’God Hates Fags’ Clan to Picket Synagogues, Jewish Meetings
Westboro Baptist Church, the congregation consisting mainly of Rev. Fred Phelps and his extended family, made a name for themselves by picketing gay events and military funerals, carrying signs bearing the slogan for which the group is best known: "God Hates Fags." But recently the congregation has turned to picketing Jewish places of education and worship, as they have announced they will do in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, on Dec. 6 and 7.
The South Jersey newspaper the Courier Post reported in a Dec. 4 article that the Phelps clan would be in town to picket not only a synagogue and a Jewish meeting, but also a high school. Students have deliberated organizing a counter-protest, while a group that raises money by accepting pledges of dollar amounts for each minute the congregation pickets a target of their "street preaching" has racked up hundreds of dollars in promised donations.
Fred Phelps' daughter, Shirley Phelps-Roper, was quoted as explaining, "There are a lot of promises from God, and these kids run from those that would serve Him and run to those that would not. God's promise that he would destroy this nation--they are all faithful, precious promises." The group's contention is that war casualties, AIDS victims, and natural disasters are all signs of God's displeasure with the United States for its relative acceptance of gays.
The article reported that the congregation plan to picket a Jewish convention on Dec. 6 at 3:00 p.m. The following day, the group intends to picket East Cherry Hill High School, and then return to the Crowne Plaza Hotel, where the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism convention will take place, for a second round of picketing at that location.
"First and foremost, I want everyone to know that I condemn all groups that participate in hateful rhetoric steeped in intolerance," the mayor of Cherry Hill, Bernie Platt, stated, going on to urge townspeople to go about their business and pay the Phelps clan no mind. "I'm disgusted by anyone who tries to undermine the fabric of our community by espousing division and distrust. Over the last week, I've heard from our spiritual leaders, the chief of police, and the school district and we are all in agreement: this hate group should not be afforded our attention.
"The best thing for our community to do is turn our backs on these individuals, thereby rejecting their divisive intolerance and denying them the publicity they hunger," the mayor continued.
School superintendent David Campbell echoed the mayor's advice, sending an email to the parents of the school's students. "The group has begun targeting high schools specifically because they are more likely to provoke a response from young people," Campbell wrote. "The most effective message we can send is to ignore the picketers and go about our day."
Convention organizers also indicated that they would give scant attention to the group. "We're going to deal with them as has been recommended to us by organizations that track them and by law enforcement, which is basically to ignore them," said Rabbi Paul Drazen.
"My understanding is they're completely nonviolent and (on advice from the Anti-Defamation League) the best tactic is not to engage them," said the executive director of Cherry Hill's Temple Beth Shalom, Eric Jacobs. "What they want is media attention and ignoring them makes that go away."
The group has been active lately in response to World AIDS Day. Westboro was in Boston on Dec. 1, staging a "street preaching" event at Boston University. "Their parents have broken their moral compasses, their parents and their teachers have," one Westboro congregant named Steve said in a video posting on Twitter, reported BU newspaper The Daily Free Press in a Dec. 2 article.
"These people have all been taught that it's OK to be gay," continued Steve. "If it's OK to be gay, it must be OK to murder."
Students met the half-dozen congregants with a peaceful counter-protest of their own, attended by about 200 people, many carrying placards of their emblazoned with Biblical messages of acceptance and love. Some expressed shock that the Westboro group included small children.
A USA Today article from Nov. 13 noted that the Westboro clan had always had anti-Jewish leanings, but that it was only in 2009 that they focused their aggressive picketing on synagogues and other Jewish cultural venues. The group was in Washington, D.C., last month to demonstrate at the Jewish Federations of North America conference, which featured the American heads of state of the U.S. and of Israel. The group sported placards claiming, "Rabbis Rape Kids" and "Jews Killed Jesus," the article said. In past demonstrations they have carried signs that depicted President Obama as the Antichrist.
"We've protested this nation's love of fags for 20 years," Margie Phelps told USA Today. "And Jews have been carrying the water for the homosexual agenda." Margie Phelps sang a homophobic ditty to the tune of "Hava Nagila," the article said.