.jpg "Alex Remnick/DP Senior Photographer")
On Monday morning, students came together to advocate acceptance of all religions, ethnicities and orientations. They were responding to a protest against Hillel launched by the Westboro Baptist Church — a group widely known for its anti-Semitic and homophobic views.
Around 11:30 a.m., roughly a dozen Westboro protestors arrived at the corner of 39th and Walnut streets, across from Philly Diner. Some held signs reading — among other slogans — “Mourn For Your Sins,” “Israel is Doomed” and “Obama is the Antichrist,” featuring a photograph of President Barack Obama with horns protruding from his forehead.
The youngest protestor in attendance, who carried a sign reading, “God Hates Jews,” looked to be no more than 10 years old.
According to Westboro spokeswoman Shirley Phelps-Roper, Hillel was selected as the protest site as a result of its ties to Judaism.
“We go [into areas] where there are going to be some hearts and minds we can put [our messages] in front of so we can get them to understand and turn their attention to the House of Israel,” she explained.
She added that the Church’s objective is to run “to and fro in this country to connect the dots to understand why the nation’s destruction is imminent.”
In response, members of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity held an “Acceptance Barbeque” on their front lawn, where they grilled burgers and hot dogs. The event started at 10 a.m. and lasted throughout the entire protest, which ended around noon.
Students were given both free food and the opportunity to donate to the Matthew Shepard Foundation and the Anti-Defamation League. Westboro made national news when they protested outside of a funeral held for Shepard, a gay student who was murdered in Laramie, Wyo. in 1998.
Chairman of Lambda Alliance and Wharton sophomore Tyler Ernst was among those helping to solicit donations at the barbecue.
Ernst characterized the protest as an “opportunity for positive change.” He said Lambda worked with Hillel and PRISM, Penn’s interfaith student group, to ensure that students’ response to Westboro’s presence would remain “classy” without compromising its effectiveness at “counteracting [Westboro’s] negative message.”
Ernst also voiced support for the Acceptance Barbeque becoming an annual event. “It really demonstrates the solidarity within the Penn community,” he said.
College sophomore Laura DiPaolo, member of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, said the Christian community at Penn is “embarrassed” by Westboro’s message. Maintaining that “God loves everyone,” regardless of sexual preference, DiPaolo questioned the Church’s interpretation of scripture.
“Jesus came to this earth to give everlasting life, not to run around with a picket sign saying ‘follow me or burn in hell’ — that’s not him,” she said, adding that Westboro’s actions are “giving Christians everywhere a bad name.”
Westboro’s Phelps-Roper acknowledged that her group represents a “stastically insignificant minority,” she says any opposition to the Church is “MUSH” — an acronym for “makes us so happy.”
“We don’t get demoralized. If we followed the path of this nation, we would certainly get demoralized … but it makes us so happy that they all disagree because Jesus says at the time of his return, that’s exactly what it’s going to look like,” she said.
As students looked on, the protestors sang and displayed signs for about half an hour before leaving around noon. While several students attempted to engage verbally with the protestors, most spectators did not initiate any form of interaction.
College sophomore Greg Barber, who created a Facebook event last Wednesday to raise awareness of the gathering against Westboro, said it helped to start an “important conversation that hopefully will continue.”
Comments
obama
wait - is obama not the antichrist?
Protean Anti-Semitism
Everyone recognizes that instructing a 10 year old to parade around with a "God Hates Jews" is not exactly good parenting. Similarly cute kids showed up as little Nazis in Leni Reifenstein's "Triumph of the Will." And we all know how that turned out. Maybe our friends from Kansas are simply too dumb to get the historical framework in which they are operating. Nicht wahr?
Why
I am always curious. What type of adult participates in a group like Westboro?
Come on, all you psychologists and sociologists. What is the latest research?
- SH
think differently! as 143james
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we must gather and discuss
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Sukkahs on college campuses,
Sukkahs on college campuses, because they are temporary structures built in the open and typically are unguarded at night, are prime targets for vandalism, whether inspired by drunkenness or anti-Semitism. About two are hit each year on North American campuses, according to Hillel figures.Along with sukkah vandalism, college campuses in recent years have been hit by a wave of anti-Semitic graffiti, from swastikas emc training painted on dorm walls to anti-Israel slogans scrawled on the sides of buildings.This is taking place within a growing atmosphere of anti-Israelism exam 70-236 and anti-Semitism on North American campuses documented in the revised edition of “The UnCivil University,” a publication of the Institute for Jewish and Community Research in San Francisco.According to co-author Aryeh Weinberg, while violence against Jewish students has abated somewhat since 2005, when the book’s first edition was published, anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic rhetoric on campus “has risen to a crescendo -- the amount of background noise keeps the debate vitriolic.”Universities don’t mcpd always work effectively to defuse dangerous situations, he says, and the Jewish community is often loath to respond, feeling it’s up to national organizations such as the Anti-Defamation League or Hillel to take the lead.
God Hates Jews is not
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