Back
To Main | ||
|
Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) History 1945 Phelps graduated from Meridian (MS) High School at age fifteen. 1946 Phelps attended a Methodist revival, which fired his religious passions, and he felt he was being called by God into the ministry and to missionary work. 1947 Phelps switched his religious affiliation to Baptist and was ordained as a minister by a Southern Baptist clergy member. 1947-1950 Phelps attended Bob Jones University for three semesters before dropping out Attended the Prairie Bible Institute in Alberta, Canada but dropped out after two semesters. 1951 Phelps graduated from a two-year college, John Muir College 1951 Phelps attended the Arizona Bible Institute where he met his future wife. 1955 Phelps established the Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) in Topeka. 1962 Phelps received a B.A degree from Washburn University. 1964 Phelps received a law degree from Washburn Univeristy. 1964 Phelps established the Phelps Chartered Law Firm. 1989 The complaint again Phelps was resolved when Phelps agreed to permanently end his practice of law in the federal court system. 1991 WBC began anti-gay protests in Topeka. 1998 WBC became notorious in 1998, when members of the group demonstrated at the funeral of Matthew Shepard. 2011 Supreme Court ruled that WBS rhetoric was constitutionally protected.
WBS claims that its doctrines are consistent with the Primitive Baptist tradition and Calvinism. The logic for WBS’ celebration of deaths of American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan is that the armed forces are inherently sinful because they contain homosexuals and that anyone participating in the armed forces therefore becomes a legitimate target of God’s wrath. Phelps was ordained by Reverend. B.H. McAlister, a Southern Baptist minister. Phelps continues to give sermons at WBS; Shirley Phelps-Roper runs day-to-day operations of the church. WBS is not affiliated with any other church or denomination and is rejected by traditions with which he has claimed some affiliation (Primitive Baptists and Southern Baptists). The church is organizationally based in a circle of houses in a middle-class Topeka neighborhood referred to as "Zion.". Membership in the church is estimated at less than one hundred. The vast majority of church membership consists of relatives in the Phelps family. Phelps and his wife bore 13 children; and the couple’s children subsequently themselves married and had children. Most of the offspring live in the family compound, and a number hold law degrees and work in the family law firm. Phelps’ family, legal, and religious careers have overlapped in important respects. Phelps was active politically prior to his mixing of religion and politics. During the 1980s the firm took on a number of civil rights cases and received awards from African American community groups for its legal services on behalf of African American clients. Phelps unsuccessfully ran for public office at the local, state and federal level as a Democrat during the 1990s. WBS protest activity is supported by revenues from the family law practice. The protest activity for which Westboro Baptist became infamous had its roots in Phelp’s college days at John Muir College. In 1998 the church gained national notoriety when it picketed at the funeral of Matthew Shepard. As WBS gained national visibility, it not only increased its picketing of funerals, it also broadened the range of groups that it publicly condemned. The church claims to have organized several tens of thousands of protests across the U.S. and to a much lesser extent in other nations.
WBS faced loss of its 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status. Several of Phelp’s children/grandchildren have repudiated Phelp’s teachings and activities. Media coverage has been overwhelmingly hostile WBS has been declared “homophobic” by the Anti-Defamation League The church could also face time, place and manner constraints on its picketing activity at funerals. Indeed, more than forty states have enacted legislation that prohibits protesters from locating closer than 100 to 200 feet of a funeral. President George W. Bush signed into law in 2006 a similar provision for national cemeteries, the “Respect for America’s Fallen Heroes Act.” WBS has met with counter-protest activity. Demonstrators, often outnumbering church members, have engaged in counter-protests at a number of WBS picket sites. The Patriot Guard Riders, a motorcycle group composed primarily of military veterans, have provided a buffer between WBS picketers and funeral mourners. In some cases of picketing and Phelps and some members of WBS have been arrested on charges such as disorderly conduct, trespassing, failure to obey, verbal harassment and assault and battery. WBS has been the target of vandalism and arson attempts. The most serious challenge to WBS funeral picketing came from Albert Snyder, father of Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder, who was killed in Iraq in the line of military duty. He brought civil charges against WBS for intentionally inflicting emotional distress on the Snyder family through their picketing activity.
|
||