Country music star Brad Paisley takes a selfie with Westboro Baptist Church protesters hours before his concert in Bonner Springs, KS on Sunday, June 1. (Source: Brad Paisley/Facebook)
BONNER SPRINGS, KS (RNN) - Brad Paisley used social media to turn the tables on Westboro Baptist Church, posting a selfie with the Kansas-based group that was picketing outside his show this past weekend.
Paisley, who was playing Sunday night at the Cricket Wireless Amphitheater in Bonner Springs, shot photos and video earlier that day. He posted them to his Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts.
"Hopefully they can hear the show out here. We'll play loud," he wrote in a Tweet in which he referred to church members as "west-Burro (ass)."
Protesters held signs that said, among other things, "God hates drunks" and "Sin breeds violence." At Paisley's direction, they also willingly crowded together behind the singer as he snapped off photos with a cell phone camera.
Church supporters have previously picketed music artists playing shows in the Kansas City area.
Last year, Westboro members showed up to protests the concerts of Vince Gill and Lorde.
The September confrontation with Gill got more than 850,000 hits on YouTube.
"I just came to see what hate looks like," Gill said in the video [Warning: Graphic language].
The Southern Poverty Law Center calls Westboro Baptist Church "arguably the most obnoxious and rabid hate group in America."
The Anti-Defamation League has a similar profile of the group, founded by the late Fred Phelps.
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