Westboro Baptist Church was no match for Santa Clarita community members early Sunday morning as the group toured the city protesting various churches.
A group of more than 50 Santa Clarita residents gathered at various churches all over the city to counter-protest Westboro Baptist Church members.
“This is an opportunity for us to come out and show our diversity and our unity,” said Susan Wachter, a member of the Santa Clarita Unity Coalition. “If you look at this group of people, you’ve got every age group, every religion, all different races and sexual orientations and we are all here united.”
There was a heavy presence of Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station deputies at all of the picketing locations the two groups went to, and deputies kept the groups distanced from each other.
Six Westboro protesters chanted popular songs with alternative lyrics and held signs with their beliefs and website name clearly printed on the front.
Westboro cult members chant their messages of hate.
Westboro Baptist Church released plans to target five churches in Santa Clarita that they believe go against the Old Testament a few weeks ago.
The groups picket schedule began around 8 a.m. at Saint Kateri Tekakwitha Catholic Parish they then moved on to Grace Baptist Church at 8:30 a.m., St. Stephens Episcopal Church at 9:30 a.m., Santa Clarita United Methodist at 10:30 a.m. and lastly The Church on the Way at 11 a.m.
The group is expected to also protest the Academy Awards tonight at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles from 2:30-4:30 p.m.
“Maybe we should thank that tiny group of protestors for giving us the opportunity to show Santa Clarita this is what we are,” said Wachter.
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98 Comments
Damn fools. Congratulations SCV.
This gives me hope for Santa Clarita .
I love you Santa Clarita!!!!!
AWESOMETOWN!!!! THANK YOU :)
Good Job SCV!!!
❤️
Love this!
Yes yes yes.. I love you guys.. You shouldn’t be treated any different.. We all deserve to be happy doesn’t matter who u are with… Respect all, love all, and honor all..
Which church where they protesting? #theyneedahobby
They protested at five churches in Santa Clarita: Saint Kateri, Grace Baptist, St. Stephen’s Episcopal, Santa Clarita United Methodist, and Church on the Way.
We have good people here!
Great people! Way more good then bad:)
Very proud to live in Santa Clarita
Nick Ventura, looks like you made it in the media again!
Loved it
Yeah
Move along Westboro,..
Take your hatred somewhere else.
Westboro accomplished exactly what they wanted…publicity. Though I am proud that SCV stood up and represented, we should have showed them how insignificant and irrelevant they are by ignoring them and not giving them the attention they seek.
Good job SCV!!
Proud of my fellow citizens. No room for hatred and idiocy from these folks in our lovely town.
THE RAINBOW IS A COVENANT THAT GOD MADE WITH US PROMISING THAT HE WILL NEVER FLOOD THE EARTH AGAIN !!! ITS NOT A SYMBOL FOR SAME SEX LOVERS !!!!! READ THE BIBLE Ppl !!!!! WHO DO U THINK U Ppl ARE TO TWIST HIS WORDS AND MEANINGS AROUND!!! What’s this world coming to.
Nowadays bad is good and good they called it bad .
This makes no sense, what does this even mean?
To sum it up, the rainbow was a covenant given to us by God after the Great Flood and Noah’s Ark to signify the fact that He would not flood the Earth like that again. What I believe Vince is trying to say is that the LGBT community has taken God’s covenant and modified the symbol to fit their agenda even though Scripturally homosexuality is wrong. And you know what? That isn’t the right way to go about it. Judge not, lest you be judged the same way. Jesus taught love, not hate and instead of judging, we need to begin loving. Let God be the judge and focus on becoming more like Christ.
I guess god should have trademarked it.
Rainbows are caused by reflection and refraction of light in water droplets in the atmosphere. They are created by water, the sun, & your eyes..none of which exist because of an imaginary bearded man in the sky. Grow up
TJ–the eye is the most amazing part of the human body. The more I study science, the stronger my belief in God becomes!!
Right on, Ron. Jesus loved everybody, especially sinners. He told them to turn away from sin to enter the kingdom of heaven.
If it helps you & doesn’t hurt anyone else more power to you. I have nothing personal against religious people or republicans. I stopped trying to understand why anyone would want to be either & my headaches went away.
TJ Pope, what do Republicans have to do with this?
Republicans are the regressive party of religious fanaticism, hate, & fear mongering.. Not all republicans are like that but 99.999% of people like that are republicans.
The GOP is the regressive party of religious fanaticism, hate, & fear mongering. Not every republican is like that but 99.999% of people like that are republicans. (before you assume..I’m a moderate independent)
Actually the rainbow is a reflection of light pigments but Ya… Your idea is cool too
These religious nut only bring good people together to protest them being so wrong about everything
Christian haters……shouldn’t that be an oxymoron?
It should be, but it unfortunately isn’t. I love the church, but it saddens me to see the lack of Jesus in it…
If the hate mongers are protesting in Awesome town, must mean we are doing something right and Satan doesn’t like it.
Yea SC!!!
love nick!!!!
The funny thing is this “church” from wherever isn’t even a church more like a cult
Bingo.
50 Santa Clarita residents???? Are you serious? We couldn’t come up with 500 or 5000? Unbelievable!
Where were you? Exactly.
We went to each of the five churches that were targeted. It was AMAZING! It was truly a show of unity for the Santa Clarita community. We had atheists, Christians, Jews, Satanists, Democrats, Republicans, gays, straights, bikers, and soccer moms. I LOVE this town! We totally had each other’s back.
More people came along the way
Her fb says she lives in Nevada. Turnout was great and uplifting. Totally amazing.
Pay no attention to ignorant comments
The churches picketed were St. Kateri Catholic, Grace Baptist, Santa Clarita United Methodist, Church on the Way, and St. Stephens Episcopal.
Very proud to be part of the SCV community
God prefers kind atheists over hateful Christians. ✌️
Thought atheists didnt believe in God
That’s the point
We don’t. But we believe in respect for others…..unlike Westboro Baptist.
I love it!! I agree Tyler. I also think “god” must be a “fag” if he created everything he made them too! Oh no Westboro! They go for shock, I can too. Lol
God prefers a Holy Nation whoever that may be and love one another, pray for each other!!!
I do, however, wonder if you’ve paid attention to the New Testament. Particularly the ones that say that it’s not your place to judge others because the severity in which you judge others is the measure God will use to judge you. And that he who is without sin may cast the first stone :)
Hmm does seem that Taylor is judging Christians?
They pay attention to the New Testament….aren’t the verses from Timothy from the New Testament? Westboro Baptist picks and choose the verses that they follow. They are lawyers….they know that they can prove ANYTHING just by being selective in the “facts” that they use to back up their claims. They could easily pull a 180 and pick and choose different verses to prove an opposite point (in theory, they could…..but it’s not likely that they will abandon the rhetoric that has been drilled into their heads since childhood).
Lin Nanson Geist I don’t have a problem with Christians. I have a problem with hypocrites.
Represent. Shouldn’t have stepped foot on our territory
Way to go Santa Clarita
And how do you know how God feels . Not a good point
i love my city ….. As a gay man I’ve always felt welcome…. Again LOVE MY CITY!!!!!!!
So glad to see this went great!!!!
Hey it’s Nick! Hi Nick it’s Kimmy from Aldo in Valencia! I saw the article and I’m like hey I know that guy lol @NickVentura
Yes Santa Clarita
As current president of the Santa Clarita Valley Interfaith Council, my official statement regarding today’s protest and counter-protest is:
The Interfaith Council is here to build bridges of love and understanding between those of differing faiths and not walls of hate built by those that interpret their religious texts as promoting exclusion. Empathy and respect should form the foundation for all communication between people, not animosity and hate. The danger of using religion to usurp moral authority by demeaning others is that it leads to more violent actions. Simply put, we should all live and let live. Furthermore, the Bible that Westboro Baptist uses to guide its actions states in 1 John 4:20, “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.” Therefore, they cannot honestly stand on the pulpit and claim to be a church of God, yet profess hate for their fellow man.
Way to go !!!!! Gotta love Santa Clarita.
Suzanne Rush
Thank goodness.
Awesome Town, indeed!
Well, good
1st off, hats off to the peace loving Santa Clarita Community members & keep this in mind negative thinkers, the people in this city are overall good people, so don’t let a few bad apples ruin the bunch!
Bravo Santa Claritans for taking the the time to show up and stand for the vast majority of us who choose to live a more peaceful life and not be burdened with hate (1)of the religious organizations the Westboro freaks tried to demean; (2) the gay population “just because they’re gay (I’ll never understand that anymore than hating someone for the color of their skin; (3)demeaning our military dead and their heartbroken families, considering they signed up and gave their lives for the Westboro’s right to hate..TALK ABOUT MESSY IRONY AND AMBIGUity. We sane people can however thank the Westboro Mindless for one thing—we thank GOD we are not them…better them than us.
Overall, the residents here in Santa Clarita are good, caring, friendly people, so don’t let a few bad apples ruin the bunch!
Gnomie Judd protesting Westboro church
Pray for their ignorance. Hate brings more hate, so let’s be like JESUS and LOVE EVERYONE, even those that hold these hateful and disgusting signs. I applaud those who stood in peace. One love. We are all the same and equal in Gods eyes.
Thank you
Awesome!!!
Yay for LENT!!
Yup- we don’t allow that crap in our valley! SCV stands firm and proud in defense of freedom, religious tolerance and equal civil rights for all.
I don’t understand how a ‘church’ can claim God hates anyone
I’m proud that Santa Clarita is almost a real member of (liberal leaning) California now.
Monica Adams are you at this?
no I didnt even hear about this!!
Run that cult out of hers!
Lol
God LOVES every one of His creation, but He hates Sin. He calls everyone to Him to be Holy. That is everyone’s calling; to be HOLY. No one can hate in that condition, so love the person and hate the sin. I’m glad those who stood for SCV
stood in Peace and Unity.
Tenten King we haven’t harassed them yet but other people are already ahead of us haha
Tenten King we haven’t harassed them yet but other people are already ahead of us haha
http://youtu.be/Azs5axLXat8
That church is not a Baptist Church, I wish people, especially the media, would stop using that reference.
You go, Santa Clarita! I was hoping something like this would happen