Student Rallies 1,500 against hate

Outside of the Faith Community Church in Cedar Hill, Mo. a diverse group of protesters gathered on Thursday.

High school and college students, veterans, bikers and mothers united along Highway 30 to show support for America, American troops, homosexuals and tolerance. Local police estimated that at its highest the crowd reached 1,500 people.
Another protest raged five minutes down the road in front of Northwest High School, and the 60-member Westboro Baptist Church was at the helm.

Since the 1980s, the WBC has been outspoken in their condemnation of homosexuality in the U.S. In recent years the group has begun picketing the funerals of soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, based on their belief that American service personnel are dying as divine punishment for American tolerance of homosexuality.
 

This summer, the WBC protested the funeral of Sgt. 1st Class Brian Woods, a graduate from Northwest High. The day of the funeral, the WBC congregated outside Northwest, holding their infamous signs reading “God Hates Fags.” On Thursday, the WBC resumed their post in front of the high school to raise the signs again.

Determined to divert attention from the WBC, Tyler Lawson, junior, accounting, organized his own protest in front of the Faith Community Church.
“We wanted to show the world that no one was going to come in to our community and tell us how to believe,” Lawson said.

Also a graduate of Northwest High, Lawson began advertising the rally through Facebook. Gradually more people found out, including Joey Rumpell, the head of the Daughters of Brian Woods Foundation, and later the radio station 105.7 FM “The Point.” Rumpell collected donations for her foundation during the rally, raising just under $1,500 by the end of the day.

“The Point” made radio announcements about the counter-rally. “We are heading out there in full force and asking our Soldiers of WAR [to] come and join us as we broadcast live and try and get these people the HELL OUT!” their Web site said.
The “Soldiers of War” did attend the rally, but they were not the only ones. Residents of Illinois drove hours to show their support and UM-St. Louis students also took the mini-road trip to Cedar Hill.

Ashley Bruce, sophomore, criminology, attended Northwest High School before UM-St. Louis and said the WBC’s beliefs are shameful.

“I think it’s a shame to say the least, if I were to choose words they wouldn’t be appropriate because I just think that, yeah, they have their views, but they disrespect a lot of people and their country doing that, because they’re fighting for [WBC’s] freedom too,” Bruce said.

Holding the counter-rally in front of a church was a way for Lawson and others to make the point that the WBC does not represent the views of the vast majority of Christians.

In fact, the WBC is not a part of any identifiable Baptist convention and is actually denounced by almost every religious sect operating in America today. Their picket signs and chants, which center on their tagline, “God Hates Fags,” have earned them the distinction of being classified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
“Christian people are supposed to love, accept, forgive. You’re not supposed to judge, we’ve only got one judge,” Sandra Hoelter said while holding a small American flag and a framed portrait of her son, who just finished a year’s tour in Afghanistan with the U.S. military.

While also waving flags, Kris Humphrey, the head of Student Ministries at Faith Community Church, distanced his beliefs from the views of the WBC.
“Let’s just say that we completely disagree,” Humphrey said while chuckling, as if “completely disagree” was an understatement. “We don’t really appreciate the image they portray about the church and God in general.”
The WBC itself proved to be elusive during their visit to the St. Louis area, as they only stayed at any scheduled location for 40 minutes at a time.
Allegedly, three members of the WBC were arrested in Cedar Hill for assaulting members of a local Lutheran Church who were wearing angel wings to block WBC signs from the street.
Long after the WBC left Cedar Hill, counter-protesters remained outside the Faith Community Church. Josh Pfeffer helped organize the rally at the church.

Pfeffer, standing high above the crowd under a billboard displaying the church’s name, made an announcement when the WBC left Cedar Hill. He pronounced that the group would “keep going strong” because their dedication to the cause lasted longer than a mere 40 minutes.

As the WBC traveled on to the Yeshiva Boys High School, a Jewish parochial school in Olivette, and the Jewish Community Center in Creve Coeur, picketing at a bowling alley, the assembly outside the Faith Community Center continued raising signs promoting love.

Lawson was so delighted by the turnout at his counter-rally that when asked to comment on the beliefs of the WBC he said, “As far as I’m concerned, they don’t exist.”