by Associated Press
CASPER, Wyo. -- A group of Christian
leaders has asked an anti-gay pastor and his Kansas congregation to stay away
from Wyoming as the fourth anniversary of the death of Matthew Shepard
approaches.
The Central Wyoming Evangelical Fellowship wrote to the Rev.
Fred Phelps of Topeka and his Westboro Baptist Church, saying, "We do not
believe the protests you are planning will glorify God." More than 30 ministers
and other members of the group signed the letter.
Phelps' son, Fred Phelps Jr., dismissed the group's
objections as "irrelevant" and said they would have no effect on Westboro's
plans for a series of pickets next month.
Shepard, a gay University of Wyoming freshman, died Oct. 12,
1998, five days after he was lured from a bar, kidnapped, tied to a fence and
beaten into a coma by two Laramie men, who committed the crime partly because of
Shepard's homosexuality. The men are serving life sentences.
The senior Phelps and his followers picketed Shepard's
funeral in Casper and protested outside the courthouse where one of his killer's
was being tried.
September 19, 2002