By SKY NEWS
Added: Thu, 24 Jan 2008 00:00:00 UTC

Thanks to Jeremy Swanson for the link.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/skynews/20080124/twl-heath-ledger-death-baptist-group-to-3fd0ae9.html

Heath Ledger Death: Baptist Group To Protest At Memorial

The Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church - which has previously said they wished a million people had been killed in the London terror attacks in 2005 - issued a statement saying the Australian actor was "now in hell".

"WBC will picket this pervert's funeral, in religious protest," the group said.

"God hates the sordid, tacky bucket of slime seasoned with vomit known as Brokeback Mountain and He hates all persons having anything whatsoever to do with it.

"Heath Ledger is now in Hell, and has begun serving his eternal sentence there."

The demonstrations will target memorial services held in the US, not those in Australia, according to church spokeswoman Shirley Phelps-Roper.

"You cannot live in defiance of God," she told Fox News.

"He got on that big screen with a big, fat message: God is a liar and it's okay to be gay."

Ms Phelps-Roper, who described Ledger as "a fornicator", said the group will also be picketing the Oscars.

The Westboro Baptist Church has been classified as a "hate group" by the Southern Poverty Law Centre, which monitors extremist activity.

It is the same church which Sky News investigated in 2005.

They revealed to Sky's US correspondent Robert Nisbet their views on the London July,7, 2005 attacks.

They also called the Roman Catholic church the biggest paedophile organisation in the world and were taken to court recently by a family whose funeral they picketed.

TAGGED: -, RELIGION