ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - A group of local activists is planning a peaceful “counter rally” to one staged by members of the Westboro Baptist Church outside World Series Game 3 at Busch Stadium Saturday night.
As first reported by KMOX News earlier this week, the anti-gay, anti-war protestors from Topeka, Kansas said they will make their presence felt in downtown St. Louis on both Saturday and Sunday.
Counter-rally organizer Suzie Nomen says that’s unfortunate.
“I consider this group, again, nothing more than a hate group and I put them on the same level as the KKK and pond scum,” she said.
Nomen says support for the counter-rally has spread via social media. Nearly 100 people had announced on Facebook they were attending by Friday afternoon with thousands more invited.
The rally will take place from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. Saturday night outside Busch Stadium. Westboro protestors announced Sunday that they will protest between 4:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m.
Organizers say their counter-rally will be entirely peaceful and they hope baseball fans will do their best to ignore the visitors from Kansas.
“Represent our city well, make our Cardinals proud, make our city proud. Don’t give any reason for any violent outbursts whatsoever because that is specifically what they want,” Nomen said.
The Westboro protestors contend that baseball fans are worshiping false idols by watching baseball when they should instead be worshiping God and mourning their sin.
“Indeed, if you spent one tiny fraction of what you spend on your baseball-worship on learning what the Bible actually says, & teaching it to your children, this would be a blessed righteous nation,” the group stated in a press release earlier this week. “Instead, you have to look to nasty fornicating adulterous sodomitical punks-in-uniform, while you sit in a drunken stupor cheering, as a means of distracting yourself from the misery you’ve heaped on your head for your great sin.”
According to the protestors, God has already punished Red Sox and Cardinals fans by bringing about the Boston Marathon bombings earlier this year and the May 22, 2011 tornado in Joplin.
