Long story short: A man named Fred
Phelps recently died. You may
be asking so what? If so, you might want to know that Phelps was a anti-gay
preacher also known for protesting at funerals of soldiers and that of gay men
and women. My views on the event arent totally supportive of the typical American response. According to Jessica
Ravitz from CNN, Phelps "believed gay and lesbians should be put to death". The internet was
buzzing with constant hatred towards this man and people seemed to be
incredibly content with his death while also proposing the idea to protest
Phelps' funeral . Therefore, throughout this blog I intend to answer two
questions. First if it is right to protest
this mans funeral and second, if we should be happy/celebrate his death.
Again, Jessica Ravitz from CNN wrote an
article titled, Should
we celebrate Fred Phelps' death" where she compiled quotes from various
people to let the audience of her article decide what the right thing to do is.
In my opinion, regardless of this mans actions, it is not morally right to
celebrate someones death even in the case of Phelps, who has really done some
terrible things in his lifetime (just glance at his Wikipedia page and the list
of his appalling actions and ideals goes on and on). It might seem like a
stretch but I think that celebrating this man death is something that he
would have wanted. His name and message is on the front page of newspapers
across the country and pictures like the one below are everywhere. I think the
best thing to do is try and forgot this man ever existed and take the high road
and not celebrate his death at all. Sadly a large amount of people seem to disagree with me, especially Americans. According to popular social media sites like Facebook, twitter and Reddit, many users across America thought that picketing this mans funeral and provoking his family was the most viable option to get him back for the suffering he had provided to other families. On a side note; a Facebook page titled "Protest Fred Phelps' funeral had thousand of people in support of the page.
picture of a child from the Westboro church
Phelps' is also pretty well known for
protesting funerals of both soldiers and gays. The Westboro church, where
Phelps is a pastor, said that, "we ask that the public have a little decency
and respect by allowing us to mourn a great man who... protected[ed] American
from the threat of fags and perverts". In my opinion, I think that since
people have the right to picket and protest funerals that they should protest
at Phelps'. If one of my family members had died and the church with
Phelps had protested their funeral with, “GOD HATES FAGS” signs I would be
beyond mad at these people. I would hate them. And that is how many people
across the country feel in regards to his death and justify protesting at his funeral. I think a pretty consistent American theme is to take the high road and be the bigger man but in this situation there is a exception. I'm certainly not advocating for an eye for an eye type scenario but this man has some crazy beliefs and ideals that really are doing more harm then good and only if I was affected personally would i feel it is necessary to protest his funeral.
2 comments:
While I think that these questions have multiple very justifiable answers, I agree with you that we should do our best to completely ignore the death (and life) of Fred Phelps. Almost every person who is familiar with Phelps and the WBC agrees that protesting funerals is a sickening thing to do, and I feel that protesting his funeral would just be lowering ourselves to his level. Personally, I think that giving any attention at all to the church would be the wrong decision. Any publicity is good publicity, as they say, and I think that the sooner we ignore the WBC, the sooner they'll put a stop to their ignorant, bigoted shenanigans.
There is, however, one exception to my opinion that I found very clever and interesting. Recently, the LA band Touché Amoré has started selling shirts with a picture of Fred Phelps, accompanied by his birth and death dates and the message "Good Riddance". At first I thought this to be a distasteful and selfish thing to, but then learned about the reason for the shirt. All of the profits the band makes from the sales go to Human Rights Campaign. As the band says, "We feel there is beautiful irony in selling an image of a bigot and using the profit towards achieving equality for exactly what they hated". And, I must say, I completely agree.
Ha! I'm with Professor Weinstein on this one!
Will,
A very compelling conundrum, but I think you're expressing contradictory impulses in this post. When you said, "I think a pretty consistent American theme is to take the high road and be the bigger man", I really have to question whether that's indeed the case. You'd need some specific examples.
But your impulse to protest at Phelp's funeral (assuming you were an offended relative of a dead soldier) would seem to have the effect that Ben mentioned.
Post a Comment