Meeting the WBC
Nathyn Gibson
Issue date: 10/19/09 Section: Opinion
With messages and signs like "God hates fags," "Thank god for dead soldiers"and "America is doomed," it's easy to understand why many consider The Westboro Baptist Church and the Phelps family to be the "most hated family in the world."
During the summer, I made it a goal to go to one of their pickets for a video project. I was "lucky" enough to attend two of their protests. The main object of their protests was a Billy Joel and Elton John concert and a Don Rickles show later. In the two days I met them, they also protested the Democrat National Committee, synagogues, and Jewish related establishments.
The Church used to make their primary mission to protest the funerals of the soldiers who died in war, due to America's tolerance of homosexuality, but in the last year, the WBC seemed to change their mission to let the Jewish population know that only 144,000 will make it into heaven while the ones who don't will face God's wrath.
The members have vast knowledge about the Bible and many members of the WBC are lawyers; it's how they use the knowledge that's troubling.
If asked, the church would say they do not hate people; it is God that hates people. They "love" people enough to let them know that they are going to hell.
While I was there to attempt to understand the behavior of the church, two satire groups arrived to poke fun at the WBC. One group going by the Youtube name of "Crazypastorfred," who went to both protests, poked fun at the crazy signs the church holds and the pastor, Fred Phelps. The other satire group, who was around during the Rickles protest was the "Best Church of God," who takes certain passages out of the Bible to hold ridiculous protests against the use of figs and yeast.
At the end of the Joel/John protest, Shirley Phelps-Roper banned me from talking to any member of her church for what seems to be forever, which I found out still stuck during the Rickles protest. In response, I found a member who wasn't at the last protest. He received the majority of my questions during the second protest.
I found out that one of their beliefs is that God chooses people as their "elect" and there is nothing anyone can do about it. He mentioned his belief, which was the Phelps family will be gone or ruptured before America is destroyed. I asked the protester, who didn't know I was banned, if he was one of God's elects and his response was, "I hope so." Meaning despite the protest that he does for his God, if God doesn't choose him as one of his "elect," he is still going to hell but he continues to protest as a service to God.
While I do not approve of the message or the motives, to their credit, the church will go to great financial and personal lengths to let their voice be heard. It's interesting thing to point out is that a small church of around 50 from Topeka, Kansas can receive global coverage, but local churches that do good in their community would never get the same coverage.
During the summer, I made it a goal to go to one of their pickets for a video project. I was "lucky" enough to attend two of their protests. The main object of their protests was a Billy Joel and Elton John concert and a Don Rickles show later. In the two days I met them, they also protested the Democrat National Committee, synagogues, and Jewish related establishments.
The Church used to make their primary mission to protest the funerals of the soldiers who died in war, due to America's tolerance of homosexuality, but in the last year, the WBC seemed to change their mission to let the Jewish population know that only 144,000 will make it into heaven while the ones who don't will face God's wrath.
The members have vast knowledge about the Bible and many members of the WBC are lawyers; it's how they use the knowledge that's troubling.
If asked, the church would say they do not hate people; it is God that hates people. They "love" people enough to let them know that they are going to hell.
While I was there to attempt to understand the behavior of the church, two satire groups arrived to poke fun at the WBC. One group going by the Youtube name of "Crazypastorfred," who went to both protests, poked fun at the crazy signs the church holds and the pastor, Fred Phelps. The other satire group, who was around during the Rickles protest was the "Best Church of God," who takes certain passages out of the Bible to hold ridiculous protests against the use of figs and yeast.
At the end of the Joel/John protest, Shirley Phelps-Roper banned me from talking to any member of her church for what seems to be forever, which I found out still stuck during the Rickles protest. In response, I found a member who wasn't at the last protest. He received the majority of my questions during the second protest.
I found out that one of their beliefs is that God chooses people as their "elect" and there is nothing anyone can do about it. He mentioned his belief, which was the Phelps family will be gone or ruptured before America is destroyed. I asked the protester, who didn't know I was banned, if he was one of God's elects and his response was, "I hope so." Meaning despite the protest that he does for his God, if God doesn't choose him as one of his "elect," he is still going to hell but he continues to protest as a service to God.
While I do not approve of the message or the motives, to their credit, the church will go to great financial and personal lengths to let their voice be heard. It's interesting thing to point out is that a small church of around 50 from Topeka, Kansas can receive global coverage, but local churches that do good in their community would never get the same coverage.
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