Fundamentalist Church Plans To Protest Memorial For Local Serviceman

By Amber Lester Thursday, September 23, 2010

Lt. Todd Weaver was killed in action on Sept. 9.

Weaver, a graduate of Bruton High School and The College of William and Mary, died Sept. 9 in Kandahar, Afghanistan of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device. A memorial service will be held at 1:15 p.m. Saturday at the Williamsburg Community Chapel and a funeral service will be held at 2:15 p.m. on Oct. 14 at Arlington National Cemetery.

The Westboro Baptist Church is a Topeka, Kan.-based church known for its protest activities, which include picketing the funerals of gay people who were murdered or died from complications of AIDS, along with military funerals for servicemen and women. On Westboro’s site, the church says it pickets military funerals of troops “whom God has killed in Iraq/Afghanistan in righteous judgment against an evil nation.” The church is led by Fred Phelps, who travels across the country with his family to lead daily protests.

The church has been the focus of several lawsuits, most notably a pending lawsuit that will be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 6. Albert Snyder, of York, Pa., sued Phelps for his distress following a protest of his son Matthew’s military funeral in March 2006. The Supreme Court will hear the case as a challenge to the First Amendment; 14 outside organizations have entered the case, including most states and a bipartisan group of senators, who side with Snyder, and several free speech groups, who want to protect free speech, despite admonishing Phelps for what they call “hate speech.”

The Westboro Baptist Church has notified the James City County Police Department of its plans to protest. Police officers will be present at the memorial service to ensure that the service and any demonstrations are conducted in a peaceful and legal manner, according to Major Steve Rubino.

Weaver joined the Army National Guard after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and served a 10-month deployment in Iraq in 2004. At William and Mary, he earned a bachelor’s degree in government and was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society. He was commissioned into the Army through the college’s ROTC program. He is survived by his wife, Emma, one-year-old daughter Kiley and several other relatives.