Westboro Baptist Church Case Study

This research will address the self-proclaimed prophet of the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints, a sect of Mormonism based in Utah, Warren Jeffs and his cult of fear. Warren Jeffs had control over ten thousands of followers for nearly a decade. Warren Jeffs coerced young girls into polygamous marriages with older men. Jeffs is estimated to have over 70 wives. The media was shunned, and he created a hidden community where polygamy was prized above anything else. In 2007, after there was a two year FBI manhunt, Jeffs was convicted as an accomplice to rape. Warren Jeff's rise to power effort led to his fallout. Even after his conviction his followers believed that he was innocent and held onto his beliefs and practices.

Though all protests may not result in violent activities, they are still able to leave a detrimental effect on society, as protests may violate people’s rights, especially the right to privacy. A specific example of one’s right to privacy being violated by protests is the Westboro Baptist Church, which is known for its anti-gay protests at military funerals (Anti- Defamation League 2013). Although these protests are peaceful a majority of the time, they disrupt military funerals and infringe on the grieving family’s right to privacy. More specifically, those who are mourning the loss of a loved one expect to do this in private, not with protesters rioting in the background, disrupting the secluded funeral. Eventually, limitations were placed on these unconstitutional protests stating that protesters must be a certain distance from the funeral and can only protest two hours before and after the funeral (The Huffington Post 2016) . Though some may believe both the right to petition and assemble should be unlimited, this case demonstrates that these rights must be restricted in order to protect the contradiction of others’ right to

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

In the beginning of this article, Rosenbaum relies on the appeal of emotion, pathos, to persuade his audience to agree with his claim. He tries to achieve this by telling a story of a church group picketing the funeral of a gay marine. He states, “The Supreme Court upheld the right of a church group opposed to gays serving in the military to picket the funeral of a dead marine with signs that read ‘God Hates Fags’ ” (Rosenbaum). This event caused an uproar and disrupted the peace of a marines’ funeral. Many people began to question the limits of free speech because of this. How can people use hateful speech such as

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

The Westboro Baptist Church has long been regarded in the media as a group filled with hate and detestation for virtually anyone who does not practice their teachings. In reality, the members of the Westboro Baptist Church hold a strong belief that the messages that are portrayed through their picketing and social media websites are actually acts of love that reveal the severity of the actions that most humans partake in. Most of the members were born into the Church and therefore believe that the words they proclaim are the absolute truth. Although most Americans do not agree with the teachings and practices that the Westboro Baptist Church preaches, it is important to learn about and try to understand the various aspects of the church in

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in an 8-1 decision in favor of Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church upholding the decision of the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit; stating that the funeral was undisturbed by the protestors. The protestors were about 1,000 feet away on public land and the Snyder family could not see more than just the top of the protestors’ signs. There was no indication that the protest interfered with the funeral service itself. Phelps and the Westboro

In the case of Snyder vs Phelps The family of a departed Marine named Lance Cpl, Matthew Snyder put forth legal action against parties of the Westboro Baptist Church for picketing at his funeral. According to the family the church was responsible for defamation, invasion of privacy and the deliberate punishment of emotional suffering, The members of the church held signs that read "Thank God for dead soldiers" and "Fag troops" at Snyder's funeral. U.S. District Judge Richard Bennett granted the Snyder family $5 million in damages. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled that the decision violated the First Amendment's protections of religious expression. Does the First Amendment defend protesters who deliberately cause emotional

In 2006, Matthew Snyder, a Marine Corporal was killed during combat in Iraq. Snyder’s family had made funeral arrangements at a Catholic church in their hometown of Westminster, Maryland. The time and location of this service was made public by local newspapers, thus being easily accessible by the public. Fred Phelps, the founder of Westboro Baptist Church located in Topeka, Kansas, was made aware of this service and chose to travel to Maryland to picket it with his two daughters and four grandchildren. The members of the WBC believe that God will forever despise and punish the United States for its lenience towards homosexuality, especially within the military. In order to ensure that their beliefs be known, Phelps and his members frequently

There website is titled "God Hates Fags." The website says, "The only true Nazis in this world are fags. They want to force you by law to support their filth, and they want to shut you up by law when they hate what you say.” The Westboro Baptist Church is an independent church that is not affiliated with any denomination. They believe that they have the truth and that you must be a member of their church to be saved. There known for their protests against homosexuality and anything/anyone they feel support homosexuality. The Westboro Baptist Church is well known for picketing places and events they see support homosexuality or Jews. This includes actual gay and lesbian events, churches and organizations they feel don’t refuse to accept homosexuality sufficiently and the funerals of soldiers. They picket soldier’s funerals because they believe they fought in a war caused by America’s tolerance for

From start to finish the author uses pathos to capture the reader’s attention. Kaplan paints a fearful, gruesome, scary picture of how throughout history people have viewed vampires and zombies. The author shows this with his word choice, metaphors, and the stories he chooses to explain. From the start, the author uses words such as fear, scared, morbid, evil, and terror throughout his entire story. In just the first page of the text he uses the word fear three times accompanied by terror when writing about vampires in ancient times. Kaplan uses metaphors throughout the story, but especially in his introduction to capture the reader’s attention. Examples of this include when he states, “they are predators like lions and play upon the terror

Snyder v Phelps Many people have heard of the Westboro Baptist Church as they are widely known, especially for their protests, and hate speech. The Snyder v Phelps case particularly focuses on an instance where the Westboro Baptist Church protested in front of the funeral of Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder. The question in which the Supreme Court was addressing was “Does the First Amendment protect protesters at a funeral from liability for intentionally inflicting emotional distress on the family of the deceased?

The most substantial of these legal proceedings involving Westboro Baptist Church is the case of Snyder v. Phelps. In 2006, Albert Snyder sued the Phelps family on several counts, namely intrusion and intentional infliction of emotional distress.[6] Snyder’s son, Matthew, died in combat in Iraq and was brought home to Maryland for his funeral processions. Westboro Baptist Church decided to make an example of the fallen soldier, posting an article titled “The Burden of Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder” on their website. In this piece, they made multiple defamatory remarks about Matthew, such as saying that he was “raised for the devil”.[7] Westboro Baptist Church then traveled to Maryland and protested at Matthew’s funeral. The group carried