CASPER, Wyo. -- A group of evangelicals has asked an anti-gay pastor and his Kansas congregation to stay away as the fourth anniversary of the death of Matthew Shepard approaches.

Shepard, a gay University of Wyoming freshman, died Oct. 12, 1998, five days after he was lured from a bar, kidnapped, tied to a fence and beaten into a coma by two Laramie men who are serving life sentences for the crime.

Authorities said robbery and Shepard's homosexuality were motives. The murder touched off international condemnation and candlelight vigils.

The Rev. Fred Phelps, of Topeka (pictured, left), and his Westboro Baptist Church followers picketed Shepard's funeral in Casper with anti-gay signs and chants. They also staged a protest outside the Albany County Courthouse during the trial of one of Shepard's killers.

According to a Topeka newspaper, Phelps is a disbarred lawyer, Baptist preacher and former Eagle Scout from Mississippi whose family moved to Topeka in 1954.

As part of his anti-gay protests, Phelps runs a controversial anti-gay Web site. He also runs a second Web site that claims God hates America. According to Phelps, "God invented the Internet for us to preach on."

The Associated Press reported that Phelps plans pickets next month at the Wyoming-Colorado State football game in Fort Collins, Colo., where Shepard died; in Laramie where Shepard went to school; and in Casper at St. Mark's Episcopal Church, of which Shepard was a member and the home of the Matthew Shepard Foundation, and at Casper College, which has a program that provides support and information for the campus gay and lesbian community. A check of Phelps' Web site, however, showed pickets were only planned at various churches in Casper on Oct. 13.

The Central Wyoming Evangelical Fellowship wrote to Phelps recently asking that he forego the protests "for we do not believe the protests you are planning will glorify God."

More than 30 ministers and other members of the group signed the letter.

Phelps' son, Fred Phelps Jr., said Friday that religious groups which object to the protests often don't fully understand the nature of the homosexual agenda.

He dismissed the objections as "irrelevant," saying they would have no effect on Westboro's plans.

"I found it almost impossible to believe that human beings could be so brutal and vicious to a hurting family," said the Rev. Jerry Falwell when he commented on Phelps' protestors at the Shepard Funeral in 1998.

According to The Association for Church Renewal, a coalition of a number of denominations, both evangelical and mainline, the Westboro Church is not a church at all.

"Phelps is not affiliated with any denomination and his small congregation appears to include mostly family members. His nationwide demonstrations, although vocal, typically comprise no more than 20 persons who are Phelps' children, grandchildren or in-laws. The Phelps organization is largely a clan, not a church, and certainly is not a national organization," according to the ACR.