Westboro Baptist Church protests around Columbia

The group pickets anything it believes supports homosexuality.

By Catherine Newhouse and Luke Udstuen

Published Oct. 3, 2009, last updated 6:32 p.m., Nov. 13, 2010

With bright yellow and red signs, members of the anti-gay, anti-Semitic and anti-American Westboro Baptist Church protested around Columbia on Friday night.

One of the locations being protested was Stephens College, where the play "The Laramie Project" was showing. The play deals with the life and murder of Matthew Shepard, a gay man who was killed in Laramie, Wyo.

The play's director Dan Schultz said the performance was more about the aftermath of Shepard's death than his life.

"It details what happened to Matthew Shepard, but he's not a character in the play," Schultz said. "The only characters in the play are the people in the town of Laramie. We get to see how this event shaped their lives."

WBC member Leanne Phelps said the play teaches high school and college students being gay isn't an abomination.

"That production is put on largely to high school and college-aged children," Phelps said. "It teaches them that it's OK to be gay. And God's word, his standard is that it's an abomination, that it's not (OK)."

WBC, an organization based in Topeka, Kan., and led by Fred Phelps, pickets any group it believes supports homosexuality, Judaism or the government. It also protested at MU's Hillel, Hickman High School and the Congregation Beth Shalom on Friday.

Six protestors, including three children, held up signs that stated, "the Jews killed Jesus," and "America is doomed" among other messages at the protest in front of Hillel.

"We hope merely to serve our God, and put the words out into the air," Leanne Phelps said.

Fred Phelps' sign stated, "God Hates Fags."

"God is love, not hate," said Casey Martin, a member of a group of onlookers. "We're trying to counteract everything they're saying."

Leanne Phelps said gays and lesbians are doomed from the beginning.

"I don't think they can convert themselves," she said. "It's the lord your God who tries, searches your heart and tries your reins. He knows what's in your heart. He put it there."

Joshua Phelps, a member of WBC, said WBC picketed Hillel because they are protesting Jewish people right now and Hillel's on-campus location meant students would be present.

"The reason we're focusing on Jews at this time is that we're discerning the signs of the times," Joshua Phelps said. "By what we've seen going around in society and worldwide, we can see the time is drawing nigh."

MU’s Jewish Student Organization said in a statement it strives to promote peace.

JSO stated: "We are encouraging members of our community to donate to the Matthew Shepard Foundation via their Web site. We respect the first amendment rights of others, and will continue our weekly services as scheduled."

On Thursday at Hillel, Anti-Defamation League Regional Director Karen Aroesty met with JSO Executive Director Kerry Hollander, Rabbi Yossi Feintuch from Congregation Beth Shalom and representatives from the LGBTQ community. They discussed the appropriate response to the WBC protests.

At the meeting, Aroesty said the best appropriate action would be to ignore WBC as they protest. But Aroesty said efforts to fundraise for related causes were a good response to WBC.

"You have to find a way to ratchet down that anger," Aroesty said.

After services on Friday, Hillel members ate pizza and slept over.

As a show of support, some members of the Episcopal Campus Ministry stayed for the services, JSO Religious Co-chairwoman Rachel Levin said.

"I feel that the services went well tonight and I don't think that what was going on down the street affected us in any way," Levin said. "I don't feel that it mattered."