Toronto Radio Station Gives Airtime to U.S. Christian Extremists

The infamous Westboro Baptist Church called off plans to picket Arizona shooting victims’ funerals in exchange for time on Edge 102.1 and other stations.

The Kansas-based church has made a name for itself by demonstrating at the funerals of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, claiming that their deaths are God’s punishment for Americans’ acceptance of homosexuality. The church apparently considers any tragedy an act of anti-gay divine intervention, and had planned to protest outside the funeral for 9-year-old Christina Green, one of the victims of Saturday’s shooting spree in Arizona, but backed out of those plans when its representatives were offered airtime on Edge 102.1’s Dean Blundell show and several other U.S. stations. Blundell had Shirley Phelps-Roper, the daughter of the church’s firebrand pastor Fred Phelps, on his show Thursday, and rejected criticism that he had been manipulated and violated journalistic standards.