Chicago Case Study Pokemon Go

The church was taken over by Fred Phelps in the 1950s after he was hired as an associate pastor

1. In Chicago there were many different ritualistic events and activities in which the people were involved, many of which thousands of people would gather just to hear about. “Two thousand people gathered on the sidewalk and street outside the offices of the Chicago Tribune…” The people were gathered to hear the news about the big fair that was coming up. This fair was deep in the hearts of the Chicago people, just as the superbowl is in the hearts of Americans in today’s world.

Not affiliated with any southern baptist or general baptist churches, the thirty-nine member (The Journal) Westboro Baptist Church is primarily known for its continued protest against the LGBT community, the Catholic Church, and the military (Wikipedia). The westboro Baptist Church’s first public service was held on November 27, 1955(Wikipedia). This was the first time the church publicly condemned the world. Most recently the Westboro Baptist Church have agreed with the shooting at the Pulse Night Club in Orlando, Florida stating that God sent Omar Mateen to kill the gays because “God hates fags.” While other churches preach about loving one another as god has loved them, the westboro

The Westboro Baptist Church is a group that has been in the spotlight for the last two decades because of their unusual tactic of picketing at soldier’s funerals. The act is motivated by the notion that America’s moral are being corrupted by their acceptance of homosexuality. The act of picketing of soldier’s funerals according to the group is motivated by the fact that it is a time when mourners are emotionally vulnerable and they think of their mortality. They believe that by picketing in soldier’s funerals their message is stronger. However, this tactic has caused much consternation from both the public and the government. In the interest of the public, state legislatures have enacted laws against the actions of the Westboro Baptist Church. The landmark case of Snyder v. Phelps would have been the deciding factor against the group, but the Supreme Court held in favor of the group because their actions were protected by the First Amendment. This then would present the notion that the First Amendment trumped public interest in the decision. However, that is not the case because the case was an IIED case among others, it was a personal one. As long as the group coordinates with public authorities and does not break laws, then their acts are nothing more than nuisances that should not get in the way of celebrating the life of the dead.

Funeral protests have been an issue for years. During this most recent war, as soldiers were coming home to be laid to rest, Westboro Baptist Church made headlines by protesting at the funerals of fallen soldiers. During the services, members of the church would gather outside of many of the military funerals waving signs that had offensive messages on them such as, “God Hates You”, and “Thank God for Dead Soldiers”. The members of this church believe that the death of the soldiers is God’s punishment for the tolerance of homosexuality in the United States. Last year the U.S, Supreme Court ruled that the First Amendment protects these groups and any others who

The Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) is known for their obscene protests where they display signs that discriminate towards homosexuals. Although the members of the WBC considered themselves a part of an actual church, the church mainly consists of the family members of its founder, Fred Phelps (Clay, 2016). The church holds beliefs that are similar to Calvinism, a denomination of Christianity. Similar to the Calvinists, the members of the church believe that they are a part of an elect group of people that God has chosen to be his own (Clay, 2016). Because they are a part of God’s elect, they feel they must speak against the homosexuality that is present in America and in other places of the world. They travel around the world protesting and shouting hurtful phrases that cause people to

Facts: Westboro Baptist Church, led by Fred Phelps organized a protest on public property to make their beliefs known to others, which is protected by the first Amendment. They do not believe in homosexuality and wars they feel like support homosexuality. They have protest numerus military funerals. Their Protest of Matthew Snyder’s Funeral was on public property and they notified the authorities before picketing the funeral.

Westboro Baptist Church is from about a year ago, but it is still sad that they would protest at funerals of people who fought for them. Westboro Baptist Church Should be shut down and everyone that has ever had some type of connection with protesting at military funerals should be arrested. It should not be right for someone to say that god killed them because their country allows gays. If they understood freedom, and rights then they would not be protesting that “god hates gays” and “god killed soldiers for punishment of allowing gays”. This are the type of people who are ruining America for everyone else. America may be the land of the free, but it is not the home of protesters. Westboro is one of the many protesters but there are many other people out there in the world, ready to take down

I did some research and what keeps coming up is the U.S. Marine Matthew Snyder. The church protested his funeral and it sparked tremendous outrage amongst a lot of people. What is sad is that the court ruled that the protesters were protected under free speech. The ruling was an 8-1 and was won by a land slide in the churches favor. This blew me out of the water reading that Chief Justice John Roberts stated that "Whether the First Amendment prohibits holding Westboro liable for its speech in this case turns largely on whether that speech is of public or private concern." And in this specific case, the judges determined the words on Westboro’s signs indeed dealt with “matters of public import” (Gregory 2011). Free speech is a beautiful thing, but when you want to basically shit on someone’s funeral especially when that person fought for your freedom is wrong in my eyes and there should be bans for protesters on certain occasions. Private matters should be only the family and others not a huge mob of people ragging on soldiers and other situations. I am not a soldier and it made me mad that these people would basically slander this man who died to fight for

The Westboro Baptist Church was founded in 1955, by Fred Phelps, in Topeka, Kansas (Westboro Baptist Church, 2015). Before the Church was established, Fred Phelps was an associate pastor at the Eastside Baptist Church and eventually became the leader of the second Eastside church in Westboro, Kansas (Spies, 2014). Phelps’ teachings began to deviate from those of the Eastside Baptist Church and many followers left the Westboro Church, leaving mostly his family as members. Throughout his services, “Fred introduced his “hateful God” theory and showed himself to be harsh, mean-spirited and possibly unhinged” (Spies, 2014). These messages led to the formation of the Westboro Church that exists today. This also shows how many members of the group are related and how this came to be. Some major features of the Westboro Baptist Church is the actual building where services take place and the board of the Church that consists of eight elders. One of the main aspects of this co-culture is the place where the members meet to hold prayer services. The building where the members usually congregate on the 3700 block of S.W. 12th is undergoing construction at the moment (Bush, 2015). However, the basement of Shirley

The Westboro Baptist Church was represented by the Daughter, Margie Phelps. The church was accused of causing the Snyder family of emotional distress, invasion of privacy, and the intent to cause emotional distress. The Westboro Baptist Church claimed that they went through the process and filed the papers for a legal protest. The picketing took place a thousand feet from the fenced in area, none of the protestors approached the family, and they didn’t obstruct the attending of the funeral. (Epstein, Pg 470). The district Judge Richard Bennett, awarded the family five million dollars in damages. The Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit held that the judgment violated the First Amendment's protection on religious

In September of 2009, the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the Phelps family, completely reversing both prior decisions.[13] The court ruled that Westboro Baptist Church does have the constitutional right to speak freely and to protest. As a result of this ruling, they are currently not liable for any damages whatsoever. As the 4th Circuit is the nation’s highest appeals court, the final step for this case may be the Supreme Court. Snyder has appealed the ruling, and now must wait and see if the Supreme Court will accept the case.

The Westboro Baptist Church is located in Topeka, Kansas and made up of Pastor Fred Waldron Phelps, nine of his 13 children (the other four are estranged because they didn’t agree with their family), their children and spouses, and a small number of other families and individuals. Phelps has maintained tight control over the group. His estranged son Nathan says that Phelps abused his children

Snyder is the only case in an event like this; we only have one record of this type of free speech happening in the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Westboro Baptist Church in the verdict 8-1. The majority opinion from Chief Justice John Roberts stated, “What Westboro said, in the whole context of how and where it chose to say it, is entitled to “special protection” under the First Amendment and that protection commit be overcome by a jury finding that the picketing was outrageous”. This shows that the Westboro Baptist Church is protected under the First Amendment from any legal persecution. This is because, the speech is viewed as unpopular instead of obscenity, because its not referring to one named person, but a group of people, making it not targeted and legal under the First Amendment as it becomes a matter of public

In 2013, the hate group planned to picket the memorial of Sgt. Stefan Smith, a Third Infantry Division soldier killed in Afghanistan a month before. As word spread of Westboro’s plans, community members launched a Facebook group organizing a counter-protest. The group drew nearly two thousand supporters who planned “to create a human barrier/shield