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Westboro Baptist Church is a small religious organization based in Topeka, Kansas, USA, headed by minister Fred Phelps.
The group is notorious for its website GodHatesFags.com, and its related public statements that God hates all gay people, no matter what. They are adamant in this belief, and are equally adamant in the belief that everyone needs to hear it and believe it. According to its website, "'God hates fags' [...] is a profound theological statement, which the world needs to hear more than it needs oxygen, water and bread." The group has attracted controversy for welcoming both individual murders and large-scale disasters as divine retribution against homosexuals and their "enablers".
The Group
The group claims to adhere largely to the philosophy of John Calvin and the principles of the acronym TULIP. However, mainstream Calvinist churches have claimed that Westboro's agenda, especially its welcoming of murders and its message of hate, is at variance with Calvinism. Most sources indicate that the group consists almost exclusively of Phelps and members of his family. [1] (http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/michael_haggerty/expose3.htm)
The group is known for picketing the funerals of people who have died of AIDS, among other events. Group members made an appearance at the funeral of Matthew Shepard, a young gay man from Wyoming who was beaten to death by two young males; his homosexuality was the given reason. Though Phelps claimed that Shepard's murder was unjust, his overt activism against Shepard's sexual orientation, regardless of the mourning of Shepard's family and friends, to some had the appearance of a tacit endorsement for Shepard's murder. Murder is considered a sin by most Christians, and Phelps' chosen methods of activism are considered morally wrong, even among other fundamentalist Christians.
The members of Westboro Baptist Church explain their decision to use the word fag, a largely pejorative term for male homosexuals, in their FAQ:
- We use the word "fag" as a contraction of the word "faggot" or "fagot." A "fag" is a firebrand. A "fag" is used for kindling — it fuels fire. "Fag" is a metaphor used in the Bible, for example, in Amos 4:11 (where it is translated "firebrand" in the KJV). Just as a "fag" fuels the fires of nature, so does a sodomite fuel the fires of God's wrath. We do not use the word "fag" in order to engage in childish name-calling. Rather, we use it because it is a metaphor chosen by the Holy Ghost to describe a group of people who BURN in their lust one toward another, and who FUEL God's wrath.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the etymology of faggot (in the sense of "male homosexual") is thus: Cigarettes, called fags in Britain to this day, were at one time considered by some to be feminine -- thus, men considered more feminine were called fags. Furthermore, the Online Etymological Dictionary (http://www.etymonline.com/) claims that faggot 's new meaning in English was reinforced by a Yiddish slang word for a male homosexual: faygele, which literally means "little bird" (cf. German Vogelein.)
The group has also picketed Billy Graham revivals, alleging that the conservative evangelist will burn in hell for failing to propagate the "God Hates Fags" doctrine. In October 2004 the group protested the mass meetings of Rev. Billy Graham, where they called the 85-year old preacher a Hell-bound false prophet.
Claiming divine retribution
The group has repeatedly espoused the opinion that the September 11 terrorist attacks on New York were acts of divine retribution. They also describe AIDS in this manner. Their FAQ states "Thank God For September 11" and "Everyone who gets AIDS gets it as a direct result of God's will (including babies and people who get it from blood transfusions), and He should be blessed for it."
Rev. Phelps also makes lurid attacks on other other groups, including: Jews, Catholics, "impure" Protestant churches, and immigrants.
- There is a difference between the sense of the sacred...and the goofy 'communal sensitivity' at Topeka's sodomite Mexican Catholic Church...Mexican idolaters worship bloody rectums...[2] (http://www.adl.org/special_reports/wbc/wbc_on_christians.asp)
In January 2005 the group once again made a controversial statement, after the Indian Ocean Earthquake, in which they thanked God for the tsunamis, and hoped for 20,000 dead Swedes (a large number of Swedish citizens were spending their vacation in the areas affected by the tsunamis). They have also threatened to picket Swedish survivors at various locations on the island of Phuket on 16 and 17 January 2004. The group pursued a hatred of Swedes, creating the website GodHatesSweden.com, after a Swedish pastor, Åke Green, was convicted of inciting hatred. They later welcomed reports of 5,000 Swedish dead and 3,000 American dead, and prayed "that God will send a massive tsunami to totally devastate the North American continent".
Responses
On August 18, 1999, an anonymous cracker transferred ownership of the domain www.godhatesfags.com to Kris Haight, owner of the counter activism site godlovesfags.com. Apparently, this was done by forging an email message from Phelps. Haight promptly redirected all traffic to his site. After much media attention, Phelps threatened to sue and the domain name was returned on August 21.
Counter protests are generally organized to provide an opposing viewpoint at sites that Westboro pickets. In some cases the other activists have even tried to hide the Westboro picketers.
Criticism
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) describes the Westboro Baptist Church as "virulently homophobic", whose anti-gay rhetoric they say is often a cover for anti-semitism and anti-catholicism. The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), an anti-hate group, has added the Westboro Baptist Church to its list of watched groups.
Parodies
The God Hates Fags website has achieved sufficient fame to have been parodied with at least two independent domain names. God Hates Figs (http://www.godhatesfigs.com) and God Hates Shrimp (http://www.godhatesshrimp.com) both use actual Bible verses to "prove" that figs and shrimp are "evil". They parody God Hates Fags in the sense that one can prove anything to be evil using the appropriate Bible verses, and therefore suggest that religious-based homophobia is as ridiculous as religious hatred of, say, shrimp.
External links
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