The Westboro Baptist Church of Kansas made the news recently with their protest of their shameless display of hate at the funeral of a recent serviceman, then winning the legal battle with the father, and forcing him to pay for their legal fees. In fact, everything about them is somewhat sickening–right down to their website address (god hates fags dot com).

By far, the worst thing about them is their shameless exploitation of the children of the parents of their church. An 8 year old child, marching with a sign and filled with hatred has had their childhood stolen from them . . . regardless of the strength of the convictions of their parents.

But, this is not a tale of woe and sadness. This is a tale of victory.

When the Westboro Baptist Church showed up with their signs and their children to West Virginia to tell the families of the miners who died that their loved ones had died because the country is too tolerant of gays, and that there are too many Catholics in West Virginia and that God hates them . . . they were met with a bit of a surprise.  (I SWEAR, I am not making this up . . . .)

The roughly 10 people filed out of a mini-van only to be met with a force of 500 West Virginians who were there to counter-protest the Westboro Baptist Church and their message of hatred with . . . love, compassion and peace.

But, don’t take my word for it . . . watch the video and see for yourself.

The protest schedule for the Westboro Baptist Church [ed. of hatred] is on their website.  If you believe that peace, tolerance and love are more powerful than hatred, there may be an opportunity for you to test your hypothesis.  The people of Iowa did it . . . and had similar results to the good people of West Virginia.