chemistry

Protests by Westboro Baptist Church

Protests by Westboro Baptist Church is a chemistry topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Protests by Westboro Baptist Church rather than just read about it. In short: The Westboro Baptist Church carries out daily picketing in Topeka, Kansas, and travels nationally to picket the funerals of gay victims of crimes or anti-gay attacks, as well as those of people who have died from complications related to AIDS. It also pickets other events related or peripherally related to homosexuality.

Key takeaways

Protests by Westboro Baptist Church belongs to chemistry; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Protests by Westboro Baptist Church to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Protests by Westboro Baptist Church from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Westboro Baptist Church carries out daily picketing in Topeka, Kansas, and travels nationally to picket the funerals of gay victims of crimes or anti-gay attacks, as well as those of people who have died from complications related to AIDS. It also pickets other events related or peripherally related to homosexuality. It is the protesting of military funerals that led to the organization receiving much attention for its small size. Protests done by Westboro Baptist Church are characterized by desecration of the American flag, hate speech said by members to onlookers, and members holding signs with predominantly homophobic and anti-American statements. The group has protested a number of high-profile events such as the funerals of victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting and the West Nickel Mines School shooting. As well as protesting these high-profile events, WBC protests many local low-profile events, such as Kansas City Chiefs football games and live pop concerts. While the messages are widely condemned, the organization always ensures its protests are legal in nature through keeping the protests non-violent and acquiring the proper permits.

Protest activities

Early WBC protests The group came into the national spotlight in 1998, when it was featured on CNN for picketing the funeral of Matthew Shepard, a young man from Laramie, Wyoming, who was beaten to death by two men allegedly because of his homosexuality. WBC later picketed productions of The Laramie Project, a play based on Shepard's murder. Since then, WBC has attracted attention for many more actual and planned funeral pickets.

2000s On January 25, 2004, Phelps picketed five churches (three Catholic and two Episcopalian) and the Federal Courthouse for what he said was their part in legitimizing same-sex marriages in Iowa. A community response was to hold counter-protests and a multifaith service in the municipal auditorium. On January 15, 2006, Westboro members protested a memorial for Sago Mine disaster victims, claiming that the mining accident was God's revenge against the U.S. for its tolerance of homosexuality. In July 2005, WBC declared its intention to picket the memorial service of Carrie French in Boise, Idaho. French, 19, was killed on June 5 in Kirkuk, Iraq, where she served as an ammunition specialist with the 116th Brigade Combat Team's 145th Support Battalion. Phelps Sr. said, "Our attitude toward what's happening with the war is the Lord is punishing this evil nation for abandoning all moral imperatives that are worth a dime." In 2006, Westboro picketed with banners saying "God hates fags" and "Thank God for dead soldiers" at the Westminster, Maryland, funeral of Matthew Snyder, a U.S. Marine who was also killed in Iraq. Ruling on a subsequent lawsuit filed by Snyder's father, Albert Snyder, the U.S. Supreme Court decided, 8–1 in Snyder v. Phelps, that Westboro's actions constituted protected free speech. On January 26, 2008, WBC traveled to Jacksonville, North Carolina, home of Camp Lejeune, to protest the United States Marine Corps in the wake of the murder of Maria Lauterbach. Five women protested, stomping on the American flag and shouting slogans such as "1,2,3,4, God Hates the Marine Corps". On February 2, 2008, WBC picketed during the funeral of Mormon spiritual leader Gordon B. Hinckley, a former president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in Salt Lake City, Utah. The group displayed picket signs accusing him of being a "lying false prophet" and "leading millions of people astray". The organization also criticized him for being too accepting of gay people, accusing him of having an ambiguous voice about homosexuality rather than taking a firm stand against it. Police had difficulty determining whether the demonstration met the guidelines of protected free speech. On May 14, 2008, two days after the 2008 Sichuan earthquake which claimed the lives of at least 70,000 people, WBC issued a press release thanking God for the heavy loss of life in China, and praying "for many more earthquakes to kill many more thousands of impudent and ungrateful Chinese". Most anti-abortion activists avoided the funeral of OB/GYN Dr. George Tiller, assassinated on May 31, 2009. Held at the Wichita College Hill United Methodist Church, it was attended by 900 mourners. However, 17 members from Westboro picketed, kept at a 500-foot (150 m) distance by police. WBC protesters held signs that read "God sent the shooter", "Abortion is bloody murder", and "Baby Killer in Hell". On May 8, 2009, members of WBC protested at three Jewish sites in Washington, D.C., including the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) offices, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and the city's largest synagogue. Margie Phelps, daughter of Pastor Fred Phelps, led the protest, holding signs stating that "God Hates Israel", "Jews Killed Jesus", "America Is Doomed", "Israel Is Doomed", and "ADL Jew Bullies". The protest was apparently part of a series of upcoming protests which WBC has planned at Jewish institutions in Omaha, St. Louis, South Florida and Providence. The group reportedly posted a list of the upcoming protests' locations and dates, along with the statement "Jews Killed the Lord Jesus." Westboro picketed the funeral of the singer Michael Jackson after his death on June 25, 2009. Members of Westboro have also recorded a song titled "God Hates the World", an adaptation of Jackson's charity single "We Are the World".

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Protests by Westboro Baptist Church: Picketing in Topeka, with the group's signature multi-colored picket signs. — Picketing in Topeka, with the group's signature multi-colored picket signs.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Protests by Westboro Baptist Church

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Protests by Westboro Baptist Church claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In chemistry, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Protests by Westboro Baptist Church before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Protests by Westboro Baptist Church ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Protests by Westboro Baptist Church

In research: Protests by Westboro Baptist Church appears in chemistry research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Protests by Westboro Baptist Church in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Protests by Westboro Baptist Church is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Bullying in the United States, Discrimination against LGBTQ people in the United States, Flag controversies in the United States, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Protests by Westboro Baptist Church outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Protests by Westboro Baptist Church in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Protests by Westboro Baptist Church means in your own words.
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Frequently asked questions

What is Protests by Westboro Baptist Church in simple terms?

Why does Protests by Westboro Baptist Church matter?

Because it connects several chemistry ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Protests by Westboro Baptist Church?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Protests by Westboro Baptist Church.