Westboro Baptist Church

The Westboro Baptist Church (WBC), based in Topeka, Kansas, regularly stages protests around the country, often several times a week, against institutions and individuals they think support homosexuality or otherwise subvert what they believe is God's law. Targets include schools the group deems to be accepting of homosexuality; Catholic, Lutheran, and other Christian denominations that the WBC feels are heretical; and funerals for people murdered or killed in accidents like plane crashes. WBC also protests at funerals for American soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, a tactic the group started in 2005.

In April 2009, the WBC targeted Israeli consulates and Jewish organizations, distributing anti-Semitic fliers to announce planned protests at these sites. The group had picketed an Israeli consulate in Boston in March 2009, protesting Israel's tolerance of homosexuality. While members of the group have made public anti-Semitic statements over the years, until recently anti-Semitism has not been a major focus.

For more on the Westboro Baptist Church's offensive statements on gays, Jews, Blacks, Christians and the United States, see: http://www.adl.org/special_reports/wbc/default.asp