Westboro Baptist Church to picket Sandy Hook funerals: 4 ways to respond

Wally Dawall of Gaithersburg, Md., right, and Ray Schlegel of College Park, Md., pay respect to Navy Lt. Brendan J. Looney near the main entrance of Arlington National Cemetery while members of Westboro Baptist Church protest the funeral in the background. (Astrid Riecken for The Washington Post) Westboro Baptist Church, the tiny independent fundamentalist Christian church based in Topeka, Kan., announced on Twitter that, once again, they are planning to stomp over our nation’s heartache by protesting at the funerals of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting and declaring “God sent the shooter.”

How do you solve a problem like Westboro Baptist Church? Here are a few options.

1. Counter-protest.

Westboro’s funeral protests are frequently met with inspired counter-protests that often result in a greater public support for the deceased’s families than they may have gotten had Westboro never gotten involved. One group, the Patriot Guard Riders, has organized motorcycle rides since 2005 to show of support for military families and to shield them from Westboro’s protests. In another recent example, hundreds of Texas A&M students formed a human chain last summer around the spot where Westboro was expected to protest the funeral of a soldier. According to media reports, church members never showed. In the case of Sandy Hook, one Reddit thread is attempting to organize against Westboro “by forming a silent blockade during the funeral processions.”

2. Engage — and try to explain to them that they’re wrong.

After Westboro protests, photos often emerge of other Christians trying to explain why they believe Westboro is wrong in its interpretation of the Bible and what it means to live according to Jesus’s teachings. Westboro claims that what others interpret as hate are acts of Christian love. “From a Bible standard, we love you,” one church member told the audience during an interview with Russell Brand.

The vast majority of American Christians disagree with their interpretation of Scripture. After Westboro threatened to protest Crosspoint Community Church in Tennessee, the church’s pastor, Pete Wilson, posted a video to their church’s Web site rejecting the group’s claims that they speak for Christ.

I want you to know they do not reflect in any way the heart and mind of Christ as revealed in the Bible. ... While Westboro Baptist Church group claims to have a biblical basis of their rhetoric is clearly adverse to the overwhelming number of passages in the Bible.

Russell Brand also tried his hand at theological debate with Westboro during the exchange with two church members on his television show. From The Friendly Atheist:

Brand: You’re good on the scripture and verse, but I’ve got to say this to you: Have you considered that the Bible, like all religious doctrine, may be allegorical and symbolic to direct us towards one holy entity of love as opposed to a specific … text to direct the behavior of human beings? The Bible wasn’t specifically written by a cosmic entity. It was written by people!

Church member: It was written by the Holy Spirit!

Brand: The Holy Spirit ain’t got a pen!

3. Shut them down.

In Snyder v. Phelps , decided by the Supreme Court in March 2011, the father of 20-year-old Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder, who had been killed in Iraq, filed a lawsuit seeking damages, saying the group had turned his son’s 2006 funeral into a “circus,” according to Post reporting. The court sided with Westboro:

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote that Westboro Baptist Church’s picketing at fallen soldiers’ funerals “is certainly hurtful and its contribution to public discourse may be negligible.” But he said the reaction may not be “punishing the speaker.”

“As a nation we have chosen a different course — to protect even hurtful speech on public issues to ensure that we do not stifle public debate,” Roberts said.

One current petition of the White House has more than 150,000 signatures, and asks the government to “legally recognize Westboro Baptist Church as a hate group.”

The White House petition reads:

“[Westboro’s] actions have been directed at many groups, including homosexuals, military, Jewish people and even other Christians. They pose a threat to the welfare and treatment of others and will not improve without some form of imposed regulation.”

Given the Supreme Court’s decision, further restrictions on Westboro seem unlikely, though local governments continue to use regulations to keep groups such as Westboro off of private property.

4. Ignore them.

Over the years, many have responded to Westboro’s protest plans with pleas for the public to ignore the group. Lady Gaga, whose July 2010 concert in St. Louis was picketed, called on her fans to “not respond to any of their provocation,” adding “don’t waste your words, or feelings, no matter what you hear or see. You are more fortunate and blessed than they are, and in your heart just pray for them.” Mary Winters’s 2011 case for ignoring Westboro noted that by paying attention to them, the church is getting what they want: publicity. Or, as Paul Waldman at the American Prospect put it in 2011, “We can’t put them in jail, but we can deprive them of the attention they crave.”

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