Funeral Picketers Become Kansas Election Issue

Rev. Fred Phelps Sr. and his Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas have become an issue in the hard-fought race for Kansas Attorney General, according to yesterday's Associated Press. Republican incumbent Phill Kline is pressing for legislation to toughen Kansas' law that prohibits demonstrations at funerals. Westboro Baptist Church members picket soldiers' funerals, claiming that deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan are God's punishment for the United States tolerating homosexuality. However now it turns out that Rev. Phelps son donated $500 to Kline's campaign and was subsequently invited to a Kline fundraiser. Kline says he did not know of Phelps' connections with Westboro Baptist. Kline later gave the $500 to the Patriot Guard, a group that protests against the Phelpses. Kline said that the subsequent invitation to Phelps , if it happened, was a clerical error.