The people protesting outside the Terri Schiavo's hospice are claiming to be fighting for morality. In reality, their battle is causing a tremendous disturbance in the local community and for the hospice itself. Do they care? No - they don't even seem to care that they are working with a rapist.

As the Bradenton Herald explains, other families using the hospice have been put through hell:

Johnson said the chaos surrounding the hospice where Terri Schiavo lies dying kept her from saying goodbye. When Johnson arrived, a police officer demanded identification; she had none. And after a hospice employee cleared her, another officer halted her for a metal-detecting search. The delays lasted three to four minutes - the last minutes of her grandfather's life. "It's a terrible, extra obstacle to put in front of a family. . . . Everything is about Schiavo," Johnson said. "It's all about her and in my family's case, it cost us dearly."

Getz said many people with a family member in a hospice have to make the same excruciating decision that courts have made for Schiavo. "It's causing a lot of grief and questions in their own mind on whether they did the right thing," he said. "It's unconscionable to have a family member to be near the end stages of life and to get there, you have to walk through signs that say, 'Murderer.' "

One local business, as the Orlando Sentinel reports, has experienced worse:

Near one end of 102nd Avenue is Triple O Auto, where Scotty Jackson, a single father raising two sons, has grown used to being cussed at and ridiculed by people clutching Bibles and waving signs. Near the other end is the misnamed Oceanside Estates, a government-subsidized apartment complex for the elderly and the disabled. There, Rick Avant can't stroll the grounds without cops descending on bikes and golf carts to warn him away from the fence.

In the middle is Woodside Hospice, an X-shaped set of one-story, red-brick buildings and villas where Terri Schiavo will die, probably within days. ... [T]he throngs gathered on 102nd Avenue often have displayed little appreciation for niceties, and some have been downright rude.

Since March 18 when Schiavo's feeding tube was removed under court order, Jackson, 44, a good-natured South Dakotan, has run out of patience with protesters who think nothing of blocking his garage-bay doors with their cars, jeopardizing his livelihood. When Jackson asked one man to move his car, the visitor screamed an obscenity at the garage owner, and "then he walked off with a Bible in his hand." Triple O stands for On Our Own, and there are times when Jackson struggles to pay his bills and is forced to work on a Sunday -- upsetting one protester, who heckled him about working on the day of rest.

Bay News 9 reports that an entire school has had to close in order to protect children from these religious extremists:

School officials said all 600 Cross Bayou Elementary students would be moved to new schools on Monday until the Schiavo drama near the school calms down. ... Pinellas County Schools Superintendent Clayton Wilcox said the primary reason for moving the children is safety. He said Pinellas Park Police expressed their concern about security and staff, and that led to the decision to hold classes at other schools.

None of that seems as bad, though, as the protester who is a registered sex offender for having raped a minor in the past. Remember the 10-year-old who was arrested? It's his father:

“Scott Heldreth, a veteran of the Operation Rescue and Operation Save America campaigns against abortion, didn't intend to join this fight, until his son asked to be brought to Pinellas Park. ‘My wife and I, we felt like if God really put it on his heart, we should come down, to allow him to live out what God had put on his heart,’ says Heldreth, a carpenter.”

Heldreth had pleaded guilty to sexual battery, was in jail for parts of 1992 and 1993, according to court records, and served time on probation. ...“The former Naperville, Fla., resident remains listed on the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's sex offender registry,” the Observer reported, “but he's not registered on North Carolina's; the N.C. equivalent applies to offenders convicted on or after Jan. 1, 1996.”

The State of Florida has a picture of his smiling face above "Qualifying Offenses: Rape 2 Counts" and "Victim - Minor? Yes." (via Daily Kos)

These are the people claiming the moral high ground.

These are the people who are accusing others of immorality.

These are the people who were labeled "Christian Fascist Thugs" by a counter-protester.

I can't think of any more apt description of these people. That phrase should be embroidered and framed.

Read More:

• Religious Right
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• Christian Extremism
• Terri Schiavo: News & Issues