Westboro Baptist Church

            In this week's blog, we look at the Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) and their recent protest at Beau Biden's (the recently deceased son of Vice President Joe Biden) funeral.  For those not familiar with the WBC an introduction is necessary.  The WBC's website "godhatesfags.com" states Pastor Fred Phelps established the church, located in Topeka, KS, in 1955.  They claim to be an "Old School" Baptist Church and boast to have demonstrated at over 55,000 various events in the past 24 years, to include over 400 military funerals.  The WBC indentifies these demonstrations as "... peaceful sidewalk demonstrations opposing the homosexual lifestyle of soul-damning, nation-destroying filth" and they describe the signs they carry as "colorful signs containing Bible words and sentiments".  The signs referred to as "containing Bible words and sentiments" state phrases such as: "GOD HATES FAGS", "AIDS CURES FAGS", "FAGS BURN IN HELL", "THANK GOD FOR DEAD SOLDIERS", "GOD BLEW UP THE TROOPS", and "GOD HATES AMERICA".  Simply put, the WBC contends that their beliefs are undisputable and encompass the one and only universal code.  (Rosenstand, 2013, pp. 123 & G-1) identifies this type of imperial belief of a just crusade as "Hard Universalism", also known as absolutism.  

            Beau Biden, the son of Vice President Joe Biden, died on May 30, 2015, after a 2-year bout with brain cancer, at the age of 46.  During his life, he served in the Delaware Army National Guard, was an Iraq War veteran, and he served two terms as Attorney General of Delaware.  President Barrack Obama delivered his eulogy stating he was "... a good man. A man of character. A man who loved deeply and was loved in return..." 

            As they have done several times in the past, the WBC publically announced they would attend to protest the funeral.  (Parra & Barrish, 2015) stated only three Westboro protesters showed to picket the funeral.  Counter protesters, in excess of 100 people, showed to offer support and to oppose the efforts of the WBC - An obvious conflict between the two groups' values.  .  (Rosenstand, 2013, p. 204) discusses theories to different origins of values including: socialization, rational thought, and emotionalism.  The case could be made that the WBC, over the years, has evoked emotional responses in people across the country causing them to develop strong values contrary to the actions of the church - emotionalism.  The WBC evoked such an extreme emotional response that a man was ultimately arrested for throwing a cup of coffee on the protesters because, as (Landau, 2015) stated, "... he couldn't contain his emotions."

            We can look again to the text of (Rosenstand, 2013, p. 146), which recalls that America was conceived as a "melting pot" and welcomed all.  We, as a nation, thrived on the concept of multiculturalism.  Although, we still have much to improve on, it is that philosophy that has allowed us to excel and become the nation we are today.  As this so-called church spouts their rhetoric, America has taken notice and come out in great numbers to oppose the closed-minded views of the few.

 References:

About Westboro Baptist Church. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.godhatesfags.com/wbcinfo/aboutwbc.html

Landau, J. (2015, June 7). EXCLUSIVE: Delaware man who threw coffee on Westboro Baptist Church protesters at Beau Biden's funeral: 'I would do it again in a minute.'. Retrieved from NY Daily News: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/man-explains-threw-coffee-westbooro-protesters-article-1.2249747

Neuman, S. (2015, June 6). Beau Biden, Vice President's Son, Remembered In Delaware Service. Retrieved from NPR: http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/06/06/412458537/beau-biden-vice-presidents-son-remembered-in-delaware-service

Parra, E., & Barrish, C. (2015, June 6). Man arrested for throwing coffee on protesters at Biden funeral. Retrieved from 10NEWS: http://www.wtsp.com/story/news/2015/06/06/beau-biden-funeral-westboro-church/28604431/

Press, T. A. (2008, August 23). Timeline of Biden's life and career. Retrieved from The Associated Press: https://web.archive.org/web/20080925021142/http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/08/22/politics/p222636D16.DTL

Rosenstand, N. (2013). The Moral of the Story: An Introduction to Ethics (7th ed.). New York: McGraw Hill.

Urbanski, D. (2015, June 6). Man Arrested After Throwing Coffee at Westboro Baptist Church Members Protesting Outside Beau Biden’s Funeral. Retrieved from The Blaze: http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/06/06/man-arrested-after-throwing-coffee-at-westboro-baptist-church-members-protesting-outside-beau-bidens-funeral/