Westboro Baptist Church plans Columbia pickets
The Anti-Defamation League advises people not to give protests attention.
Published Oct. 2, 2009
The anti-gay, anti-Semitic Westboro Baptist Church plans to picket Mizzou Hillel, the Stephens College Macklanburg Playhouse, Congregation Beth Shalom and Hickman High School on Friday.
In the past, the Topeka, Kan.-based WBC has picketed soldiers' funerals, synagogues, Israeli consulates and any institution it believes supports homosexuality. It usually holds up anti-gay, anti-Semitic, anti-government and anti-Obama signs, sometimes singing or shouting.
Anti-Defamation League Regional Director Karen Aroesty met with Jewish Student Organization Executive Director Kerry Hollander, Rabbi Yossi Feintuch from Congregation Beth Shalom and representatives from the Multicultural and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Questioning Resource centers for lunch at the Hillel on Thursday. They discussed the appropriate response to the WBC protests.
Although WBC is not violent, Aroesty said it is a hate group.
"It's been our position for a long time that you don't engage with them," Aroesty said. "My preference is that the family is ignored, and that they're not validated by any kind of action."
Fred Phelps, who owns the law firm Phelps-Chartered, is the WBC pastor. Members of his family participate in the protests.
Aroesty said counter-protests were not a good idea.
"These are people who, if they see an opening to file a lawsuit, they'll do it," Aroesty said.
WBC spokeswoman Shirley Phelps-Roper said WBC decided to protest outside Mizzou Hillel and Congregation Beth Shalom because Jews killed Jesus and broke the covenant with God.
"We are reminding the Jews at this hour that important, vital, earth-shaking events are about to happen on this Earth," Phelps-Roper said.
Aroesty said the WBC's recent anti-Semitism is a new development.
"Although there were anti-Semitic overtones, they weren't prominent until this year," Aroesty said. "It sounds like they're doing it for publicity."
The WBC chose to picket Hickman High School because it believes high schools teach students to rebel against God, Phelps-Roper said. It decided to protest in Columbia on Friday because the Stephens College Macklanburg Playhouse is presenting "The Laramie Project," a play about the 1998 murder of gay student Matthew Shepard, at 7:30 p.m.
"They have Rebellion 101 at all colleges," Phelps-Roper said. "As part of Rebellion 101, they're putting on 'The Laramie Project.' "
Aroesty said the same six or seven protestors almost always arrive exactly on time to the picketing locations. WBC protestors plan to picket Hickman High School 2:40 to 3:10 p.m., Mizzou Hillel 5:30 p.m. to 6 p.m., the Macklanburg Playhouse 3:15 to 3:45 p.m. and Congregation Beth Shalom 7 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., according to the picketing schedule on its Web site.
JSO Executive Director Kerry Hollander said the WBC will picket Mizzou Hillel on the corner of College and University avenues before Shabbat services at 6 p.m. Hollander said she plans to send out an e-mail to tell Hillel members to avoid the WBC protestors on their way.
"They don't have to come by College and University Avenue to get here," Hollander said.
