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Controversial church largely ignored

Nov. 17, 2009

Courtesy of Megan Phelps-Roper Ben Phelps, a member of Westboro Baptist Church, protests just off Baylor campus on his way back from Killeen to Kansas, where the church is located. The church, famous for its controversial signs and protests, was in Texas protesting at Fort Hood memorial, where members held signs proclaiming such sentiments as "Thank God for Dead Soldiers."

By Bethany Moore
Reporter

The Bear Trail was filled with more than exercising students and their pets on Nov. 10, when the Westboro Baptist Church held a protest criticizing Baylor for what it considers non-Christian teaching.

Baylor hardly noticed.

From 2 to 2:20 p.m. Nov. 10, on the corner of Bagby Ave. and University Parks Dr., four men from the church in Topeka, Kan., were protesting and displaying 12 signs, some of which read, "America is Doomed," "You Will Eat Your Babies," "God is Your Enemy," and "Obama is the Anti-Christ," among others.

The church, which many consider extremist, is famous for its controversial signs and protests held at soldiers' funerals and other events across the nation. The members were on their way back from protesting the Fort Hood shooting memorial in Killeen, where they proudly declared, "Thank God for Dead Soldiers" and "God Sent The Shooter."

At Fort Hood, the protesters were blocked and counteracted as soldiers and their families made their own signs, which stated, "We Love and Support Our Troops."

The protest at Baylor lasted 20 minutes and didn't draw much attention besides the random honk, middle finger and exclamation of, "Are you kidding me?"

Shirley Roper, the daughter the church's pastor Fred Phelps, said they held the protest to warn students that they are leading sinful lives and will be punished for it.

"You live among wild rebels and tattoo-laden perverts and taught that God is a liar," Roper said. "Your moral compass is broken."

Capt. Danny Knight of Baylor Police said the church sent a fax to the campus police and to the City of Waco notifying them of the protest and the legally permissible location they would be at.

"I don't think they got the results they were expecting," Knight said. "There was no big crowd and only about four protesters. I think it was just a convenient stop on their way back from Fort Hood."

Before the protest, the church sent out a press release to gain support, which said that the picket was against "fag-infested Baylor University in religious protest and warning."

Megan Phelps-Roper, granddaughter of Phelps, had a different opinion than campus police and said the picket went well.

"I spoke to two cross-country runners who asked, 'Didn't Jesus love everyone?'" Phelps-Roper said. "They didn't know the Bible well enough and don't understand predestination. God chooses who he loves and who he hates. You can't say, 'I accepted God as my savior,' because God has to choose you."

Since the late '90s, the church has caught media attention because to the once-a-week protest it holds all over the country, notifying Americans that they are going to hell.

Phelps began the protest in response to former president Bill Clinton's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy concerning homosexuals in the military.

Dr. Christopher Bader, associate professor of sociology, has spent time at Westboro Baptist Church and is studying it for a book he is in the midst of writing on the extremist church.

"They believe, according to Pastor Phelps, that they are the only people going to heaven," Bader said. "They think everyone else is going to hell and it is their mission to tell them of God's wrath."

Bader also said Baylor was on the church's way back home to Kansas and that they usually try to picket as many places as they can.

"They enjoy the attention and criticism they receive at the protests," Bader said. "They like going to religious schools to show them specifically that they are wrong and God hates them."

The church continuously travels the nation to high schools, colleges, other churches, abortion clinics and mainly soldiers' funerals to preach the message of Phelps.

Many people have left the group since their extreme turn in the '90s, dwindling the congregation to around 100 members who are mostly related, Bader said.

Church members are only allowed to marry within the congregation, therefore most of the young women are single and there is little reproduction or growth within the community, Bader said. Few leave and enter the community, so it can't last forever.

2009 alumnus Stephen Hinson went with Bader to study the group and said members are brainwashed by Pastor Phelps' theology.

"We spent the whole weekend with them and after studying them I found that they just take the Bible and twist it," Hinson said. "They know that the more outrageous they are the more attention they will get. They have this shed just full of outrageous attention-seeking signs."

Bader said the church members live in a tightly located group of houses around the church and besides their theology, lead fairly, normal lives.

"Most of them have jobs and most of them attended or are attending college," Bader said. "I even saw some of the girls reading the 'Twilight' books."

One advantage the church has over other protesters is the many lawyers in the congregation.

"They always follow the rules and laws of the place that they are in so they can't be sued," Bader said. "They always win lawsuits against them and actually make good money from them. Essentially the people against them end up funding them."

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