David Barker
On the surface there is not much to say about the Westboro Baptist Church, or WBC. Most of us recognize them as a bunch of crazies on the fringe of society who preach a particularly vitriolic brand of hatred.
One would be hard-pressed to find a person who supports their brand of hate — and there are plenty of groups and individuals out there who have made hatred a staple of their message.
WBC isn’t alone in its hatred of the gay community by a long shot. Plenty of religions and groups are opposed to homosexuality in some way.
No need to name names, but the list includes a few major religions as well as groups of all races, political affiliations and ethnic backgrounds.
In light of that, it’s pretty impressive WBC has found itself on everyone’s bad side.
However, in allowing them to remain on our bad side — on the fringe — WBC members have become inseparable from their message. That message has allowed us to disassociate ourselves from the people who make the group.
In this instance, we use the labels of “fringe,” “extremist,” “crazy” and so on, not to modify or differentiate, but to define.
That is, the members are boiled down to something less deserving than an everyday normal person; they are less than the people we associate with humanity. I think this is a problem.
It’s not because I don’t think their views are extreme, but because I stopped believing in monsters a long time ago.
When I say monsters, I mean people who commit actions heinous enough to boggle human comprehension. These actions are bad enough that considering their possibility threatens the core of our humanity.
Many of these “monsters” can be found in the 20th century: Adolph Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Pol Pot, John Wayne Gacy Jr., Jeffrey Dahmer … the list goes on.
However, relegating these individuals to “monster” status ignores the inherent humanity of actions motivated by things such as ignorance, malice, pride, greed and anger.
To not acknowledge that inside each of us is a genocidal dictator would be to completely miss the lesson of their actions. If one is religious, it could be summed up thusly: “There, but for the grace of God, go I.”
We shouldn’t forget that the members of WBC are people, who, save for a glaring deficiency, are not all that different from us. Humanizing them isn’t the solution to the hate they preach, but it is the first step in understanding how to combat it.
In 2007, Louis Theroux helped produce a documentary about the WBC titled The Most Hated Family in America.
It’s worth a watch and can be found for free on Google Video. In March 2007, Theroux told the BBC that part of his intent for the film was to answer the question, “Why would nice people do such horrible things?”
Although he obviously didn’t agree with WBC’s views this is what he told the BBC:
“They go to school; you can have normal conversations with these people. They’re intelligent, high achieving, have good jobs and they’re kind, for the most part, when they’re not on pickets.”
To me, part of the point of the documentary is finding common ground without either condemning or supporting the views espoused by the individuals.
I don’t know necessarily where that path ends with the WBC, but our current political discourse is at least one example of what happens when we associate issues with people instead of the other way around.
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Right now, we are willing to dismiss things — usually policies — as inherently “liberal” or “conservative.” That approach, which ignores compromise, has done so to our detriment.
It is incredibly difficult to problem solve if understanding is looked upon as siding with the enemy and being like the enemy is worthy of ridicule. No one wants to side with certain people on certain issues because, in our minds, the two are inseparable:
“If I side with the liberals, then I am a liberal, and therefore, less worthy.”
When it comes to the WBC and its planned protest, I would encourage any counter-protesters to take the time to understand that they are dealing with people and it is their hate we want to fight, not them.
If we want to be the “reasonable” people in this situation, we have to show them the same understanding that we would to someone who — for all intents and purposes — is just like us.
David Barker is the State News opinion editor. Reach him at barkerd@msu.edu.
