Who Are These People?

Have you heard of the Westboro Baptist Church?  Chances are, if you pay attention to the media, you have heard of them and their disgusting protests. This so called church is located in Topeka, Kansas.  It's members have become famous for traveling around the country, agitating at the funerals for American solders killed in Iraq and now Afghanistan. Why? Because they see these deaths as God's punishment for allowing gays to live openly in society.  Being gay is the devil's work according in their boneheaded version of Christian theology.  These folks raise a stink with signs that say ugly things like, 'God Hates Fags' and 'Too Late to Pray'

After hearing about this group time and again in the media,  I had to ask the question, 'Who are these people?'  The media reports on them like they're a ubiquitous presence all over the country, at every funeral of a soldier slain in a war zone.

Some localities have passed laws forbidding Westboro's ugly brand of protesting.  The US Supreme Court then affirmed their freedom to protest.  The Foo Fighters, a big time rock band, produced a song ridiculing the church.  When Apple co-founder Steve Jobs died in 2011, a church leader called the media and announced their intention to protest at his funeral. Moreover, she made the announcement from her iphone.  

Paster Fred Phelps

We go back to the question, 'Who are these people?'  It turns out most of them - about forty total - are relatives of the group's founder, Pastor Fred Phelps.  Amazing. How could such a small number of zealots, mostly from one family, cause so much discord and ill will?   There seems to be only one concievable answer to that question.  The Westboro Baptist Church has a public presence and an impact that is way out of proportion to its actual size and reach because the media enables them. Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church have been elevated to a ridiculous extreme by a ratings driven media that loves controversy and conflict, any kind of controversy or conflict, if it helps fill the 24 hour news cycle and delivers an audience.

It would be so much better if we just ignored them.