Michelle Thomas
Faith & Culture THEO 2600-01
Professor Darren Gordon
9 April 2014

FAITH & CULTURE REFLECTION PAPER
Westboro Baptist Church

The title of the Westboro Baptist Church is misleading. At one point, this congregation was a new church plant for the East Side Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas, but shortly after opening across town, the leader, Fred Phelps cut ties with the original church. As of this writing, the term “Baptist” is just part of the name of the church and there are no Baptist churches that have any affiliation with Westboro; there is no denomination affiliation to be found. There are two basic guidelines that the church follows, the first one is that God hates everyone not associated with the WBC and anyone that they name is going to hell. They vehemently disapprove of anyone who is or supports anyone who is homosexual. In fact, it is their belief that soldier deaths and all natural disaster deaths are a punishment from God for supporting or even appearing to support homosexual behavior in any way. In their eyes if you do not condemn an individual or group for even being non-committal in their opinion on homosexuality that individual or group will go to hell. Hate of anything associated with the lifestyle of homosexuals seems to be what their foundation is made of. This malfunctioning group spreads their message of hate through websites and picketing. The many places they choose to picket vary from Armed Forces funerals, Churches or group events that they deem apathetic toward homosexuality, as well as children’s funerals based on the actions of their parents that Westboro deems sinful. People of Jewish background are also a target for this group’s hatred and violence. Their convoluted thinking even involves very young children trained up to hate and yell at the unsuspecting public that God hates whatever topic they have chosen to target that day. The hope being that it will incite someone to react violently towards their group and then sue the supposed offender thereby creating a fundraising opportunity. The only explanation found for this rage and hate is that they have been conditioned to believe they are preparing the world for Jesus Christ’s second coming and the purported vengeance He will show to all of the sinners. There are many things in regards to the description of what Westboro Baptist Church is and what they try to impart to the public, Christians and non-Christians alike, but the one that stands out to me the most is that they believe that God hates, whereas my entire belief system is ground in the fact that God is Love. The attempt to deny the world of God’s compassion, love, grace, mercy and even more is what hate must truly be. The darkness that must be present in this congregations life to try to twist and contort the love that God feels for His children, us, must be blacker than night. Reconciling the beliefs of this congregation to the Christian faith that I believe in has proven to be impossible for me. I cannot find a way in which God would be working in the atmosphere of hate that this church has built their foundation on. Upon further reflection I think that God might not be working in this specific church, but He may be working with the people that this church comes into to contact with. An example of this could be similar to this: I read an article about Westboro posting on line that they would be picketing the funeral of a local boy who had been murdered by insurgents in Afghanistan while working for a private security firm after leaving the US Marine Corp. I was extremely outraged they would dare to tarnish this young man’s memory and worse attempt to put his parents and other family members through an additional ordeal, so at that specific moment I knew I would be attending the services for this young man. I did know the family on an acquaintance level, but I had not planned to attend until reading that Westboro was going to commit such a hateful act. My husband and I did attend the services, every aspect of them, from the church, to the cemetery and on to the wake. I was determined not to allow Westboro the satisfaction of thinking that they might win, but at the same time, I prayed for him and his family, I listened to testimony from other people, I consoled the family and I still remember how humbled I felt watching the Color Guard carry his casket and give the folded American Flag to his mother. Until writing this paper, I hadn’t really thought of it as God working as a result of Westboro’s hatred. Coming up with an implication for engagement for Westboro, I thought, would be easy and challenging at the same time. The easy part would be that this is definitely and obviously a malfunction of faith. The coerciveness that Westboro tries to use is so offensive and abrasive, yet it has apparently worked for some people, that is why they still have a congregation. There was something else I was searching to use that would also implicate what they were doing in their congregation that we had discussed during the last semester, but it was eluding me for quite some time. As I reviewed my notes I came across what I was searching for, the Cardinal Virtues. Westboro violates all of the Cardinal Virtues with every hateful act or word they try to inflict upon people. Prudence is trampled on when they spew venomous words or phrases, a child’s heart does not know to do that until a grown up mind teaches them to. Temperance is violated each time they scream or teach their children to say that God hates anything. Justice is dishonored when they judge any one person or group for a sin that they think they have committed. Lastly, Westboro does not value Christian Fortitude in the way that it is meant to stand for, keeping the values of the Kingdom of God and surviving persecution of it. I have no doubt that in some twisted way they feel persecuted and that they have the courage to defend their faith, but their faith is not the true Christian faith. I know this because God is love not hate. Works Cited
Anti-Defamation League. 2013.Westboro Baptist Church. Extremism in America. http://archive.adl.org/learn/ext_us/wbc