Lyssa Beyer

“Heath’s in hell.”

This slogan was plastered on the signs of protesters outside of the Screen Actors Guild Awards Sunday night.

What were they protesting? A memorial for Heath Ledger, who portrayed a gay cowboy in “Brokeback Mountain” in 2005.

The protesters are members of the now famous Westboro Baptist Church out of Topeka, Kan. This church gained notoriety over the past few years for protesting the funerals of soldiers who died in Iraq and Afghanistan.

They protested the funerals of the soldiers because America tolerates homosexuality, and their deaths are our punishment.

Offended yet? Well hold on, because they are just getting started. The group is also planning on protesting the burial of Marine Maria Lauterbach, who was found murdered on Jan. 12. According to their Web site, www.godhatesfags.com, Lauterbach deserved to die the way she did.

“Rape and murder, what a fitting tribute to the few, the proud, the Marines,” a press release reads.

This church was founded in 1955 by Reverend Fred Phelps, and claims to adhere to the teachings of the Bible. If you happen to be one of the unfortunate souls who are a member of a church that preaches that God loves everyone, then you have been lied to, according to its Web site.

“Even though the Armenian lies that ‘God loves everyone’ and ‘Jesus died for everyone’ are being taught from nearly every pulpit in this generation, this hasn’t always been the case. If you are in a church that supposedly believes the Bible, and you are hearing these lies, then your church doesn’t teach what the Bible teaches. If you care about your never-dying soul, you will carefully read every word of this Web site, along with the entire Bible.”

I find so many things wrong with this that I don’t even know where to start.

I guess I’ll begin with the fact that I believe myself to be a Christian. I believe that Jesus Christ died for my sins. That being said, I also believe in gay rights. I believe that everyone is equal and should be given equal treatment. I know that there are many Christians out there that disagree with me, and that’s fine, but that’s not really the issue.

The issue here is the hate speech that’s being spewed across America by these people claiming to be Christians and servants of God. That’s evident in the name of their Web site alone. I find it deeply disturbing that these individuals would disgrace the name of my religion by tying it to such hateful things.

Protesting the funeral of anyone is wrong. I don’t care if they were gay and you didn’t agree with their lifestyle. I don’t care if they were in the military and you don’t agree with the Iraq War. Funerals are an important time for a family to say goodbye to a loved one, a time to grieve and remember the one they lost.

It is not a time to be fighting off extremists with picket signs. These people need to learn that sometimes their opinion doesn’t matter. I find it disgusting that families have had to defend themselves time and time again. It’s not Christian.

In my opinion, being Christian is about respecting one another. Is not the first commandment “Do unto others as you would have done unto you?”

The WBC is forgetting this important fact. To them, it’s not about being Christian, it’s about being right. It’s about being better than someone else. Shirley Phelps, the daughter of Fred Phelps, said in a recent interview on a Washington, D.C. radio station that it is the WBC’s job to tell others the word of God.

They give us this “word of God” by preaching hate. All gays and lesbians are going to hell, simply because of their lifestyle.

Ledger is going too, just because he portrayed a gay character. Never mind that he wasn’t actually gay because that doesn’t seem to be important.

“(Ledger) took his big megaphone and called God a liar,” Shirley Phelps said in the radio interview. “We must warn the nation that if you follow this example you will go to hell.”

She also said that the group plans on protesting the Oscars as well, when we put Ledger’s “rotting carcass on display.” I’m not even sure what that means. It’s just an example of how twisted the logic actually is.

If there is one thing I can’t stand, it’s people doing evil and claiming that it’s in the name of their religion. Stop hiding behind your God and take responsibilities for your own actions.

When I was writing this column, the idea that I was giving the WBC more publicity made me a little sick to my stomach. After all, this is what the WBC wants. However, I find the idea of not saying anything at all even more sickening.

The WBC wastes no time in exercising their First Amendment right to free speech and religion. But we also have that right, and it is our duty to use it to counteract these people who would use hate to tear the country apart. I encourage everyone to speak up against this hate speech and let them know a lot of us wholeheartedly disagree.

Golburg is a senior print journalism major and sports editor of The Spectator.