church members set up their signs across the street from the Edgewater synagogue.
Shirley Phelps-Roper
Across the street, 400 counterdemonstrators form a wall of support around Emanuel, armed with their own signs: “Stop Anti-Gay Hate,” “We Are All God’s Children,” and “Edgewater Has Too Much Heart for Hate.”
The large turnout of residents leaves Shirley Phelps-Roper, 51, one of Westboro Baptist Church-founder Fred Phelps’ 13 children and the church’s spokeswoman, unimpressed.
“No, hon, this is a small group,” Shirley says, as some residents across the street chant “bigots go home.”
“I was at a high school in a small town in Oklahoma where there was about 1,000 [counter protestors]. Sometimes there’s 2,000,” she adds.
Infamous for protesting at the funerals of U.S. troops killed in the Middle East wars, claiming their deaths are proof of God’s hatred of America for its “tolerance of fags,” Westboro Baptist Church has turned its attention in recent months to protesting the existence of Jews at synagogues and other Jewish institutions around the country. On Thursday, the family is scheduled to visit San Antonio, Texas, where a woman is said to have eaten her baby.
“We’re dropping seeds,” Shirley explains, spiraling off into selective scripture about Jews and President Obama being the anti-Christ.
As the Phelps family waves their anti-Jewish signs at passing cars, drivers blast their horns in support of the synagogue. A few drivers give Westboro church members the finger.
Three men ride by on Harleys revving their engines, as Shirley chit-chats about how family members flew into Chicago earlier that morning from Kansas City. The family, she says, funds its own trips around the country where they have staged over 22,000 pickets, including the circus.
“I’ll tell you a secret, we all work,” Shirley says, a civil rights attorney and the mother of 11 children. “We don’t take anything from anyone and if they offer [money] we send it back … We’re determined. This ministry was entrusted to us by the hand of God.”
Adhering to the day’s tight schedule timed down to how long it will take to cross busy intersections, the Phelps family packs up its signs. The crowd across the street cheers as Chicago police escort the family safely back to their rented SUV.
At Anshe Emet Temple in Lakeview, a handful of counterdemonstrators yell at the family to go back to Kansas. A few of them have followed the Phelpses from Emanuel.
Standing with the Phelps family, one counterdemonstrator holds up sign that reads “Bigotry Is Intrinsically Disordered.”
“This isn’t my first time protesting against Westboro,” the man said, who did not wish to give his name. “I’m from Chicago and I’m not going to take this laying down.”
“His name is coward,” Shirley said.
“You racist bigots,” the man says.
After a “two-minute warning” from Shirley’s sister Elizabeth, family members pile into the rented SUV and move on to Temple Shalom at 3480 Lake Shore Drive.
“Where does this road go?” Shirley asks, oblivious to the occupants of passing cars screaming out of open windows at the Phelps family on Lake Shore Drive.
Shirley said she revels in the family’s status as “the most hated family in America” because it is in the Bible.
“[God is] going to restore the house of Israel and we are going to be the ones who help him,” she says. “We are called ‘those who stand by.’ It’s in Zechariah, chapter 12.”
Later in the afternoon between pickets, the Phelps family is planning an outing in Millennium Park. “We love coming to Chicago,” Shirley says.
Read more about Westboro Baptist Church
“I can guarantee I’m not a fag”
Slideshow of Westboro Baptist Church Protest, Chicago News Bench
Another Westboro Baptist Protest Met With Peaceful Counter-protest
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How can the Phelps family be anti-Jewish when Jesus himself is Jewish? I’d sure like to know what Bible they are reading.