The Most Hated Group of People in America Westboro Baptist: Church or Hate Group?
“Congress shall make no law
respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise
thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of
the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress
of grievances.” The first amendment of the Bill of Rights gives the
citizens of the United States the freedom to speak without being persecuted. Imagine
that you’re attending the funeral of someone who has passed away due to an
unimaginable horror such as war or a shooting at their job. While grieving for
your loved one across the street from their last resting place there stands a
group of people with signs that say “Thank God for Dead Soldiers” or “God Hates
Your Tears”. How would the sight of these signs affect your feelings? The
Westboro Baptist Church from Topeka, Kansas has a long history of protesting
the funerals of fallen soldiers, celebrities, and most recently the victims of
the Sandy Hook shooting in Newtown Connecticut as well as those who died during
the Boston Marathon bombing. With each tragedy they announce on their website
or twitter page that they will picket the funerals of those who died, and with
each announcement many wonder if they are a church or should be considered a
hate group. Westboro doesn’t just picket funerals of dead soldiers they also protest
any events that would be associated with someone who is gay, lesbian, or
transgender. The Church has won legal battles stating that they were exercising
their freedom of speech. Their protest and pickets have sparked a national
debate asking the United States government to revoke the groups’ tax exempt
status and classify them as a hate group. An organization should not have the
right to publicly attack people especially when they are grieving or about
their personal choices. They shouldn’t be allowed to force their point of view
on a family tragedy or someone’s life choices. Is the Westboro Baptist Church a
group excising their constitutional rights? Or should they be considered a hate
group? Freedom of speech is one of the fundamental rights of the United States
but is this group of people from Topeka, Kansas infringing on the rights of the
people whose funerals or events they picket?
The Westboro Baptist Church was established
by Fred Phelps in the mid 1950’s after breaking its ties with the East Side
Baptist Church. Phelps and his followers didn’t begin to protest until the
1990’s. The group’s website has a list of numbers, each number has a sentence
with what they believe the numbers represent. Such as “6706
- soldiers that God has killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.” There is also
the meaning as to what they mean by “God Hates Fags”. The website is a way to
spread their message, that message translates to most people as a message of
hate. Hate against dead soldiers, against the LGBT community, even hate against
the President of the United States of America. When they announce on their
website that they are going to protest at a funeral people have begun to gather
to shield the people who are mourning. An article in the Northwest Florida
Daily News writes about how a crowd outside the funeral of a family that had
died in a plane crash gathered just to shield the community from the pain that
Westboro would bring to those who were mourning. Many Baptist communities don’t
want the church associated with them and refuse to acknowledge that they’re a
church at all.
Albert Snyder filed a lawsuit
against the Westboro group after they picketed the funeral of his son Lance
Corporal Matthew Snyder who died overseas in Iraq. Snyder “sued them for mental
distress,” (Murchison) after the funeral. Westboro pickets hundreds of funerals
what made this one in particular different was that they didn’t just picket the
funeral. Craig Trebilcock an attorney representing Snyder said “Instead, they
subjected the Snyder family to a reign of harassment prior to their son’s
funeral to two weeks afterward,” They also specifically targeted Snyder’s son by
writing a poem about his life attacking the way he had lived his life. Though
Albert Snyder won the case initially it was later overturned by the Supreme
Court because of first amendment rights. Harassment towards an individual and
their family is not a first amendment right and the court should have seen
that. It wasn’t about sympathizing with the family of Lance Corporal Matthew Snyder
it was about looking at all of the facts and the amount of harassment they
inflicted against Snyder. The Westboro group saw the case as free publicity to
spread their so called message Margie Phelps said “We have an answer to your
question—our answer is that you have to stop sinning if you want this trauma to
stop happening.” They are essentially blaming the deaths of soldiers on the
United States love of gays.
In his book “Does Jesus Really Love Me?” author Jeff Chu spends time with the
Westboro Baptist church he says, “No congregation in the world spends as much
time preaching against homosexuality as this small Topeka band of believers. No
church is more disliked by homosexuals, their allies, and even other Christians
who would never ordinarily align with the gay rights movement.” Chu on his
search for god’s acceptance went to the church to speak with the group and
experience their brand of church. At first he questioned whether or not this
congregation is correct in their beliefs. When Chu first came out of the closet
he was constantly questioning his own beliefs and whether god would really
forsake him. For most people who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender
they often question if their religion would forsake them but to see a group of
people outside a place they visit frequently or a production they’re attending
with a sigh that says “God hates Fags” or “Fags are Beast” is can be a
harrowing experience. Many have learned to ignore them while others have taken
action against the Westboro group. If you look online on sites like Facebook or
even on Google and search Westboro Baptist Church there are as many images of
counter-protest as there are of the church itself. There is even one sign of hope
that sits just across the street from the church itself. The not for profit
organization Planting Peace brought a house that stands right in front of
Westboro and then painted the house the
colors of the gay pride flag, they decided to call it equality house. The
organizations website has a page dedicated to this house with a statement that
says “For too long, the Westboro Baptist
Church has been targeting the LGBTQ community with messages of hate and
discrimination. Often, protesting American soldiers’ funerals and organizations
that support equality. This faction preaches extremism in our communities and
directly targets our youth. To combat their messages of hate and to support
equality and anti-bullying initiatives in schools and in our community, Planting
Peace has established the Equality House in Topeka, KS.”
In
late 2012 another sign that the church was losing its momentum with their
campaign happened when Megan Phelps-Roper left the Westboro group along with
her sister Grace. Writing a message on the website medium Phelps-Roper
essentially was publishing an apology to those that she had once hurt.
Phelps-Roper quoted a character from the Batman series saying “There’s no fresh
start in today’s world. Any twelve-year-old with a cell phone could find out
what you did. Everything we do is collated quantified. Everything sticks.” The
quote speaks of how with the internet everything you’ve done in your life is
now public record and everyone who can look up your name will know your
history. Her uncle Nate Phelps is an activist who supports many of the causes
that the Westboro group would say is against their practices said “She was the
visible presence for the younger generation at that church. She was a leader.”
Megan was the one who guided the church into the 21st century by
introducing them to social media and organizing the group’s protest that would
involve the presence of the press. Author Jeff Chu spoke with Megan after she
left the church as she was on her journey to find a new church as well as
herself. Telling Chu the reasons why she
left which started with conversations she was having with David Abitbol an
Israeli web developer who is a part of the blog Jewlicious. The two spoke often
when she says “One day, he asked a specific question about one of our signs
–‘Death Penalty for Fags” she argued her position but when Abitbol said “But
Jesus said, ‘Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.” As well as giving
her an example of someone in her own church Phelps-Roper began to question
everything she had learned. It would take some time for her to decide to leave
the church and the people she had known all of her life. The story is similar
with every person that has left some will question if what they’re doing is all
right before leaving. Megan Phelps-Roper was the one who helped the church with
organizing pickets and updating the social media pages. She was a visible
presence and some questioned if she would be the next leader even though it
would be against the church policy. Slowly it feels as though Westboro’s own
are turning against them.
An
Australian newspaper equates Fred Phelps to “Hitler, Stalin and Osama bin Laden”
which shows another side against Westboro. The world is against them. They
aren’t allowed to enter Canada; they’re “classified as a hate group by the
Montgomery, Ala.-based Southern Poverty Law Center.” Katie
Ash’s article “Schools Take Steps to Defuse Anti-Gay Group’s Protests” talks
about the first time the Westboro group “first drew national attention when it
picketed the funeral of Matthew Shepard” who died in 1998. A production of The
Laramie Project which tells the story of Shepard from the perspective of other
people was going to be held at Queen Mary’s College in the United Kingdom in
2009. When it was announced that Westboro would protest the country banned the
group from entering the country for “unacceptable behavior by inciting hatred
against a number of communities.” These countries and communities have decided
to fight against the hate speech that is said by this group of people.
There are laws in the United States that
fight against hate crimes yet the Westboro group has been able to bypass them
just by declaring that they’re exercising their freedom of speech. There are
laws against harassment but this is another example by which they have used the
first amendment. Westboro uses their position as a church to protest and
inflict mental damage against people because their beliefs aren’t the same.
Fred Phelps and his so called church are not acknowledged by other religious
institution in the United States. The Ku Klux Klan has even spoken out against
them which sound outrageous considering they themselves are a hate group in the
United States, but the KKK doesn’t have the tax exempt status that Westboro has.
A group of people shouldn’t have the right to publically demean people for
their own choices, nor should they have the ability to invoke the first
amendment to picket a private event. Twenty years of hate has come from the
Westboro Baptist Church but apparently it’s okay because the constitution says
so. The thought of it is depressing considering that even with the dwindling
number of members it would take years maybe even decades before the group
disappear for good.
Works Cited
Ash,
Katie. “Schools Take Steps To Defuse Anti-Gay Group’s Protest.” Education Week 28.28
(2009):
7. Academic Search Complete. Web. 11
Apr. 2013
“Big-Dollar Verdict Won’t Stop Phelps’s
Antigay Crusade.” Christian Century
124.24 (2007)”
18.
Readers’ Guide Full Text Mega (H.W.
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Burke,
Daniel. “Supreme Court Torn Over Speech Rights, Private Rites.” Christian Century
127.22
(2010): 17. Readers’ Guide Full Text Mega
(H.W. Wilson). Web. 11 Apr. 2013.
Chu,
Jeff. “Damsel, Arise: A Westboro Scion Leaves Her Church.” Medium. Medium.com, 6
Feb.
2013. Web. 09 Apr. 2013
---.
Excerpt. Does Jesus Really Love Me?. “My
Day at Westboro Baptist: “Yes, Jesus hates
you”.
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post marks sisters’ farewell to Westboro Baptist.”
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Kirchick,
James. “God Hates Censorship.” Advocate
(Los Angeles, Calif.) 1026 (2009: 50-51.
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Lubin,
Andrew. “Free Speech Or Harassment?.” USA
Today (Periodical) 13.2788 (2011): 19.
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William. “Freedom And Speech And American Decline.” American Spectator 44.4
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Phelps-Roper,
Megan. “Head Full of Doubt/Road Full of Promise.” Medium. Medium.com. 6
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Planting
Peace. Plantingpeace.org. PP, 2013.Web. 13 May 2013
“Sticking
together.” Northwest Florida Daily News [Fort Walton Beach, FL] 16 July 2011.
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“The hideous Westboro Baptist Church are picketing
the Newtown funerals. Their pervers logic
is
beyond satire.” Telegraph Online 19
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US Const. amend. I.
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