A petition to "Revoke the tax exempt status of the Westboro Baptist Church and re-classify Westboro Baptist Church as a hate group" has become the most popular petition ever on the White House, We the People, website, according to a Huffiington Post report.
The petition has gained 250,000 supporters since Westboro Baptist Church tweeted that it would picket funerals of victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings in Connecticut; a group of hackers responded by posting contact information - email, address and phone numbers - of members of the church.
Westboro Baptist Church is an extremist organization whose members are known for picketing soldiers' funerals in protest of gay marraige - which they believe is the cause of everything evil.
The petition reads:
Westboro Baptist Church is legally recognized as a religious organization and therefore receives a tax exempt status under our laws. The Phelps family and their supporters use these tax exempt funds to finance a country-wide campaign against any person or group they feel promotes values that do not meet with their own. Most prominently they are anti-gay.
The members of this hate group make a practice of targeting funerals to make their case, routinely inflicting further pain and anguish onto the mourning families of deceased soldiers and, even worse, the victims of tragic crimes. They hold signs thanking God and celebrating the deaths of these people. They wave these signs in the faces of the families.
By granting their tax exemption WE ARE FUNDING THEIR HATE. This must change.
