Francis Jules

November 1, 2011

Journalism 101

Miami University

Fire and Brimstone is Back

The Westborough Baptist Church was founded in 1955 in Topeka Kansas by a man named Fred Phelps. The members of the group are his wife, nine of their 13 children (the others have been disowned), their spouses, his grandchildren, and a few other families. This group’s beliefs are that God has only reserved places in heaven for a select few people and that the rest are doomed to burn in hell for all of eternity. The WBC also believes that God has turned against America because it is a country that supports the lifestyle homosexuals and has is retaliating by inflicting tragedies upon its people.

            It is interesting that there are four children who were able to escape the clutches of Fred Phelps and the twisted views that the WBC holds. The “Southern Poverty Law Center” stated that, Nathan, one of the disowned children, said that Phelps was abusive towards his all of his children and his wife. He did this in order to create an atmosphere of fear where he could maintain a strict authority. I feel that this raises the important question of can the others be saved, or are they too far brainwashed? The debate of nature versus nurture should look in to the case of the WBC because from what Nathan had said it seems that nurture could win out. I would compare this information to what Hitler had imposed on the children in the “Hitler Youth.” Members are brain washed to believe that God is against America and our tolerance of homosexuality.

            A large portion of what this hate group does is hold protests and to picket events such as American soldier’s funerals, Colleges, and high profile events. They create signs that display phrases such as, “God Hates Fags, and Thank God for Dead Soldiers,” and spout obscenities at the family of the dead soldiers and at the local people who walk past their picket line. They are always highly controversial wherever they go and large portions of people will frequently go to their protests in an attempt to retaliate with a protest of their own. As of late it seems that more and more people are attending their protests, possibly because of their easily accessible protest schedule on their website, godhatesfags.com.

            An interesting fact about the WBC is that they never ask or accept any money donations whatsoever. The way that they make the majority of their money is through winning civil law suits against people who decide to react physically to their protests. Multiple members of the Phelps family are attorneys and through their lawsuits have amassed money totals as high as 100,000 dollars in a single case! The simple fix that many must think is that this group could be ended quickly if people merely did not attend their protests and if family members of dead soldiers were more able to turn the other cheek and ignore their protests. This, however, is not nearly as easy as it sounds because they will always draw intrigue wherever they go and so people will be in attendance anyway.   

            Recently the WBC formed a protest at Miami University where I was in attendance. It took place on Spring Street by the Shriver Center. I was surprised when I got there to see that only four members of the church were there to protest. It was also a shock to see how many students and locals had shown up to form a protest of their own opposing the WBC. It was impossible to get close to the church members because of how many students had shown up so I was forced to observe from across the street and was unable to hear what the members of the WBC were saying because all of Spring Street had erupted in continuous chants of, “USA! USA!”

            The famous, “Journey 4 Justice” group was also in attendance of the WBC’s protest at Miami. “Journey 4 Justice,” is a counter protest group of Motorcyclists who strictly focus on the Westborough Baptist Church. They are known to hoist American flags and to rev their engines as loudly as possible in order to drown out whatever the WBC protesters are saying. Members are from all over the country, many of them being retired war veterans, and are in attendance of almost every protest that the church holds. I was unfortunately unable to get an interview with a member of this group.

            While attending the WBC protest, I was able to interview a few students who were in attendance in order to get their view on this infamous hate group. The first person that I interviewed was Zach Fowlds a Miami University sophomore. When I asked Zach for his opinion of the protest he answered, “This is a disgrace to the US. I understand that everyone is entitled to free speech, but what they are saying is absolutely outrageous. They are so closed minded and are clearly in a state of delusion. If it was up to me they would be in a mental institution.”

            The second student that I interviewed shared Zach’s outrage. I next interviewed Miami University junior, Dan Steinkerchner. When I asked Dan why he chose to come to the protest he stated, “This is something that doesn’t just happen every day. While I don’t agree with what this group stands for, I was curious to see who would come to watch and also to see how many of the members of the WBC would show up and protest. I also came to join the other students and people that did come to form a protest against the WBC. While some may think that it is better to ignore them, I think that it is important to let them know that we are here to let them know that we will never accept their dark views of the world.”

            While this protest seemed to be the talk of the day at Miami, there was another large event taking place in the Central Quad outside of McCracken Hall. It was a rally for peace and it was an attempt by sororities and other students to peacefully protest the WBC away from their pickets. It was a way to promote peace where just a down the street there seemed to be complete pandemonium. Everyone in attendance was wearing white listening to the music that was being played and buying many of the baked goods that were for sale. While there were many students that decided to be a part of this, I did notice that there weren’t nearly as many people there than there were at the actual WBC protest. In hindsight when I walked over to the peace rally I feel that this was definitely the way to respond to the protest, however, it is hard to beat the intrigue of actually seeing the WBC at work, if you have never seen them before.

            Throughout my research of the WBC I have come to the conclusion that while they are a small group, they will be around for a while. Hate groups seem to be something that are very hard to get rid of completely. For example, the KKK has been around for decades and it in no way seems that they will ever be completely eliminated.  The WBC could be very similar especially since the majority of their members are part of the same family and the brain washing started by Fred Phelps could easily continue for decades. The best way to respond to this group is to ignore them. I am aware that they draw intrigue from their audiences and that many people feel that it is their duty to form a counter protest against them, but it is honestly the only way to at least try to end their organization. The majority of their money is from their civil law suits and if no one were to attend their protests then the WBC would lose major funding. We as people know they are wrong and there is no need for anyone to pay this hate any attention.

(Some information was attained from southerpovertylawcenter.com and journey4justice.com)