The Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) is a Baptist church which is known for its hate speech, especially against LGBT people, Catholics, Orthodox Christians, Muslims, Jews, American soldiers and politicians. The church is widely known as a hate group and is monitored as such by the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center.

The church has been involved in actions against gay people since at least 1991, when it sought a crackdown on homosexual activity at Gage Park six blocks northwest of the church. In addition to conducting anti-gay protests at military funerals, the organization pickets celebrity funerals and public events. Protests have also been held against Jews and Catholics, and some protests have included WBC members stomping on the American flag or flying the flag upside down on a flagpole. The church also has made statements such as, “thank God for dead soldiers,” “God blew up the troops,” “Thank God for 9/11,” and “God hates America.”

I had a semi-personal encounter with this group on my way home from school on September 6, 2017. I was just minding my own business, driving home from school, and when I passed Oak Hills I saw their rally.

I was not impressed, considering there were maybe ten people representing the church at the rally; compared to about fifty gay pride people rallying against the Westboro Baptist Church.

I caught up junior student here at Elder, Chad Ostertag, who told me, “I am not really a fan of this group (WBC), I think they ***” Although Chad was rather direct, I think he expresses an emotion that most people have towards this group, annoyance.

Most of the arguments made by the WBC are seemingly invalid. If you ever want some just raw entertainment at the hands of this group, I’d recommend checking out their website linked above (see paragraph one). Where they have stats telling you how many people have been damned to hell while you have been on the website, as well as numerous music videos/parodies of popular songs where they push their agendas.

Besides continuously embarrassing themselves, this group is in fact good at many other things. They make obnoxious signs with horrendous messages written on them (see paragraph two).

Another thing that baffles me is how people can actually be a supporter of that group. They are seemingly against America. Their signs about 9/11, how God hates troops, how God hates America, and so on; are clear representations of the hate group that is, the Westboro Baptist Church.

Some suggestions from me to this group include; quit embarrassing yourselves with the things you put on your signs, and website. The music videos you make are supposed to be completely serious, but the average person like me cannot tell because of how laughable they are. Please stop making those, it is simply a bad visual. Also, please use your head before you go to a rally. You guys were protesting the National Baptist Convention, which makes no sense considering you are in fact a Baptist church.

In the future, I expect to see a major decline in members of this group, as they have become more and more irrelevant as the years have gone on.