College students debate Westboro Baptist lawyer-advocate (Nov. 1) - funeral protestor "cause"

from www. mlive. com/

PHOTO: Westboro Baptist Church spokesperson, Shirley Phelps-Roper answers a student's question while speaking on Central Michigan University's campus Monday afternoon. (Mike Mulholland

Grand Rapids Press) --
http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2010/11/cmu_students_debate_first_amen.html

MOUNT PLEASANT, MI — Flanked by campus police, Shirley Phelps-Roper and her two daughters quietly emerged from the side door of the engineering building at Central Michigan University and walked past an assembled crowd holding signs that followed the three Westboro Baptist Church members until they ducked into nearby Moore Hall.
There was no shouting or loudness from either side. Protesters held up signs like “Hate is easy — love takes courage” and “I’m not protesting free speech. I’m protesting stupidity.”
The calm of the crowd suddenly confronted with the object of their protest was in stark contrast to the zeal of the room from which Phelps-Roper exited after the first of three appearances in CMU journalism classes today.
She and two daughters, Rebekah and Megan, appeared by invitation of Tim Boudreau, a journalism professor hoping the controversial and widely hated church members would show the breadth of First Amendment protections.
“No nation that has behaved like this nation has behaved has survived to tell about it,” said Phelps-Roper, likening the United States to Pompei during her 10-minute prepared remarks.
Initially calm and forthright, the daughter of church founder Fred Phelps — herself a mother nearly a dozen times — grew confrontational as students began to question and disagree with the church’s position that America “is doomed” because of its tolerance of homosexuality.
Boudreau let Phelps-Roper interact with the audience unfiltered save for an introduction and a couple questions to stir debate. He asked why Phelps-Roper can’t take human compassion into account when they show up to a soldier’s funeral.
“You have to obey God,” she said. “If this country had policies of obedience, they wouldn’t need a standing army, and they wouldn’t have dead soldiers.”
“Those people that you say are there ‘grieving.’ I’ve seen some of them. I don’t see grief. I see anger and rebellion,” she said.
Grieving friends and parents led their deceased loved ones into believing and trusting in a lie and “out into the killing fields and crosshairs of an angry god,” she said. “That child is in hell and these people you say are ‘grieving’ are directly and personally responsible for that dead child.”
“God’s compassion is to send his servants onto the streets with his words. The great ‘compassion’ is what you see on those signs.”
She called President Obama an “antichrist” at one point, quoted Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy and said all Catholics are complicit in the sexual abuse perpetrated by some priests.
Several students stood in line to ask questions ranging from why Phelps-Roper would quote Kennedy (an alleged adulterer) to simple queries about what it’s like to be a Westboro member.
Boudreau let several guests and news crews into the class. Mount Pleasant resident John Smith, 78, a former Marine awarded a Purple Heart in Korea generated the largest reaction in the mostly wide-eyed audience when he told Phelps-Roper that he was glad he had killed people in Korea and that he did it "for you and everyone in this room.”
Students and several cameramen in the room broke into applause at the statement. Phelps-Roper said that her First Amendment rights have been repeatedly violated, and she didn’t believe Smith had done any of that for her.
“You’re a typical doomed American arrogant fool,” she said. “(God) doesn’t hear the prayers of the wicked. I’m just saying.”
“I’m glad you’re here today because you’ve proved more points to these young people than I could ever have proved in a thousand years,” Smith said to more applause. “But, I fought for you and I love you.”
“God says that if you loved me, you would warn me that my sins will take me to hell,” Phelps-Roper shot back.
“Well, I don’t speak for God -- you do,” Smith said, retreating to his seat.
Amanda Collins, 19, a sophomore from Clarklake left the room several minutes before class ended, having tired of the exchange.
“Honestly, she speaks about God and love, but I think she’s just angry,” Collins said.
“She made some good points about (the First Amendment),” she said, But “it’s a matter of human morality. I don’t see any ethics or morals in what she does."
Phelps-Roper is speaking to two more class sessions today, at 5 and 6:30 p.m. She and her two daughters stopped to protest at the Islamic Center of Dearborn and the Hillel of Detroit before driving to CMU today.