Anti Gay Church Ordered to Pay 11 Million to Father of Fallen Solider

The Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas might need to hold a special offering night soon. A jury in Baltimore found the leaders of the small Kansas church had invaded the privacy of Albert Snyder and family when they held the funeral for Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder, killed in Iraq. The jury first awarded $2.9 million in compensatory damages. It later awarded $6 million in punitive damages for invasion of privacy and $2 million for causing emotional distress.

The church is well known to shock and rile attendees of soldier’s funerals. Some of the well known tag lines for the church group are: God Hates Your Tears, Thank God for Dead Soldiers, Fag Troops and Thank God for 9/11. The group came into the national spotlight in 1998, for picketing the funeral of Matthew Shepard, a young man from Wyoming who was beaten to death by two men because of his homosexuality.