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Ideologies of the Westboro Baptist Church

Since 2005, the Westboro Baptist Church has commonly picketed the funerals of American soldiers who fought and died in Iraq and Afghanistan. The reason for this picketing is that the Westboro Baptist Church strongly opposes American institutions and basically Americans as a whole, which includes the United States military. The members of the church claim that "God's hatred is one of his holy attributes" and that their picketing is a form of preaching to a "doomed" country unable to hear their message in any other way (Extremism).
             The other major group the Westboro Baptist Church targets is homosexuals. The Westboro Baptist Church's main slogan is "God Hates Fags" and they strongly believe that a nation that allows same-sex marriage is doomed. They are convinced that every disaster that has ever occurred in the world is God punishing the world for homosexuality (The Most). In September of 2014 members of the church picketed outside of the main office of the Huffington Post in New York City to show how much they protest the media as well as homosexuals. In a counter protest members of the Huffington Post, who were anticipating the arrival of the Westboro Baptist Church, met them with signs reading, "God loves Cupcakes". They also dressed up as Spongebob, Penguins, and Yetis and made thousands of rainbow-frosted cupcakes to show their support of homosexuality and to ridicule their church for being offensive (Sieczkowski).
             The Westboro Baptist Church has been able to spread their message of hate across the nation by attaching themselves to major events. One major event that gave the Westboro Baptist Church strong publicity was their protesting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. The tragedy at Sandy Hook left twenty innocent children dead in the second worst school shooting in American history. The Westboro Baptist Church believed that God sent the shooter and that this action was God's punishment for the United States accepting same-sex marriage.


Essays Related to Ideologies of the Westboro Baptist Church

1. Freedom of Speech: Snyder vs. Phelps

In Snyder vs. Phelps, the Supreme Court of the United States addressed the issue of "whether the First Amendment shields the [Westboro Baptist Church] members from tort liability for their speech."i In Snyder, the plaintiff, the father of Marine Lance Corporal Matthew Snyder, sought to recover damages on the grounds of intentional infliction of emotional distress, a claim known as IIED, resulting from picketing at his son's funeral. The members of Westboro Baptist Church ("Westboro"), led by Fred Phelps, picketed near the funeral to demonstrate ... States for a traditional Christian burial at...

  • Word Count: 3341
  • Approx Pages: 13
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

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