The Common Good June 2012  The Face of Hate  by Joanie Eppinga,
Rebecca Barrett-Fox | June 2012   Topeka’s Westboro Baptist
Church takes in-your-face to a whole new level. The church is
nothing if not an equal opportunity offender, from its burning
of both a Quran and an American flag on 9/11 to its signs
proclaiming God’s hatred for ... well, pretty much everyone.
While Westboro, established by a lawyer named Fred Phelps in
1955, claims to be a Primitive Baptist Church, that denomination
denounces the actions of the church as “deplorable.” The church
boasts of conducting 47,770 demonstrations since 1991
proclaiming its gospel of hate—while taunting on its website
that the number zero represents the “nanoseconds of sleep that
WBC members lose over your opinions and feeeeellllliiiiiings.”
Take Action on This Issue  Circle of Protection for a Moral
Budget   Related Reading  From Rebecca Barrett-Fox’s first visit
to the church in 2004 until defending her dissertation “Pray Not
for This People for Their Good” in