How the Westboro Baptist Church Lost the War on Gay Marriage

The gay rights movement is one of the most prominent movements in the United States. In 37 out of 50 states, gay marriage is still against the law. Gay rights have been fought against for years now and much progress has been made. Even still, people combat the right of homosexual individuals. One movement however, sees this movement as an abomination to society. A group named the Westboro Baptist Church has made it their goal to let the world know theirs, and god’s views on homosexuality to be known. Mostly famous for picketing the funerals of dead soldiers, the Westboro Baptist Church has become one of the most hated families in America, and maybe even the world. They travel the United States picketing with signs that say, “God hates fags.” or “Aids cures fags.” However, I believe that these people may be doing more good than bad.

The Westboro Baptist Church was formed in Topeka, Kansas in 1955. The recently deceased pastor of the church, Fred Phelps, was hired to be the assistant pastor of a different church named the East Side Baptist church. After the Westboro Baptist Church was founded, he left the church to join the new one as the pastor. The church however, did not become worldly known for quite some time. Small pickets within Topeka were usually seen by the church, but they didn’t become noticed until 2006. The group, now traveling throughout the country to picket a military funeral where Albert Snyder and his family were burying their son who had died in Iraq. Matthew was met by multiple picketers that were chanting hate speech about the military and the United States. The Westboro Baptist Church had decided to picket military funerals do to America allowing gays to be in the army. The sad day of much grieving was made worse as the church tormented the family, all because the son was in the army.

Snyder decided to sue the Westboro Baptist Church declaring that the church was abusing the first amendment of the constitution in the Snyder vs. Phelps case. Snyder had made his case to the court and eventually won the case in civil court. However, the church is made up of many lawyers who weren’t about to give up the case. Even though he won in civil court, the church took the case to the Supreme Court who declared that the church’s proceedings were protected by the first amendment. This case was considered an outrage to many people and was reported by multiple news stations. Ever since this case, the Westboro Baptist Church has been known around the world. The church has been banned from entering both the United Kingdom and also Canada due to their actions.

The Westboro Baptist Church is attempting to fight against the gay rights movement, but in my opinion, they are only helping it. People see the hate in the group and when they hear about what they stand for, they immediately are influenced to go in the other direction. When the Westboro Baptist Church protests about the gay rights movement, they are counter-intuitively increasing the support towards it. In fact, people are willing to join together in protest against them, just to make a point to the church.

On 5/30/2011, Westboro Baptist Church members gathered to protest the funeral of multiple soldiers that had died. They began to hold up signs and chant their anti-gay parody songs to modern pop songs and gathered attention. However, they were quickly met by multiple counter-protesters. These people showed up to prevent the Westboro Baptist Church from getting their message across. Curiously enough, the counter-protestors were proud members of the Ku Klux Klan. People started to gather around and counter-protest alongside the KKK members. There is a famous quote saying, “The enemy of my enemy, is my friend” This counter-protest is a prime example of this. People despise the Westboro Baptist Church so much, that they are willing the help fight against them alongside the notorious KKK.

The Westboro Baptist Church not only causes people to oppose the church, but oppose anti-gay, lesbian, and bisexual bigotry. They have made their message clear to the world about how they feel about lesbian, gay and bisexual or LGB individuals. However, most disagree strongly with their stance. The reason for this may not be because LGB people however, but the church itself. If you’ve ever seen a Westboro Baptist Church sign in your lifetime, you may have had many different feelings. You may have felt disgusted by the sign “Fags die god laughs” or maybe upset at the sign saying “Thank god for AIDS” but either way, it strikes an emotion inside you. One that you cannot avoid and makes you question your own choices in life.

Someone who is on the fence about gay rights sees the hate that these people spread and compare the Church’s beliefs to their own. Even if only for a second, they wouldn’t dare relate themselves to these awful people. This can also be seen in other instances of society. One example can be seen in our very own government. The Republicans and Democrats have had an ongoing feud between themselves for quite some time now. Even if the republican side of government were to promote an idea that would help the government, the democratic side would instantly reject it. Not because of the idea, just because a republican promoted it. This compares to the Westboro Baptist Church because when they promote their ideologies, people instantly reject them due to the shear fact that it’s coming from a person who spreads hate and despair throughout America.

A study was performed on a group of college students to test the effect of endorsement on products. The test was to discover whether if the endorser was shown to be a bad person or if they had done something terrible, how exactly it would affect the products marketing. Groups were handed both a pamphlet on the product and also a negative news story on the endorser. The groups that were handed the news story formed less favorable opinions about the product than the people who were not shown the story. When people see the Westboro Baptist Church and the terrible things they have done to innocent families, of course they are going to be disgusted by them. Also, as this study shows, they are more likely to reject the Church’s beliefs as well.

Another question we might ask ourselves is whether or not the changing of ideology induced by the Westboro Baptist Church is enough to force action on the other side. One example of this can be seen from those incredibly sad and depressing animal abuse commercials that we see on television. These commercials accompanied by sad music and graphic imagery instantly forces a response in someone. As such, the Bucks County SPCA and other animal protection groups that make these commercials take in thousands of dollars to help animals, such as the ones show in the commercial. Even though the commercials may cost a large sum of money, the groups are well aware that their commercials will convince people to send in donations. This translates to the Westboro Baptist Church in the way that they also force a reaction in someone and like the animal abuse commercials, force some kind of action. It is for this reason that the gay rights movement is not only still standing, but is growing at an incredible rate.

Even if you can ignore the Westboro Baptist Church, the worst possible effect that their ideologies can have a person is none at all. You might not be bothered, but that is fine. The reason for this is because every person that aren’t bothered by this terrible group of hateful people, there are others that are. Others that will do something about them, whether it is to counter protest, or change other people’s way of thinking. The time will come where they will step into that voting box and consider their choices once again. Their unsettling meeting with the Westboro Baptist Church will once again bounce around their head and will get factored into their decision. Do they vote for the president who’s pro-gay marriage, or against it? The Westboro Baptist Church may not need to change you completely, but as soon as they influence your decisions in life, that’s enough.

Works Cited

“17 States with Legal Gay Marriage and 33 States with Same-Sex Marriage Bans.” ProConorg Headlines. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Apr. 2014. <http://gaymarriage.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=004857&gt;.

Hughes, Sarah A. “Ku Klux Klan Protests Westboro Baptist Church.” The Washington Post. N.p., 31 May 2011. Web. 23 Apr. 2014. <http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blogpost/post/klu-klux-klan-protests-westboro-baptist-church-video/2011/05/31/AGgoiPFH_blog.html&gt;.

Louis Theroux Most Hated Family. Perf. Louis Theroux. BBC, 2007. Youtube. Web. 23 Apr. 2014. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pxE6_VY8aM&gt;.

“Westboro Baptist Church.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 23 Apr. 2014. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westboro_Baptist_Church&gt;.

White, Darin W., Lucretia Goddard, and Nick Wilbur. “The Effects of Negative Information Transference in the Celebrity Endorsement Relationship.” Emerald Insight. N.p., 1973. Web. 22 Apr. 2014. <http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?articleid=1776095&gt;.