By Tommy Witherspoon

Tribune-Herald staff writer

The crowd from the Crawford Texas Peace House may be sitting this one out, but the sanctity of President Bush’s daughter’s wedding Saturday won’t necessarily stop anti-homosexual protesters from the Westboro Baptist Church from trying to crash the blessed event.

Shirley Phelps Roper, daughter of the leader of the Topeka, Kan., church whose members picket at locations where they believe homosexuality is being encouraged, said eight church members will picket near Jenna Bush’s wedding Saturday night.

The protesters will set up at Prairie Chapel Road and Farm-to-Market Road 185 from 6 to 7:30 p.m., Roper said.

Meanwhile, peace activist Kay Lucas, caretaker of the Crawford Texas Peace House, says the organization plans no protests of its own Saturday but will staff its headquarters at 9142 Fifth St. in Crawford, several miles east of the president’s 1,600-acre ranch.

“We just felt that she (Jenna) doesn’t have anything to do with her father and his policies,” Lucas said. “And this is a woman’s one-time dream of a wedding day. Protesting would just be tacky.”

It’s a rare concession by the peace activists, who have mounted local protests of President Bush’s war policies since 2003.

They were pivotally involved in Cindy Sheehan’s massive anti-war protest near the president’s ranch in August 2005.

Roper’s group, however, trailed the president last week as he toured tornado-ravaged areas of Kansas, she said.

“We have picketed four presidents,” she said. “Those people (Peace House officials) serve God in the fashion they deem appropriate, and we will do what the Lord our God requires of us.”

Crawford Police Chief Eddie McCoy said Thursday that he had heard “through the grapevine” that the Westboro church group — known for picketing at soldiers’ funerals to protest what they say is the nation’s acceptance of gays — might be coming to Crawford.

He said protest groups of more than 20 people are required to get a permit seven days in advance of an event inside Crawford city limits.

No group has applied for a permit to protest this weekend, he said.

The Westboro church group has threatened to appear at other area events, only to prove no-shows.

Tribune-Herald staff writer Terri Jo Ryan contributed to this story.

twitherspoon@wacotrib.com

757-5737