Westboro Church Plans Picket of Steve Jobs’s Funeral

Westboro Church announced Wednesday that it plans to picket Steve Jobs’s funeral as part of its anti-gay crusade. For added chutzpah and irony, Margie Phelps, the daughter of church founder Fred Phelps, made the announcement via Twitter on an iPhone.

“Westboro will picket his funeral,” Ms. Phelps tweeted. “He had a huge platform; gave God no glory & taught sin. MT @AP: Apple co-founder Steve Jobs has died at 56.”

Margie Phelps Tweet

The tiny activist church has made many a mainstream headline by picketing the funerals of soldiers and celebrities, alike. The group has a radical anti-gay, anti-U.S., anti-Jew, and anti-reality message, and it regularly preaches that “God hates fags.”

Church members have now seized on the death of technology icon Steve Jobs to further promote its message. Tweeting from the group’s official “WCB Tachmonite” account, the church said, “My favorite part of using an iPhone to tweet that #stevejobs is in hell is when it results in international media coverage of our message.”

Another family member, Shirley Phelps-Rogers, added, “Steve Jobs did NOT create anything-God used Steve Jobs to create amazing STUFF for WBC to preach like a mug! Jobs vainly imagined HE did it!”

Westboro Church is comprised almost entirely of Phelps family members, and it is based in Topeka, Kansas. It remains to be seen what kind of reception they will receive at the site of Steve Jobs’s funeral service.