Westboro Baptist Church is a controversial (and allegedly racist) religious organization based in Topeka, Kansas, USA, headed by minister Fred Phelps. The church "meeting place" (as Phelps refers to it) is located in the basement of his home; the church itself is a compound made up of Phelps' home and nine other homes, which are occupied by nine of his thirteen children and their spouses.
The group is notorious for its website GodHatesFags.com, and its related public statements that God hates all gay people, no matter what. They are adamant in this belief, and are equally adamant in the belief that everyone needs to hear it and believe it. According to its website, "'God hates fags' [...] is a profound theological statement, which the world needs to hear more than it needs oxygen, water and bread." The group has attracted controversy for welcoming both individual murders and large-scale disasters as divine retribution against homosexuals and their "enablers".
The Group
The group claims to adhere largely to the philosophy of John Calvin and the principles of the acronym TULIP. However, mainstream Calvinist churches have claimed that Westboro's agenda, especially its welcoming of murders and its message of hate, is at variance with Calvinism. Most sources indicate that the group consists almost exclusively of Phelps and members of his family. Among them is Topeka filmmaker Steve Drain, who made a movie about Phelps called "Fred: The Movie," which was later re-edited and re-released as a director's cut entitled "Hatemongers."[[1]
The group is known for picketing the funerals of people who have died of AIDS, among other events. Group members made an appearance at the funeral of Matthew Shepard, a young gay man from Wyoming who was beaten to death by two young males. Though Phelps claimed that Shepard's murder was unjust, his overt activism against Shepard's sexual orientation, regardless of the mourning of Shepard's family and friends, to some had the appearance of a tacit endorsement for Shepard's murder. Though murder is considered a sin by most Christians, Phelps' chosen methods of activism are considered by most other fundamentalist Christians to be equally morally reprehensible.
The members of Westboro Baptist Church explain their decision to use the word fag, a largely pejorative term for male homosexuals, in their FAQ:
We use the word "fag" as a contraction of the word "faggot" or "fagot." A "fag" is a firebrand. A "fag" is used for kindling — it fuels fire. "Fag" is a metaphor used in the Bible, for example, in Amos 4:11 (where it is translated "firebrand" in the KJV). Just as a "fag" fuels the fires of nature, so does a sodomite fuel the fires of God's wrath. We do not use the word "fag" in order to engage in childish name-calling. Rather, we use it because it is a metaphor chosen by the Holy Ghost to describe a group of people who BURN in their lust one toward another, and who FUEL God's wrath.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the etymology of faggot (in the sense of "male homosexual") is thus: Cigarettes, called fags in Britain to this day, were at one time considered by some to be feminine -- thus, men considered more feminine were called fags. Furthermore, the Online Etymological Dictionary claims that faggot 's new meaning in English was reinforced by a Yiddish slang word for a male homosexual: faygele, which literally means "little bird" (cf. German Vogelein.)
The group has also picketed Billy Graham revivals, alleging that the conservative evangelist will burn in hell for failing to propagate the "God Hates Fags" doctrine. In October 2004, the group protested Graham's mass meetings, calling the 85-year-old preacher a "Hell-bound false prophet".
The group has an extreme sense of self, and see themselves being above the laws of man and answerable only to God, permitting them to skirt criminal laws so long as it is for a cause. In press releases, they often claim that natural disasters and murders were orchestrated by God on their behalf (see below entry, "Claiming divine Retribution.")
The group often practices hypocrisy, targeting members of the Topeka community for offenses that they have openly admitted to committing themselves. In a 1994 interview, WBC members Timothy and Jonathan Phelps (sons of Fred Phelps) admitted to beating their wives and children as a means of discipline and "keeping them in line." However, in press releases, WBC referred to Topeka mayor James McClinton as a "wife beating tyrant." McClinton, who is black, was portrayed in the press release as a gorilla in a suit with a swastika armband.
Though the group has practiced violence in the past, numerous members having been arrested, tried, and convicted for crimes ranging from trespassing to assault, they themselves have been the victims of attacks. In 1994, a woman tried to run down protestors in Topeka after one of them screamed obscenities at her while she was parked at a stop light. During a protest at the 2005 innaguration of George W. Bush, WBC protestors were slapped and kicked and had their signs forcefully taken by other protestors. In 2003, septugenarian WBC member Charles Hockenbarger had his face crushed in a beating after standing on a street corner holding a sign reading "THANK GOD FOR SEPT. 11." During a March 26th, 1993 protest, a riot broke out and eight WBC members were taken to a hospital for various injuries; WBC now holds a memorial service every year on the 26th, commemorating what they refer to as "the Vintage Massacre."
Claiming divine retribution
The group has repeatedly espoused the opinion that the September 11 terrorist attacks on New York were acts of divine retribution. They also describe AIDS in this manner. Their FAQ states "Thank God For September 11" and "Everyone who gets AIDS gets it as a direct result of God's will (including babies and people who get it from blood transfusions), and He should be blessed for it."
Rev. Phelps also makes lurid attacks on other other groups, including: Jews, blacks, Catholics, Asians, Mexicans, "impure" Protestant churches, and immigrants.
: There is a difference between the sense of the sacred...and the goofy 'communal sensitivity' at Topeka's sodomite Mexican Catholic Church...Mexican idolaters worship bloody rectums...[2]
In January 2005 the group once again made a controversial statement, after the Indian Ocean Earthquake, in which they thanked God for the tsunamis, and hoped for 20,000 dead Swedes (a large number of Swedish citizens were spending their vacation in the areas affected by the tsunamis). They have also threatened to picket Swedish survivors at various locations on the island of Phuket on 16 and 17 January 2004. The group pursued a hatred of Swedes, creating the website GodHatesSweden.com, after a Swedish pastor, Åke Green, was convicted of inciting hatred. WBC proclaimed that Green was the "first new martyr" and planned to erect a monument to him in the WBC compound. When Green learned about his status as a hero to WBC, he released a statement calling Phelps "vile" and blasting WBC for perverting his theology. In response, WBC branded Green a traitor. WBC later welcomed reports of 5,000 Swedish dead and 3,000 American dead, and prayed "that God will send a massive tsunami to totally devastate the North American continent".
In April 2005 the group stated that Pope John Paul II is in Hell for turning the Roman Catholic Church into a "Church of the Holy Pedophiles"
WBC also views numerous murders, accidents, natural disasters, and terrorist attacks as being perpetuated by God on their behalf.
After reporter Nick Berg was executed in Iraq, WBC proclaimed that he had been killed as a sacrifice because of attacks against Fred Phelps and other WBC members.
In 1995 a bomb exploded at the WBC compound, outside the home of Shirley Phelps-Roper, a daughter of Fred Phelps. Though the Topeka Police Department concluded after an investigation that the explosion was linked to a serial bomber who had been setting off firebombs around Topeka, WBC claimed that all the other bombs set off had been a cover for the one at Phelps-Roper's home. Referring to the incident in a 2005 press release, the group stated:
We may be pardoned for seeing a direct correlation between the Improvised Explosive Devices killing American kids in Iraq and the IED that nearly killed a sleeping Westboro baby August 20th 1995.
The group also claimed that a helicopter crash in Iraq that killed 37 soldiers was caused by God to avenge WBC.
Responses
On August 18, 1999, an anonymous cracker transferred ownership of the domain www.godhatesfags.com to Kris Haight , owner of the counter activism site godlovesfags.com. Apparently, this was done by forging an email message from Phelps. Haight promptly redirected all traffic to his site. After much media attention, Phelps threatened to sue and the domain name was returned on August 21.
Counter protests are generally organized to provide an opposing viewpoint at sites that Westboro pickets. In some cases the other activists have even tried to hide the Westboro picketers.
Criticism
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) describes the Westboro Baptist Church as "virulently homophobic", whose anti-gay rhetoric they say is often a cover for anti-semitism and anti-catholicism. The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), an anti-hate group, has added the Westboro Baptist Church to its list of watched groups. Many conservative and fundamentalist Christians including Jerry Falwell have denounced Phelps' remarks as hateful and un-Christian. Falwell is often credited with referring to Phelps as "a first-class nut"
Parodies
The God Hates Fags website has achieved sufficient fame to have been parodied with at least two independent domain names. God Hates Figs and God Hates Shrimp both use actual Bible verses to "prove" that figs and shrimp are "evil". They parody God Hates Fags in the sense that one can prove anything to be evil using the appropriate Bible verses, and therefore suggest that religious-based homophobia is as ridiculous as religious hatred of, say, shrimp.
External links
Last updated: 06-02-2005 12:25:55
