Westboro Baptist Church, a controversial organization from Topeka, KS, best known for its protests against homosexuality outside military funerals, has scheduled a demonstration at the University of Chicago March 9 to protest against the University’s support for “so-called ‘abortion rights’ and so-called ‘gay rights,’” according to a press release on the church’s website.
Several students, including first-year Anthony Pence, have begun organizing a counter-protest against the Westboro demonstration. “Based on the beliefs of the church, it really went against my values and the values of other people I’ve talked to,” Pence said. “They have the right to protest. It’s their free speech. They have the right to say what they want to say, but it boils down to respect for human beings and using rational thought. Other religious groups [that disagree with homosexuality] are respectful about it.”
According to its website, the Westboro Baptist Church believes that God kills Americans as punishment for the country’s immoral sexual behavior, focusing primarily on homosexuality. The group frequently pickets with signs bearing slogans such as “God hates fags.”
Deputy Dean for Student Affairs Martina Munsters said the University administration would work with students who wanted to organize around Westboro’s protest. “This is where different advisers reach out to them about what would be effective programming, what would be helpful for our community,” she said. Explaining the administration’s thinking about Westboro’s appearance, she said, “The group is pretty provocative.”
Pence was uncertain about what form the protest would take, but he said that “the general feel of students is that we want this to be peaceful. We don’t want a traditional protest. We want something that represents the unique student body we have at the University of Chicago.”
Shirley Phelps-Roper, a spokesperson for the church, explained that its primary motivation for protesting at the University was that it formerly employed President Obama, whom she called “the Antichrist.”
“It fits all Scriptural description,” she said. “The Lord is coming. America is doomed. [Barack Obama] is going to reign over the destruction of America.”
Phelps-Roper also condemned Obama’s interpretation of Christianity. “Every time he opens his mouth to speak about God and Christ he speaks blasphemies. He uses the Sermon on the Mount as a justification for homosexuality and slaughtering babies,” Phelps-Roper said.
Members of the church will also demonstrate outside the Chicago Theological Seminary, which is not affiliated with the U of C, against the work of Theodore Jennings, Jr., a professor of biblical and constructive theology who has written several books on homosexuality in the Judeo-Christian tradition. Jennings Jr. could not be reached for comment.
Facebook groups have sprung up to help organize the counter-protest. Dan Hartsough, a first-year and creator of one of the groups, addressed whether counterprotesting would play into Westboro’s goal of attracting attention. “They will definitely be heard and seen from the positions they have planned, and so in order to make the LGBT community and their supporters feel accepted, it would be nice to have a beneficial protest next to them,” he wrote on his group page.
Phelps-Roper added the church does not intend to advocate a change in any University of Chicago policies. “We have no interest in changing minds,” she said. “Even if we wanted to, we could not.” Rather, she explained that the church wants to bear witness to what it sees as America’s current situation. “The Lord our God, in the most amazing fashion, has permitted this tiny little church in the middle of doomed America to preach to the whole world,” she said.
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Discussion
MARK KENNEL
February 19th 2009 at 07:30 PM
Where will the protest be and when?
SHIRLEY PHELPS-ROPER
March 8th 2009 at 08:52 AM
YIKES!! About that respect thing - I wonder how respectful you disobedient rebels will find HELL. The place you will spend ETERNITY - where the worm dieth NOT and the fire is NEVER quenched and the smoke of your torment will ascend up for ever and ever and ever in the presence of the Holy Angels and in the presence of the Lamb of God!
It is time for you brute beasts to SHUT YOUR MOUTHS, get a Bible, READ THOSE WORDS - you can read - just do it! Your duty is to fear God, OBEY HIM and give the glory of all his marvelous works (Katrine, Ike, crashing markets, mayhem and destruction, dead soldiers and the rise of That Wicked, The Beast, The Man of Sin he after all is YOU on steroids and with some acutal power - that he got from his God, Antichrist Barak Obama, TO GOD - it is ALL HIS WORK and it is ALL for HIS glory - give that glory TO YOUR GOD!!
The Lord is coming and america is DOOMED!! Even now, you see your destruction all around you and it is going to get SO MUCH WORSE, and you push that along quickly when you send your rebel lawyer to threaten this peaceful and LAWFUL little flock of slaughter - even as you pretend to believe in the First Amendment! YIKES! Obama TAUGHT Constitutional Law at your filthy law school, but like the rest of you lawless brutes, HE DIDN'T MEAN IT!! YAY!!
The Lord my God willing, I will see you tomorrow! YAY!!
DILLON T.
April 1st 2009 at 10:06 PM
Ms. Phelps-Roper,
Have you forgotten what this country was founded on? You speak of the First Amendment, but it seems unlikely that you understand the meaning of its practice. You, Ms. Phelps-Roper, are entitled to your belief that America is going to Hell in a hand-basket, but many Americans refuse to believe it, including me. I personally have grown weary of the Armageddon hub-bub, whether it be from Evangelicals or 2012 conspirators. People have attested the end of the world for centuries, and guess what... it hasn't ended yet.
It's easy to stand on either side of the line. You, Ms. Phelps-Rogers, and members of your congregation stand on one side proclaiming that the rest of America is wallowing in the Devil's delight, while on the other end of the spectrum are the people that say Bible-thumping evangelicals are crazy and they should be condemned to the looney bin. Now, let's all take a deep breath.
Time are rough these days, I know, especially with the economy in decline; relations between the Christian and Muslim worlds intensifying; and humans in general facing the effect of globalization. In my opinion, it's easy to jump on Armageddon Express and condemn everyone to Hell or to say that the world/America is doomed. It takes a much more diligent and creative society to stand up to the problems it is facing and rise above them.
I want to note something about Hell as well: It is irrelevant. You, madam, are conducting an argument out of fear, which is more accurately expressed as a fallacy. I grew up a Southern Baptist and the Hell-Fire-Brimstone approach was not absent from my church experience. Though I no longer profess to be a Christian(mostly due to associations with people like you),wouldn't a more prudent approach for attempting to "bring salvation" to the "unbeliever" be to preach of Christ's love and way of life rather than humanity's condemnation to Hell? Your words of the "disobedient" and their punishment in Hell is certainly nothing more than the seed that fell upon the sandy soil. There is no proof that Heaven or Hell exists, and it is my philosophy that we should spend our energy improving our stay here on earth rather than wasting our intelligence on malignant theologies. As much as you tell yourself that you are going to Heaven and that the rest of us are going to Hell, the only proof available is blind faith, which, to reason's dismay, is something that some would consider a virtue.
When you, Ms. Phelps-Roper, attack the manner in which other American's exercise of their First Amendment rights, you are being highly hypocritical. The Founding Fathers, most of whom were Deists, not Christians, established the First Amendment so that all Americans could express themselves, so DO NOT CONDEMN US FOR STANDING UP AGAINST YOUR IMMORAL BLASPHEMIES. By your argument, Ms. Phelps-Roper, I would say that you are condemned to Hell as well, being a hypocrite. I've read in some badly translated book that hypocrites burn in Hell as well.
In short, please, Ms. Phelps-Roper, stop being so negative. You may believe that homosexuality is wrong, but there are many Americans who do not. The loudest 2% percent are not always the most righteous. America is in a hard place and all the nay-sayers need to get the fuck out of the way. There's work to be done.
Without night, there is no day, and they are antipodes; but, remember, it is the grey of the early morning and the dark blue of the falling twilight that bind them together.
DAVID
October 2nd 2009 at 09:21 PM
Peace be to you Ms Shirley Phelps-Roper! I pray that a few students were brave enough to go out and stand with you in the proclamation that homosexuality, lesbianism, and bi-sexuality IS a perversion and an abomination (or obamanation) of GOD. I wish there were more churches in this country who would take on this challenge to the moral decay of our once GREAT JUDEO-CHRISTIAN country. Surely the founding fathers NEVER intended for a perverse nation that this country has become. Devil's minions in the guise of lawyers have brought us to the brink of debauchery. Supreme court justices appointed by Presidents that obeyed Satan in their appointments began this holocaust called free-choice, separation of church in state, and other GODLESS laws have us fighting the good fight, the moral fight, the just fight. May Michael the Arch-angel and his legions of angels join you in your fight against the sin of man and the guidance of Satan and his corrupters, the liberal person, the liberal politician, the liberal judge, the liberal college president, the liberal college professor, the liberal bleeding hearts!