Westboro Baptist Church is no stranger to controversy. The group, which is known for picketing military funerals and for its anti-gay sentiment, is increasingly turning to social media to spread its radical messaging. In the wake of Sunday’s Sikh temple shooting, Fred Phelps Jr. and Margie Phelps, two of the church‘s members and children of Westboro’s founder, Fred Phelps, sent tweets that were widely seen as offensive.
(Related: ‘Flipping Off God’: Westboro Attacks ‘Old and Stale’ Atheist Richard Dawkins & Accuses Him of ‘Perversion’)
Not long after the tragedy unfolded, Margie’s Twitter feed read, “God sent another shooter?” Later, she went on to write, “God doesn’t hear prayers of wicked,” in response to a tweet in which someone encouraged fellow Americans to be praying for the temple shooting’s victims. The Huffington Post called the first tweet ”horrific.”