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Loading ...Rutgers University students unite against Westboro Baptist Church
Hundreds of students woke up earlier than usual Wednesday on the Rutgers University campus. Some still in pajamas, they stood in the rain with signs in their hands, prepared to counter-protest against hate.
Members of the Westboro Baptist Church, of Topeka, Kan., arrived at the University at 8:10 a.m., to protest against Rutgers Hillel, an affiliate of Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life, which is the largest Jewish campus organization in the world.Westboro, an independent church headed by Fred Phelps and comprised mostly of his family members, is best known for picketing the funeral of Matthew Shepard in 1998, but it has also protested everything from the Marines to the Academy Awards. This week, Westboro is touring New Jersey.
Rutgers earned a visit because it has the fourth largest Jewish population of any campus in the nation. When Rutgers Hillel learned of Westboro’s intentions, they planned the counter-rally, called Rutgers Unite Against Hate, publicizing it through Facebook.
Jeff Rubin, a Washington, D.C. spokesman for Hillel, believes that visiting Rutgers was just part of Westboro’s national campaign to gain publicity.
“Westboro’s message that God hates a number of different groups is the exact opposite of what we believe,” he said.
He said that Hillel promotes a positive message of tolerance and community building. “We don’t like to be put in the position of being against anything.”
His advice for students was to remain calm and meet hatred with peace and tolerance.
Westboro’s members stood across the street and down the block from the 2nd Reformed Church, which had posted gay flags and welcome signs outside their door in solidarity with the gay and Jewish student population at Rutgers. They were so far from the Hillel building that protesting students could barely hear their chanting or read their signs, which included: “God hates you,” “Fag university,” ”Israel is doomed,” and “You’re going to hell.”
Eric Idelson held a sign that said, “God loves fags,” as he chanted “R-U, rah, rah!” Idelson is a member of Gamma Sigma, the only co-ed social fraternity on the campus. Approximately half of their members are gay and lesbian, he said. Other students carried signs that ranged from the serious – “Proud to be a Jew” – to the cheeky, like “God loves weed” and “God hates Pepsi.”
Other LGBT groups who showed support were BIGLARU, Bisexuals, Gays, Lesbians and Allies of Rutgers University, and LLEGO, an organization for queer students of color. Some dressed in drag and sloganed T-shirts, while others wore scarlet red, Rutgers’ school color, to show spirit.
LLEGO member Qualiyah Arrington said, “We just want to show them we’re proud of who we are.”
Before the counter-rally ended, the center handed out noisemakers so that students could drown out the protestors, but Westboro had already left.
According to a spokesman for the New Brunswick police department, Westboro had stated that they would stay for 30 minutes. At 8:45 a.m. they were on a bus to their next location.
Because they left so quickly, some students found the protest to be anti-climactic. “I was expecting a little more tension rather than a bunch of people just standing in the rain,” said one student, Pat McCatherine.
Minutes past 9 a.m. students dispersed, singing Rutgers chants and twirling noisemakers.
Rutgers Hillel’s annual three-day program Days without Hate is Nov. 2 to Nov. 4.
They are almost entirely funded by provoking people into physical confrontations or pushing the limits of civility to the point where local officials/police restrict their activities.
Settlements from the resulting civil liberty lawsuits are what keeps them in business.
They are aware, that it’s often vastly less costly for municipalities to settle a civil suit than litigate it. Even if the municipality were to prevail, in the end it’d cost huge amounts in legal fees.
When this group visited Key West earlier this year, we did the worst thing possible to them… we completely ignored them.
No counter-demonstrations, no press coverage, no blaring horns… absolutely nothing.
After a little bit, they just packed-up and left because nobody was paying them any attention.
Where does Fred Phelps and company get the funds to travel all over the US? Does he have a job somewhere? The IRS should look into his funding sources. If he uses “church” funds for his personal expenses, he had better file a 1040!
I agree with Jay, we are lucky that these loonies are the face of our enemies (as well as the ones in this yahoo story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091028/ap_on_re/us_rel_religion_today)
The sooner people realize that we decent folks are ALL on the same side against hate, the better.
It makes me laugh when these people protest against Jewish people. I guess they forget that Jesus was a Jew and not Christian. The Phelps family was laughed out of Chicago when they came to the University of Illinois Chicago campus to protest.
I disagree with the recommendation that the Westboro folk should be ignored. They are not important in and of themselves. However, they are supported by a lot of people. How else could they go across the country doing what they do? Moreover, it is good to have them as the face of our enemies. Although they say it in an in-your-face and ugly way, what they believe is not so different from what Southern Baptists and other conservative Christians believe. The difference between these kooks and the average person in the pew of a Southern Baptist church is merely a matter of degree.
While I think the activities of the Rutgers students in opposition to the Phelpsites is commendable, by your reporting on this the bigots have won again. The primary goal of the Phelpsites is ‘attention’ and as long as we keep reporting their activities they get what they want. It is time to simply stop reporting on their activities; freeze them out. I realize this also means not reporting about those who stand in opposition to the haters, but this is the only way to deny them the publicity the crave. Just don’t write it — don’t talk about them and encourage others to ignore them. If we do this they WILL go away.
A group of five of them (and not one of them was Fred, himself, I might add…it seems he’s too lazy to get off his Reverend-Kane-from-Poltergeist-looking ass to help his minions do his bidding) came to the campus of the university at which I work two Mondays ago. They decided to drop by here, I guess to protest education, after they protested the existence of Jews at the local Jewish Federation offices.
There was much discussion about how to respond, and we ultimately decided not to give them any media coverage, or even to launch a counter-protest. If people would ignore them, they’d either go away, or they’d ramp up their shenanigans to such a feverish pitch that they’d simply self-destruct.
Unfortunately, the local Fox news station decided to cover their visit (is anyone surprised by that?), but our local NPR station and other television stations refused to make even a mention of it. But, all in all, it turned out to be a nonevent, so I doubt they’ll bother returning.
If there were a god, I’d thank him/her/it for that. But, seeing as how people like the Phelps clan are allowed to exist, either there is no god, or that god isn’t worthy of being worshipped in the first place. How ’bout you protest that, Fred?