HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – A Kansas 'church' group that routinely pickets military funerals has dropped plans to demonstrate at funerals of five Amish girls fatally shot in an attack on their one-room schoolhouse.
Instead, members of the Westboro Baptist Church issued a statement Wednesday saying a representative will appear on a nationally syndicated radio talk show.
The Web site of show host Mike Gallagher indicated the group was offered an hour of airtime Thursday morning in exchange for dropping the planned demonstration.
In preparation for the demonstration, Gov. Ed Rendell said earlier Wednesday that he would ask Amish elders if they want state police protection, and he appealed to the Topeka, Kan.-based group to allow the Amish to conduct their funerals in privacy.
Members of the Westboro Baptist Church routinely picket military funerals, saying that American servicemen and women are dying overseas because God is displeased that the United States tolerates homosexuals.
In a statement on its Web site, the church blamed Rendell for the deaths of the Amish children because of comments he made about the Westboro group on national television several months ago.
"They're insane," Rendell responded when asked about the group's statement.
In June, Rendell signed legislation into Pennsylvania law designed to restrict Westboro Baptist Church's picketing by making it a crime to demonstrate within 500 feet of a funeral or memorial service in Pennsylvania.
Monday morning, Charles Carl Roberts IV entered the West Nickel Mines Amish School in Lancaster County and shot 10 girls, killing five. Roberts killed himself as police stormed the building.
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