Baltimore ? Attorneys for a Pennsylvania man whose son was killed in Iraq have been given permission to use alternative methods to serve notice of a civil complaint against a fundamentalist Kansas church that stages protests at military funerals.

Albert Snyder’s son, Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder, was killed March 3.

His funeral in Westminster was picketed a week later by members of the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan., who maintain that military casualties in Iraq are God’s punishment for America’s tolerance of homosexuality.

Snyder’s lawsuit, filed June 5, alleges church members violated the family’s right to privacy and defamed the Marine at the funeral and on the church’s Web site. Church leader Fred Phelps has denied wrongdoing.

Last week, Snyder’s attorneys asked a federal court for permission to use alternate methods to serve notice on the church, saying a private detective had tried without success to serve them on 27 different dates.

U.S. District Judge Richard Bennett granted the motion Wednesday, allowing Snyder’s attorneys to post the complaint at the church and to mail it.

Church member Shirley Phelps-Roper said the group was not ducking the process server.

“If there is a person who is trying to serve us in this community, unless they’re lazy, there is no reason why they shouldn’t have been able to serve us,” Phelps-Roper said. “Hello! Do you need a road map?”