Iconic Country Star Vince Gill Blasts Westboro Baptist Church for Accusing Him of Adultery
Country music singer, Vince Gill, confronted picketers from the Westboro Baptist Church on Sunday who were protesting outside his concert in Kansas City, Mo., against his divorce and remarriage, while accusing him of adultery.
Prior to his show, Gill walked outside the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts venue and approached the church members who were standing at the picket line with posters saying, "God Is America's Terror."
"Vince Gill, what in the world are you doing out here?" a woman asked, as shown in a video.
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"I just came to see what hate looked like," Gill responded.
"Well, more importantly," the woman said, "what are you doing with another man's wife?"
The Topeka, Kan.-based church, known for its blunt anti-gay views and protests of soldiers' funerals, targeted the country star because he divorced his former wife, Janis Oliver, in 1998 and then remarried contemporary Christian recording artist, Amy Grant, in 2001.
"Don't you know that divorce plus remarriage equals adultery?" the woman asked. "Jesus Christ said that."
"Don't you know you [expletive] are lucky that you don't have a sign about my wife?" Gill asked.
"Jesus Christ said that," repeated the woman.
"Did he? Gill responded. "You know what else he said? He said a lot of stuff about forgiveness, about grace. You guys don't have any of that."
In addition to their protest of what seemed to be composed of only a handful of people, WBC took to social media and tweeted, "Hey, Vince Gill-@VGcom: God hates adultery and violence to marriage covenant. By whorish woman, destruction."
Toward the end of the video, Gill walks up to a man holding a few posters and nonchalantly asks if they are "Phelpses," referring to Westboro founder and pastor, Fred Phelps, who was a civil rights leader before starting his church in 1955.
On Sunday, the group also protested outside a Michael Buble concert and according to a press release on their website, GodHatesFags.com, the group plans to picket outside a Mumford & Sons show later this month as well as two Florida high schools in October.
As a counter attack response, Planting Peace, an anti-hate nonprofit group that sits directly across from the church in Topeka, is planning to make WBC headquarters the centerpiece of a drag show in October to draw attention to the hate group for a change.
The church is not affiliated with any major Baptist denominations. Furthermore, both the Southern Baptist Convention and the Baptist World Alliance, have denounced Westboro's practices.
