According to a Huffington Post article posted by Timothy Stenovec on 12/17/2012;

The Westboro Baptist Church, the controversial group known for protesting outside funerals of slain U.S. service members, announced that it will picket a vigil for the victims of Friday's Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, the second-deadliest school shooting in American history.

Shirley Phelps-Roper, a spokesperson for the group and, like most members of the organization, a relative of the group's founder, Fred Phelps, announced on Twitter on Saturday the group's plan "to sing praise to God for the glory of his work in executing his judgment."

In the first place, Westboro group should not be referred to as a "Church, as they are nothing more than a hate cult, representing a tiny portion of our nations' underbelly that fosters hate and ignorance.

Their kind of hate is tends to flame the passions of like minded hate filled Americans, which results in further dividing our country in a way that can only lead to more violence and bloodshed.

Elizabeth Tenety of the Washington Post offers four options, listed below, for dealing with these people, but only one will work.

Tenety proposes;

1- Stage counter protest.

This is the type of confrontation that will only bring more attention to the group, and could lead to the bloodshed I mentioned above.

2 - Engage — and try to explain to them that they’re wrong.

Ridicules. There is no talking to these people, they're sick!

3 - Shut them down.

This is a hate group, they need to be shut down.

If any person uttered some of the comments these hatemongers display on their signs to a co-worker in their place of employment, they would likely be fired.

Or, if such an utterance were made during the commission of a crime, the level of that crime would be elevated to a "Hate Crime" and the crime would be prosecuted as a Federal Offense.

Yet those comments have been protected by the Supreme Court, when spoken or displayed during a protest as a 1st amendment Right to free speech and "freedom of expression".

We cannot allow such a double standard to exist. IMO, the actions and vitriol of the Westboro hate mongers constitutes Hate Speech and is a violation of our Civil Right laws.

So they should be SHUT DOWN!

4- Ignore them.

Not an option.

As I said above, "Their kind of hate is tends to flame the passions of like minded hate filled Americans, which results in further dividing our country in a way that can only lead to more violence and bloodshed."

What do you think should be done?