The Westboro Baptist Church, well known by now for their protests at any event they can use to promote their anti-gay agenda–including the funerals of soldiers and celebrities–is at the center of a controversy this week after members of Satanic Temple performed rituals over the gravesite of Catherine Idalette Johnston, the mother of founder Fred Phelps Jr.

The rituals included gay couples and are referred to as a “pink mass”, and leaders of the organization say that their completion means Johnston is now gay for eternity, according to the beliefs of the church.

“Fred Phelps is obligated to believe that his mother is now gay … [and] if beliefs are inviolable rights, nobody has the right to challenge our right to believe that Fred Phelps believes that his mother is now gay,” reads a statement on the group’s website.

The message is clear: push your anti-gay agenda at rallies, and they’ll do more pink masses. The idea initially came about after the church threatened to plant themselves at the funerals of the Boston bombing victims.

“We intend to perform the pink mass for both Fred Phelps’s father and great-aunt who raised him after his mother’s death, but only in reply to their future pickets. The pink mass could be used to protest other anti-gay hysterics, but it is particularly appropriate when applied to Westboro,” spokesman Lucien Greaves told Huffington Post.
Image: Satanic Temple