Church group claims God hates Reno

RENO -- The Kansas-based church that protests at the funerals of U.S. soldiers, claiming the servicemen are dying because God hates gay people and America's tolerance of them, has decided that God hates Reno, too.

"Reno is a dangerous place to be, with the curse of God upon Reno," the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan., claimed in a news release this week. "God hates Reno, Nevada."

Police Chief Michael Poehlman called the church's statement "despicable," especially because it begins with references to Brianna Denison, a 19-year-old college student who has been the target of a search since police believe she was abducted from a Reno home on Jan. 20.

"If Brianna Denison dies, blame the corrupt Reno Police," the church's statement read, adding that church members will "picket her funeral, in religious protest & warning."

Shirley Phelps-Roper, an attorney and member of the church, said Wednesday they targeted Reno because local law enforcement officers failed to protect three church members who picketed a memorial service here Saturday for staff Sgt. Sean Gaul, who was killed in Iraq on Jan. 9.

The group says its protests are intended to highlight their belief that God is killing U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan to punish America for condoning homosexuality.

The Reno Gazette-Journal reported that the protesters -- carrying signs that read "Don't waste your tears on fallen soldiers" and "God Hates Fags" -- were encircled by about 150 people.

"They had a little bit of talking back and forth, nothing loud," Washoe County sheriff's Lt. Dean Spurr. "I thought it was very peaceful."

But one of the protesters, Phelps-Roper's 21-year-old nephew Joshua Phelps, said the group tried to push him and the other two protesters into a barbed wire fence. He said one man cut an American flag out of his hand with a knife and another man punched his cousin in the back several times.

"The police stood by and not only didn't do anything to keep the peace and make them obey the law, but helped choreograph the mischief," Phelps-Roper told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from Topeka on Wednesday. "They let those bitter bikers lay hands on our people."

So is Reno the only city that God hates?

"Oh no, hon," Phelps-Roper told a reporter. "God hates America, but you guys (in Reno) have got a special wrath upon you for what those men did."

The group's Web site notes that God also hates Sweden, Canada, Ireland and Mexico.

Phelps-Roper said Reno also is on God's bad side because of the community's "filthy manner of life" -- including gambling and "policies of divorce and remarriage, which the lord Jesus Christ says is adultery."