The thin line between love and hate stretched from one side of the street to the other in front of Cherry Hill East High School Monday morning.
"It's just another typical high school. We have a duty to preach to our fellow man. We took the opportunity to show some love to these kids," said Westboro Baptist Church leader, Jael Phelps.
The traveling band of religious radicals from Kansas showed up, as promised, with signs screaming lovely things like, "Fags Are Beasts," "God Hates Jews," "You Will Eat Your Babies," and " You're Going to Hell."
Students and parents countered on the other side of the street with kinder, gentler sentiments on their signs: "Free Hugs," "Love Knows No Gender," and "Love Does Not Discriminate."
The protestors singled out Cherry Hill because "this generation specifically if full of worthless rebels, arrogantly ignorant," said Phelps.
On the church's Web site, lovingly called " God Hates Fags, " the rallying call to come here is built entirely upon a quote straight out of Urban Dictionary that describes what it's like to be from New Jersey , not on any real reasoning or evidence gathered by the group. Phelps' logic is simply that it's her "love group's" duty to right a wrong.
It was a teaching moment in Cougar Country.
"To live in that kind of ignorance, honestly, it's almost comical that you would come out and hold a sign, 'You Will Eat Your Own Babies,'" said senior Olivia Villallan.
Phelps' ideology leaves no room for confusion as to where her group stands.
"Stop sinning or go to hell. God hates you. If you see a kid running in the street, you say, 'Stop !', you don't say, 'Go run in the street.'"
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"It makes me kind of upset, but I really feel sorry for them. They don't understand tolerance," said senior Paige Walker.
