Westboro Baptist Church to protest at Roger Ebert's funeral

The homophobic group took issue with a tweet that the film critic wrote in March

Published April 8, 2013 1:00PM (EDT)

The Westboro Baptist Church, which has been petitioned to be classified as a hate group, plans to picket the funeral of legendary film critic Roger Ebert on Monday morning.

Westboro took issue with the Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic, who died on Thursday, after he tweeted out a link to an excerpt from Jeff Chu's book "Does Jesus Really Love Me?" on Salon, in which Chu, a gay man, goes undercover to spend four days in Kansas studying the homophobic group. Ebert tweeted two links, saying in one of them, "Just another day at Westboro Baptist."

Westboro's protest will begin at 9:15 a.m. From the press release:

American entertainment industry publicity leech Roger Ebert took to Twitterverse to mock the faithful servants of God at Westboro Baptist Church, just days before he received the horrifying summons: “Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: [now] whose shall [that silly vanity called a Pulitzer Prize] be, which thou has provided?” (Luke 12:20) This fool sold his soul for some fame & fortune, forgetting that God has made a simple declaration regarding His people: “Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm.” (Psalms 105:15). Now the famed critic is in a new jurisdiction, where he can see the blessings poured out on God's humble servants in heaven, from his seat of eternal torment & sorrow in Hell!

Ebert's funeral will be held at 10 a.m. at Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago, and is open to the public.


By Prachi Gupta

Prachi Gupta is an Assistant News Editor for Salon, focusing on pop culture. Follow her on Twitter at @prachigu or email her at pgupta@salon.com.

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Film Critic Funeral Roger Ebert Westboro Baptist Church