Westboro Baptist Church

Westboro Baptist Church
Daniel Simon; Cody Prue; Kolby Teare;
Cordero Usrey; Matt Corral
http://youtu.be/bOrz5k0jWdU
Background + Context
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Founder: Pastor Fred Phelps
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1955 began his own church in Topeka
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Phelps earned B.A. and J.D. degrees from
Washburn University
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In 1964 he founded the Phelps Chartered Law
Firm.
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Membership as of 2011: estimated 40 members.
Background + Context
● Daily sidewalk demonstrations opposing homosexual lifestyle
○ soul-damning allegations
○ nation-destroying filth
● Display large colorful signs
○ “FAGS EAT POOP”
○ “GOD HATES FAGS”
Background + Context
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In 2013, a petition to label WBC a
“hate group” received over 300K
signatures, enough to be
recognized by the White House
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Obama Administration’s response:
“As a matter of practice, the federal
government doesn't maintain a list
of hate groups.”
Beliefs and Practices
Ontology - Dualism
● Two states of reality: spirit plane & physical world.
● God and Satan access/manipulate physical world from
spirit world
● When mortal life ends, human soul is judged by God.
○ Worthy sent to heaven (eternal paradise)
○ Unworthy sent to hell (eternal torture)
Beliefs and Practices
Epistemology: Scriptural spiritualism
● Primarily Old Testament oriented
● King James Bible is source of all knowledge; written by
God himself.
● Biblical literalism: there is nothing figurative about the
words of the Bible, they are exact instructions for
righteous behavior.
Beliefs and Practices
Religious/Spiritual Beliefs
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The church considers membership in most
religious groups to be equal to devil worship
The church defines itself as Old-School or Primitive
Baptist
Defends the Five Points of Calvinism
○ Total Depravity
○ Unconditional Election
○ Limited Atonement
○ Irresistible Grace
○ Perseverance of Grace
The actual Baptist Church has publicly denounced
the WBC, no affiliation whatsoever
Beliefs and Practices
● Ethical Practices: Biblical consequentialism
● Old Testament = main source for defining ethical
beliefs.
● God ‘hates’ sin. Sin is precisely defined in the Bible, and
God punishes those who are sinful with an eternity of
torture.
Beliefs and Practices
Core Values
● God
● Extreme
homophobia
● Hate
● Conservative
Christian
Fundamentalism
Beliefs and Practices
How they interact with
society
● Anti-Gay picketing
● Funeral picketing
● Internet propaganda
● Flying upside down US
flag
Beliefs and Practices
Not just “fags”
● According to Fred Phelps’ daughter Shirley
Phelps-Roper, the term “fag” is applicable to
homosexuals especially, but also includes
anyone who has sex outside of a
1man/1woman marriage bed
Beliefs and Practices
Not just “fags”
● WBC has an ever-expanding list of things God hates.
○ Central website “GodHatesFags.com” offers links to
several offshoot sites.
■ ‘GodHatesIslam.com’
■ ‘BeastObama.com’
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explains that Barack Obama is the Antichrist, and forms an
unholy trinity of evil with Satan and Pope Benedict XVI
Cultural Patterns
Education
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Members are highly educated in
constitutional law, Phelps children raised to
be lawyers for the church.
The church pays for the members college
education
Children do attend public school through
high school
First Amendment Experts
Minority Status
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Only 40 members
Cultural Patterns
Wealth
The WBC spends nearly $200,000 annually on protest. Funding for the traveling and protest comes
from:
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Members pay a “tithe” of 30% of their annual income to the church
a large amount of the funding comes from litigations.
They use passive aggressive techniques to provoke a hostile response, and then file civil action
lawsuits which result in them receiving a settlement
They do not accept outside donations
The Phelps family donates all of their income to the church, which is a non profit organization, so
they receive tax deductions and the church gets the money tax free.
Cultural Patterns
Perspective on War
The WBC are avid supporters of the Bush
Administration’s wars. They believe that
every soldier killed as a result of war is God
punishing the United States for supporting
homosexuals.
Segregation and Oppression
The WBC does not associate with or support
anyone that does not share their exact
beliefs. Their animosity has no bounds as
they oppose everyone from homosexuals to
Jews to Barack Obama.
Current Concerns, Issues, &
Challenges
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God Hates Fags, “Fag enablers” Jews,
Catholics, The World, America
Current leader, Post Fred Phelps
○ Shirley Phelps-Roper is now the
‘face’ of the group
○ Before Fred’s death in 2014,
Phelps-Roper claimed that the
WBC had not had an official
leader for some time, implying his
death would not change anything
America is Doomed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=Wug0am22pGE
References Page
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www.newsmax.com/US/Westboro-petition-hate-group/2013/07/05/id/513489/
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/03/20/westboro-church-fred-phelps-gaycontroversy/6664703/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/07/shirley-phelps-roper-westboro-baptist-churchdaughters-defections_n_2638436.html
http://www.plattsburghforpeace.com/familytree.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Phelps
https://medium.com/turning-points/83d2ef8ba4f5
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2013/03/05/an-interview-with-lauren-drain-formermember-of-the-westboro-baptist-church/
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2013/05/20/another-westboro-baptist-churchdefector-tells-her-story/