The Westboro Baptist Church is not now, nor have they ever been, a legitimate church worthy of tax exemption. They have never, so far as I am aware, done anything particularly productive or useful to our society as a whole, and really serve no purpose besides to hate and discriminate against homosexuals, soldiers, and others, and as such should have their tax exempt status revoked.
I firmly believe in free speech, and understand that it would be severely against their rights to free speech and to peacefully gather and protest to take direct action against them based on their protests; however, they can still be allowed to protest *and* pay taxes.
The WBC, despite their name, is a religiously backed hate group, and not a church, and should not be tax exempt.