Westboro Baptists protest in North Myrtle Beach (with video)

With the roar of motorcycles and traffic in the background, six members of Westboro Baptist Church stood on the corner of Eighth Avenue North and U.S. 17 in North Myrtle Beach wearing T-shirts and holding placards with messages such as "God Is Your Enemy" and "Divorce + Remarriage = Adultery."

The fundamentalist group from Topeka, Kan., was led by Shirley Phelps-Roper, who brought four of her 11 children - Isaiah, 21; Zachariah, 19; Noah, 11; and Luke, 8; along with her 6-year-old niece, Mariah - to picket at Our Lady Star of the Sea Catholic Church, Ocean Drive Presbyterian Church and Barefoot Church on Sunday.

The group says it plans to picket six area high schools Friday - Conway, Socastee, Carolina Forest, Myrtle Beach, North Myrtle Beach and St. James - protesting homosexuality, according to its schedule. Parents and students plan a counter protest.

Phelps-Roper is the daughter of Fred Phelps, the leader of Westboro, which has become internationally known for its protests at funerals of gay people who have been murdered, victims of hate crimes and military members, as well as its ability to push its agenda to the legal limits of the law.

The group famously picketed the funeral of Matthew Sheppard in 1998 after Shepard was beaten to death in Wyoming because he was gay. The church members have also protested the funerals and memorial services of Fred Rogers, TV's "Mister Rogers," Coretta Scott King and Jerry Falwell.

The church runs a variety of websites, including godhatesamerica.com, which says God hates Americans for their "filthy manner of life," the government and because Americans are the "poster children for sin," and Phelps-Roper told a BBC documentary maker that the church spends $200,000 on protests a year to "spread God's hate."

The church has been involved in numerous court cases, sometimes winning, sometimes losing, and even Phelps-Roper has been arrested because of her methods of voicing her disapproval.

In 2007, she was arrested on suspicion of contributing to the delinquency of a minor after police said she allowed her son to trample an American flag while protesting the funeral of a soldier in Bellevue, Neb., a misdemeanor in the state.

But nothing went that far Sunday.

Our Lady Star of the Sea was the first stop, where parishioners followed church officials in not recognizing the picketers, which was fairly easy to do.

With such a small group on the corner of U.S. 17, Westboro members stood well away from the entrance to the church so they could be better seen by people in passing cars, and a group of counter protesters, not much bigger than the Westboro group, got closer to the building.

"We're against them because of the type of hate they spew," said Sabrina Hilliard of Longs, who was counter-protesting along with her husband, Henry. "It's not right to have that much hate in your heart."

The Hilliards were joined by several others. One man carried a large wooden cross, and there were a few placards and some American flags. Most attended separately but grouped together at each of the church sites.

At Our Lady, Deacon Peter Casamento said the church had worked with North Myrtle Beach public safety officials in contacting Westboro attorneys, and the Westboro group had been amenable to the spot by the highway.

Casamento told those opposed to Westboro, "We ask that you ignore them, and you pray for them."

North Myrtle Beach police officers were plentiful and kept opposing groups at each site separated by a road.

They were quick to question the few who attempted to get close to Phelps-Roper, who altered lyrics to songs such as "The Marines' Hymn" and told those within earshot that they came to this area because "there are people and beaches here."

"You're in full-on rebellion against our God," said Phelps-Roper, who cited preachers who minister to homosexuals, the divorced and remarried, along with Gov. Mark Sanford, who had a highly publicized affair that led to divorce. "We have a message from your creator ... you're from the tidy South, proper, blah, blah, blah ... your destruction is imminent."

Later in the morning at Ocean Drive Presbyterian, before the protest and away from the cameras, Phelps-Roper talked about her father in Topeka.

"He does very little coming on the road these days," she said.

"He is our preacher, and also, he's 80. Every day, he's there. People can go at 7:30 and sit and read with him, and now they're going at lunchtime, too."

Phelps-Roper said there are about 70 people who meet at their church, and not all of them are necessarily members. She said they recently began using iPhones to hook up followers with their message.

Across the street, Thomas Darminio of Myrtle Beach was one of several who sang the correct version of "The Marines' Hymn."

"I wear my flag in my heart," said Darminio, a retired Marine and sheriff's officer, originally from New Jersey. "I wanted to show my support for the flag, the country and especially the military."

Farther off the road, 19 members of a youth group from Foothills Community Chapel in Columbus, N.C., were vacationing at a rental house and had been told by police of the morning demonstration.

In response, the group made a circle and raised their voices in song.

"We don't agree with them," said Cristi Yoder, "but we pray that God will touch their hearts."