“God Hates Fags!” and “Thank God for dead soldiers” are both horrible things to say in today’s world. These words should never be spoken, much less written on posters and paraded about a fallen service member’s funeral. How can a grieving family, like Matthew Shepard’s, deal with these insane protestors while at the same time weeping over the horrific murder of their son? The police should come and arrest them all, every last one.
The Topeka, Kansas based Westboro Baptist Church (WBC), was founded
in 1955 by current pastor Fred Phelps and his family, and is sadly
protected from most prosecution by the Bill of Rights that these same
dead soldiers died to protect. Best known for picketing funerals, the
group will also picket synagogues, high school graduations, school
plays, and even other churches! The widely held Christian belief that
god, intentionally left lowercase, loves everyone is also overturned
and denied by their beliefs and actions.
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| Students at Texas A&M block WBC protesters. |
According to the First Amendment Center, the first amendment states
that ” 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.” Breaking it down sentence by sentence and in
keeping with the brilliance of the basics, we can come up with a few
simple statements to clarify. To sum it up, the government will not
have a central religion, will not stop citizens from saying what they
want to say, gather in large groups, and they will listen to the
people when they make complaints.
The protestors at Westboro Baptist Church are taking full advantage
of, and perverting, each of these rights. In practicing their rights
as Americans they are violating the rights of others by causing
emotional harm and stress. The Study of Internet Bloggers states
that “Free speech is not free for two primary reasons, according to
bloggers: first, military personnel exert extraordinary effort to
secure the privilege; second, some enactments violate the spirit of
free speech and disrespect those who secure the privilege”.
(Brouwer, & Hess, 2007, p.80). Is this the feeling that most
Americans have? According to the Brouwer and Hess most Americans will
argue about religion and politics, but they will for the most part
agree to at least support the troops that are overseas even if they
do not actually support the war itself.
Even the citizen who has no feelings about homosexuals or the
military should still be shocked when looking at the “church’s”
website. Amid all of the misspelled words, bad grammar, and horrid
web design, lies the misquoted Bible quotes. The creators of the
website appear to quote the Bible when it suits them and change the
words when it would better fit them. The Frequently Asked Questions
section says that the reason they choose to picket funerals is:
To warn the people who are still living that
unless they repent, they will likewise perish.
When people go to funerals, they have
thoughts of mortality, heaven, hell, eternity, etc., on
their minds. It's the perfect time to warn
them of things to come. Is it mean, hateful,
uncompassionate, etc.? I'm sure it is,
according to your standards. However, according to my
standards, it would be infinitely meaner,
hateful, uncompassionate, etc., to keep my mouth
shut and not warn you that you, too, will
soon have to face God.
Mainstream Americans shun this group as fundamentalists, no better
than the extremist followers who also twist their own respective
religions. Christians ostracize them for perverting the word of their
god and using the church as a tax shelter. The military resents them
for not supporting the sailors, soldiers, and Marines that are
securing their freedoms. The gay community refutes them for rejecting
them even when in this day and age their way of life is more and more
accepted. Westboro Baptist Church is nothing it claims to be in its
name. The town of Westboro will not claim them, so we strip them of
that part of their title, they are Baptist Church. The Baptist
community says that they are not in fact Baptists, so we strip them
of that title. They are left with only the word “church” in their
title, meaning that they are a non-profit organization. As we can
see, when stripped of their self-given titles and reduced to the bare
bones they are a church, and even that is arguable.
The father of late Unites States Marine Lance Corporal Matthew
Snyder, Albert Snyder, is being forced to pay the court cost of WBC.
Lance Corporal Snyder was killed in Iraq in March of 2006, and his
funeral was picketed and protested with the usual “God Hates Fags,”
“God Loves IEDS,” and that the reason the young Marine was killed
was America’s tolerance of homosexuality. Filing and winning a
civil suit, Snyder was awarded 10.9 million dollars, which was later
reduced to 5 million. Unfortunately the decision was overturned on
the grounds that the church was exercising its first amendment rights
and Mr. Snyder was told that he would have to pay the legal fees of
WBC, a bill in excess of 16 thousand dollars. Snyder has set up a
fundraiser on his son’s memorial website, and much of Hollywood,
including Bill O’Reilly, have pledged money to the cause (Grinberg,
2010).
So what is the reason that we are even having this discussion? We
have clearly defined that Westboro Baptist Church is well within its
legal limits to protest anywhere it would like. What can we do
about it? Thankfully our government on all levels is taking action.
There have been laws that recently passed forbidding protesting of
funerals inside of federal cemeteries, along with states passing laws
that do not forbid the protestors but restrict them from invading the
privacy of others. We consistently stand together with one voice,
shedding our differing political opinion and dropping our religious
shields to join together and fight this common enemy.
Continue posting on your blogs, vlogs, tweets, and tumblrs. Write
your letters and emails to your governors, senators, and
representatives. If you are Christian teach your children tolerance.
If you are of another religion know that not all Christians are
extremists. Teach your kids that even if they think the war is wrong,
the troops are missing their kids and loved ones to protect what
freedoms we still have.
References
Brouwer, D., & Hess, A. (2007). Making Sense of 'god hates fags'
and 'thank god for
9/11': A Thematic Analysis of Milbloggers'
Responses to Reverend Fred Phelps and
the Westboro Baptist Church.. Western
Journal of Communication, 71(1), 69-90.
Westboro Baptist Church. Frequently Asked Questions. Retrieved
April 15, 2010, from
Grinberg, E. (2010, March 31). Dead marine's father ordered to pay
protesters' legal costs.
Retrieved from
http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/03/30/westboro.baptist.snyder/index.html?hpt=T1
The First Amendment Center, The First Amendment Library.
Retrieved April 15, 2010, from
(2007). $10.9 million verdict won't stop Phelps' anti-gay
crusade. National Catholic
Reporter, 44(4), 3. Retrieved from
Academic Search Premier Database.
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