As a Miami University alumnus, I could not believe my eyes when I read in The Miami Student that the university would even consider having someone from the Westboro Baptist Church (WBC), a group that recently picketed a Foo Fighters Concert in Kansas City, Mo. because of the band's promotion of equal rights for homosexuals, to come to campus. It upset me even more to learn that the university is thinking about allowing this group on campus.
As a journalist, I believe strongly in the freedom of speech. As a Jewish American, I feel that there is no more important freedom than the freedom of religion. Yet as a decent human being, I'm sickened by the mere thought that a university that I have two diplomas from would invite a member of this so-called "church" to come and spew their philosophy, which is nothing more than hate-speech under the guise of religious beliefs. While I will defend to the death any persons' right to say what the want and to believe in what they want to believe, I also believe that there is a time and a place for these things.
Some will say that since Miami invited his Holiness the Dalai Lama to speak at a widely publicized, public event that it is only fair for it to allow a spokesman from the WBC to speak to a class and perform a pre-recorded interview. While these people have a point, they are missing a very important fact. The Dalai Lama has never been accused of hate speech. He's never protested the funerals of soldiers killed in action serving our country. But most importantly, the Dalai Lama is the respected leader of a respected religion; whereas the WBC has been accused of hate speech, they have protested military funerals and in no way shape or form are Fred Phelps or his so-called church respected by anyone worth hearing from.
The Dalai Lama came to speak about how he has helped make the world a better place and lectured the Miami community about peace and love. The WBC's most common message is "God kills fags dead." In fact, they believe that so much that it's their web address. That's right, the homepage for the Westboro Baptist Church is godhatesfags.com. Other notable messages that can be found on the picket signs of WBC members: "God hates America," "Thank God for Sept. 11," "Thank God for Dead Soldiers," "Thank God for IED's" and my personal favorite "God hates Jews." But I think you get the disturbing point.
Simply put, the university should consider the repercussions of a decision to bring anybody affiliated with the WBC to campus. As a place where former soldiers, Jews, members of the GBLT community and Americans intend to learn in a safe environment, it would be very unsettling to know that Miami would even think about encouraging and in a way promoting the agenda of an organization that openly (and loudly) hates all of those groups of people.
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