Phelps & WBC Mob Backs Down from Picketing Virginia Tech Funerals

As sane people everywhere stand together in massive protest against the Westboro Baptist Church's threats to picket the tragic funerals of the victims of the Virginia Tech shootings, some hope arrives. The item was removed from the WBC website. Phelps decided to reverse plans in lieu of radio time on The Mike Gallagher Show.
The host goes on to say:
You may recall that when they were planning to protest outside the funerals of the slain Amish children in Pennsylvania, I offered an hour of airtime on my radio show to Westboro Baptist Church in exchange for their written promise to stay out of Pennsylvania and leave those grieving families alone. They accepted my offer and were guests on my show for an hour. When I found out that they were planning to hold protests outside the Virginia Tech victims funerals, I've made the decision to offer them more airtime. On Tuesday, April 24, Shirley Phelps-Roper and other members of Westboro Baptist Church will be my in-studio guests for the entire program. They have formally announced that they are cancelling all of their scheduled protests for the Virginia Tech shooting victims funerals as a result of receiving this invitation to be on my show.

Okay, so they booked time on the radio-- I suppose anything is better than allowing them to disrupt the funerals. Besides, no one is going to listen to them anyway. We've heard it all before.

More:
National Christian Leader Denounces Phelps' Appearance at Virginia Tech
WASHINGTON, April 20 /Christian Newswire/ -- The Reverend Rob Schenck (pronounced SHANK), an Evangelical minister and president of the interdenominational National Clergy Council in Washington, DC, released this statement today in response to the planned appearance of Pastor Fred Phelps of Topeka's Westboro Baptist Church at the campus of Virginia Tech University in Blacksburg, Virginia:
"Pastor Fred Phelps and his unbiblical, non-Christian venomous message are not only supremely offensive to the survivors and families of those lost in the Virginia Tech massacre, but to those of us who have prayed and wept with them.

"Mr. Phelps routinely violates the New Testament mandate of Christ in Matthew, Chapter 5, to love others, even those he perceives to be his enemies, and St. Paul's admonition that if we 'have not love,' we are as meaningless as 'a tinkling cymbal.'

"Mr. Phelps does not speak for or represent the sentiments of the majority of Bible-believing Christians or ministers in this country. He speaks only for himself and not for historic Christianity. His rants deserve to be utterly rejected and ignored by anyone of serious Christian faith."

You don't have to be a Christian to agree with those sentiments.

My heart goes out to all the victims and their families during this trying and heartwrending time.