Persuasive opinion paper
God hates fags, Thank god for dead soldiers, Thank god for Hurricane Katrina, Pretty harsh right? These are all common phrases publically protested by a church called the Westboro Baptist church. You would think such comments should be illegal to chant out in public considering that gay marriage is now legal in some states and also that soldiers are out fighting for us, however members of the Westboro Baptist church feel differently. Westboro Baptist church was established in 1955. Located in Topeka, Kansas, Their goal is to “preach the Word of God to this crooked and perverse generation”. They take on such goals by publically protesting these horrendous phrases on street corners, gay festivals, and more
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The final thing done by the Westboro Baptist church that catches the eye of many Americans is the upside down flying of the American flag. According to the members, the upside down flag is a sign of distress. They feel that the entire country is in mortal danger and the upside down flag is a
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.
Westboro B.C is the reason why those who aren’t followers of Christ, won’t ever be followers of Christ,
In the case of Shanna’s Shirt, the school district had a written policy in place stating that “clothing may not advocate or advertise drugs, alcohol, or tobacco and may not contain lewd, profane, or vulgar language or symbols.” Clearly, Shanna’s shirt did not violate the policy. The school district should consider adding another criteria that bans clothing that causes substantial disruption and also include banning hate messages. In the case of Shanna’s shirt, a previous case of Harper v. Poway (2006) ruling by the U.S. Supreme court upheld the ban of a similar shirt that read “Homosexuality is Shameful. Romans 1:27.” The court used the reasoning that the language violated the rights of other students by being hurtful to the offended
He and his family own the title as Ben Williamson say the most hated family in America. The Westboro Baptist Church owns many famous common slogans from Christianity. Such as, God hate America, God hates fags, Thank God for Dead Soldiers, Thank God for 9/11, Thank God for IEDs, and Pray for More Dead Soldiers. This shows how extreme these people are compared to the common christian. Though this church does not have as large as a backing as the Puritans did a few hundred years ago. They still have a meek population of around 70, which doesn’t seem that much. This is even without taking into consideration that most of the 70 are family members of Fred Phelps himself. Though it doesn’t take a huge population to make a global impact it, for one person could be the center of attention for weeks on the media.The way they gather this attention is to do unique activities such as Protesting pro-homosexual events; picketing at dead soldiers‟ funerals and other funerals of prominent personalities or tragedies; declaring judgment on nations and religions including particularly Protestantism, Catholicism, and Judaism. Unto the beliefs of the Westboro Baptist Church, they have a independent, primitive Baptist Church, and is strongly hyper-Calvinistic. The Church has very similar beliefs to the Puritans, for their church is a part of an elect system. This means only the elect will go to
In Snyder v. Phelps, dissenting Justice Samuel Alito likened the protests of the Westboro Baptist Church members to fighting words and of a personal character, and thus not protected speech. The majority disagreed and stated that the protester's speech was not personal but public, and that local laws which can shield funeral attendees from protesters are adequate for protecting those in times of emotional
We felt that there is a certain amount of respect that everyone deserves and the WBC is crossing this line and stripping people of this respect. As a result, there should be laws created to limit the amount of emotional stress that this group can put onto the people they encounter. One way this can be done is by not allowing the church to protest at certain events such as the funerals of deceased military members. Although the WBC has the right and is protected by the first amendment, allowing them to express their freedom of speech, they are using this to their advantage and are exploiting others. I personally believe that the creators of this amendment had no intention for it to be used to protect people who act like the members of the WBC. I do agree that the WBC have the right to their freedom of speech and protest, however, they are in some ways, impeding and striping the rights and freedoms of the people they encounter and the young members of the church who shout and hold signs when they have yet to understand the meaning of
Angry Atheists try to ban Gideon Bible Banning the bible that’s what one angry atheist group is trying to do in hotels at public universities. The Anti-Christian freedom of religion foundations (FFRF) is demanding that the bible placed by a Christian group be banned from university hotel rooms.it already had been banned from universities in Illinois, Wisconsin, and Iowa. (FFRF) extremist call the bible “Obnoxious” and insultingly claim that the” bible calls for killing nonbelievers”. It’s even absurdly claims that it is ‘Unconstitutionally wrong”. Christian groups like the Gideon’s have been placing bibles in hotels for decades. It doesn’t violate the law. Once again the FFRF seems to forget not only the meaning of the constitution but also
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
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
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
As a representative of the Westboro Baptist church, I would like to inform you that we have had one of our annual meetings to discuss the perceived problems in our community, and have come to a conclusion. Homosexuality is rampant in the streets, and other, much more dangerous religions are beginning to appear in our homeland, threatening the entire population. Therefore, we must take action.
The Ku Klux Klan had three eras, an era ends when the Ku Klux Klan movement dies out or they loss the need for it. Each era may have its own intentions or what their main goal is, but white supremacy is still their goal just trying to accomplish it in different ways, while also opposing thing that may go against their moral code, like gay marriage. The Ku Klux Klan is an origination focused on having white supremacy, it has existed for many years and has had three eras, it is most known for its act violent acts of terrorism.
This society is built with a default, and that default is to shun the disliked, the unknown, and the minority. “So long as the most vulnerable people in our population are consigned to places that the rest of us will always shun and flee and view with fear, I am afraid that educational denial, medical and economic devastation, and aesthetic degradation will be inevitable" (Kozol). The question is, is that the right way to turn? The Dixie Chicks are one of many examples of people in modern day society who spoke out for what they believed in and who were punished by the default. While they may not fall under the medical denial or economic devastation that Kozol is referring to, they fall under the category of aesthetic degradation. The action
“Over the years, courts have ruled that college officials may set up reasonable rules to regulate the ‘time, place and manner” that the free speech can occur, as long as the rules are “content neutral,’ meaning they apply equally to all sides of issues” (Fisher, 2008). Speech codes and free speech zones on campus do exist for many reasons: many of the causes or topics that students or others looking to interact with students take up are controversial and can frequently take on less of an academic or social justice overtone and more of a hateful one. Hate speech is the greatest threat to freedom of speech on college campuses, and the limitations colleges and universities put on student’s verbal freedoms are largely in place as efforts to avoid it. Religion, in particular, is a hot topic on campuses and it has an unfortunate tendency to become more aggressive and argumentative than universities would like. However, under the First Amendment, individuals do have a right to speech that the listener disagrees with and to speech that is offensive and hateful. It’s always easier to defend someone’s right to say something with which you agree. But in a free society, you also have a duty to defend speech to which you may strongly object.
As hate crimes have risen in number during the past five years; many state governments have attempted to prevent such crimes by passing laws called bias laws. These laws make a crime that is motivated by hatred based on the victim’s race, religion, ethnic background, or sexual orientation a more serious crime than such an act would ordinarily be. Many people believe that these laws violate the criminal’s freedom of speech. Many hate group members say that freedom of speech is the right to say or write or publish one’s thoughts, or to express one’s self, they also say that this right is guaranteed to all Americans. But people and organizations who are against these hate groups ask themselves if the first amendment include and protect all form of expression, even those that ugly or hurtful like the burning crosses. The Supreme Court Justices have decided that some kinds of speech are not protected by the Constitution,