Celebrating the life of the deceased almost always brings about wistful words and plenty of Kleenex filled with tears of sincerity and good will. A few weeks ago, however, we experienced quite a change from the norm. You know something’s up when an Oklahoma liquor store offers a celebratory 10% sale on champagnedirectly after anyone’s passing. Yet upon hearing about the death of Fred Phelps Sr., that’s exactly what happened.
Yes, Fred Phelps, the founder of the infamous Westboro Baptist Church, has died.
The Westboro Baptist Church was originally a part of the East Side Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas, but in 1954, the East Side hired Phelps as a pastor to head the new church plant on the west side of Topeka. After assuming his new position, Phelps broke off all ties to the East Side and started his own church, Westboro Baptist. The Westboro Baptist Church rose to the spotlight in 1998 after a controversial picketing at the funeral of Matthew Shepard. He was a young man beaten to death by two men over his homosexuality. Many of their beliefs are of the extremist caliber, as the members often take strong viewpoints against subjects such as homosexuality, Catholicism, Judaism, Islam, and Protestantism. Most of their picketing involves hateful slander against the targeted group, as they regularly attack sensitive occasions like funerals and church services.
Being the founder of the church, Phelps perpetuated many of these extremist beliefs but was recently excommunicated by his own church due to undisclosed reasons. Phelps’ death will unquestionably leave a theological debate for the church, seeing that one of their beliefs was that the members of Westboro Baptist were supposedly “immortal.” Margie, Phelps’ daughter, has announced that there will be no funeral seeing as the WBC does not “worship the dead.”
It should not come as any surprise that these extremist viewpoints have provoked some heavy backlash against the WBC. In response to its oftentimes insensitive picketing, people have taken a stand against the church by passing legislation prohibiting protest movements within 300 feet of a funeral. As Arianna Montero-Colbert ‘14 puts it, “Fred Phelps brutally targeted people who took certain actions, or who held certain beliefs, that his moral compass would have deemed ‘wrong’. In my experience, it’s too easy for people to find solace by placing themselves outside of the problem. There’s nothing more contradictory than, in the pursuit of promoting human dignity, disavowing that same basic requirement of respect for the life of another human being.”
News of Phelps’ death has indeed taken the media by storm. Contrary to his actions, many are against picketing his death, refusing to stoop to the level of conduct the WBC so often engages in, demonstrating the compassion and capacity for forgiveness of our fellow people. As of March 20th, Twitter users responded to Phelps’ death with tolerance and understanding, something quite the contrary to what he himself had preached. Twitter user Jamie Bellinger (@JamieBellinger) sums it up in less than 140 characters: “#FredPhelps reported dead. Good riddance frankly, but let’s not follow his lead and picket a funeral, unless the signs read ‘We Forgive You.’”
As society today becomes an increasingly tolerant environment, those like Fred Phelps continue to remind us of the inevitable dissent that may ultimately impede our efforts towards universal acceptance. After the overwhelming positivity and compassion in response to Phelps’ death, however, it is clear that we as a people are learning from our mistakes and accepting everyone regardless of our past. As Vaikunth Balaji ’16 explains, “Fred Phelps’ death marks the opportunity for Americans to put an end to a microcosm of hatred and bigotry.”