The Westboro Baptist Church is an independent Baptist church founded by Pastor Fred Phelps in 1955. The group is based out of Topeka, Kan., but travels nationwide to spread their messages condemning homosexuality, among others.
The outspoken and widely criticized congregation has received negative responses to their frequent protests at funerals.
Phelps stated in a video that representatives from his church would protest the funerals of all six of the victims of the shootings in Tucson, Ariz., on Jan. 8, including the funeral of 9-year-old victim Christina Taylor-Green.
“The Westboro Baptist Church prays for more shooters, more violent veterans and more dead,” Phelps said in the video.
Although the group says that its protests are peaceful and protected by the First Amendment’s right to free speech, some critics question whether the group has a place at funerals.
Albert Snyder sued Phelps and several Westboro Baptist Church congregation members for protesting at the funeral of his son, Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder, in 2006. Snyder originally won a $5 million jury verdict case against Phelps and group members for intentional infliction of emotional distress and violating the sanctity of the funeral.
However a federal appeals court overturned the judgment, ruling that the First Amendment protected the activities of the group’s members. The Snyder family was then ordered to pay over $16,000 to the Westboro Baptist Church for court costs. Snyder refused to pay the damages, and the Supreme Court is now reviewing the case.
The group will be protesting at AU, but this is not the first time the church has protested a college campus.
This past November, four members protested at Washington Circle near George Washington University. Over 200 GWU students and community members countered the protestors, according to The Hatchet. Many protesters wore T-shirts that said, “I’m Gay For Today.”
Church leader Rebecca Roper-Phelps selected GWU as a destination after a student unknowingly asked her during a campus visit to sign a petition calling for the legalization of gay marriage.
llandau@theeagleonline.com
