By Kevin Lavery, WKAR News
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wkar/local-wkar-935937.mp3
East Lansing, MI – The First Amendment of the Constitution guarantees, among other things, freedom of speech, religion and peaceable assembly. All three of those ideals came together yesterday in East Lansing. Hundreds of people turned out to oppose the message of a controversial church group known for picketing military funerals and for its biting rhetoric against homosexuality.
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When East Lansing residents learned they would be getting a visit from the Westboro Baptist Church a week ago, they wasted no time preparing their response. In recent years, the fundamentalist congregation based in Topeka, Kansas has grabbed headlines across the country for its acrid anti-gay message, which includes starkly worded signs and banners that express God as the enemy of the protestors' targets.
But the first thing that happened yesterday was not a protest, but a panel. Michigan State University hosted a forum on the First Amendment which included law professors, veterans...and Margie Phelps, the daughter of the church's pastor, the Reverend Fred Phelps. Her family is involved in a U.S. Supreme Court case brought by the father of a fallen Marine. The Phelps family picketed his son's funeral. Phelps adamantly defended her group's tactics.
"Of course, separation of church and state means the government keeps its mitts off of our religion, and they would do well to remember that," Phelps said. "But as far as the First Amendment covers both speech and religion. So, in that measure, we are twice protected in what we do."
Frank Ravitch also served on the panel. He's a professor with the MSU College of Law. He said the case centers largely on whether funerals are considered public or private events.
"Nobody on the panel disagrees that the Phelps group has a right to say what they want to say and has a right to say it strongly and proudly, whatever it is they believe," Ravitch said. "I find their views reprehensible, but I would protect their right to do it. The question is, where in this context do they have that right?"
The forum wrapped up just hours before the group headed to East Lansing High School to stage its protest. Margie Phelps said Westboro Baptist Church makes it a practice to picket high schools across the country.
"Because that is a generation where every teacher, preacher, leader, parent and journalist has lied to them and told them that the commandments of God are subject to negotiation or debate," she said. "Now the reason it's East Lansing today, the reason those are the lucky kids today who get to hear the truth for the first time in their lives, is because we're in the area."
But the community had its own plans. Less than an hour before the protest, many people came to All Saints Episcopal Church to try to counteract what they saw as Westboro's tone of hatred and intolerance. Dan Cavanaugh came with his sister.
"And my sister is gay and I really hate the anti-gay sentiment that they like to spread around," said Cavanaugh. "And then also I guy I used to hang out with in high school was killed in Iraq, and they protested his funeral. So, from a couple different ends I really don't like what they do and it's kind of frustrating. And I just want people to know that it's not right and get out here and show that we don't support it."
The rally at the high school started just before 3 pm. Police separated the church members -- which totaled three people -- from the community, which was easily a few hundred strong.
Much of the rhetoric shouted across the high school grounds can't be repeated on the radio. But a few people carried signs denoting biblical scripture. Elaina Earle's sign read, "He who is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone."
"I'm Christian and stuff...but I don't understand why they think that God is somebody who hates when God is somebody who actually loves, you know," said Earle. "And I don't understand why they have to be so violently and wrathful towards everybody else, you know? It doesn't make sense."
The protest was also attended by members of the Michigan Peace Team and the American Civil Liberties Union, who came to ensure the event did not turn violent. It did not. At 3:20, the Westboro Baptist Church group packed up their signs and left the street, just as they had advertised.