There are several cultures, societies, and religions spread throughout the world. Religion in cultures is important in teaching values, morals, and spirituality. The different religions have different beliefs and conflict with each other most of the time creating intolerance and discriminating words towards other religions. Religious intolerance has been a major problem for the United States over the past few years (Hook et al., 2017). One of the groups that have shown a high level of intolerance and the use of discriminating words is Westboro Baptist Church (WBC). Westboro Baptist Church organizes protests against the Jewish, LGBT communities, and any other community with opposing views. The case provided involves WBC’s planning to protest against the Jewish and LGBT community at Stanford University. WBC’s protest would hurt the interfaith culture in the university and members of the Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC) Fellows are planning an appropriate response.
Stakeholders of the Case
There are several stakeholders of the case with the major stakeholders being individuals at the Stanford campus. Anand and Ansaf Kareem, co-founders of the student group Faiths Acting in Togetherness and Hope (FAITH) were stakeholders because the WBC protest would harm their interfaith and interreligious progress in the institution. The two were also members of the Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC) Fellows, a group that focuses on promoting and teaching religious tolerance. The other stakeholders of the case are Westboro members that have to protest in the institution Shirley Phelps-Roper is the group’s spokeswoman and is an advocate for the protests against the Jewish and LGBTQ community at Stanford campus.
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Context of the Problem
The case takes place at Stanford campus. The student body and student leaders from the campus were all invested in the case. F.A.I.T.H had organized various interfaith and interreligious initiatives to create religious tolerance and understanding. The group had faced opposition where the sukkah, a structure to celebrate the Jewish festival of Sukkot, was vandalized shortly after F.A.I.T.H’s meeting. Currently, the group was facing opposition from WBC, a group that had conducted more than 40,000 protests since 1991 against accepting gay rights. It was common knowledge that WBC was coming to organize a protest at the campus and the Stanford campus students and leaders were to respond adequately. The response could involve either the use of counter-protests or not reacting to WBC.
The Group I identify With
The group which I find that I strongly identify with is that of the F.A.I.T.H which promoted religious tolerance. One of the leaders of the group Ansaf was from a Muslim community but had attended private Christian schools and had increasingly interacted with Christians. I find my upbringing almost similar to that of Ansaf. Having come from a secular agnostic background, I have interacted with individuals that identify Muslim, Hindus, and Christians. I have learned to grow, tolerate and respect the beliefs of other individuals. Ansaf observes that “I could bow down, go with the flow and laugh at the jokes, and just wait until things got better, or I could stand up and do something about it.” I also feel that I should be doing something that promotes religious diversity and protects the view of others.
The stance I Find Difficult to Identify With
The group that I find most difficult to identify with is Westboro Baptist Church. I still fail to understand why a Christian religious group would organize protests against other groups. What I found especially disturbing was when WBC organized protests in 2009 and carried signs reading “Rabbis Rape Kids”, “God Hates Jews” and “Jews Killed Jesus”. This is an absolute form of stereotyping, religious intolerance, and can be categorized as hate speech. Such protests have been found to fuel hate crimes against specific groups (Hodge, 2019). I find that the views of religious intolerance are less prevalent on campus. Society has also learned to show religious tolerance.
Alternatives
The two main alternatives for the Stanford leaders is to either organize a counter-protest against WBC or not to take any action. The case provides incidences on how other campuses reacted to WBC protests against their institution. Several institutions had organized counter-protests, other institutions chose not to react while the University of Chicago used WBC’s presence to have a party and raised $500 for a local charity.
I find that the best course of action for Stanford campus would be through not reacting to WBC. Organizing counter-protests would give WBC an audience. One of the aims of WBC is to evoke a response from counter-protesters. Counter-protests may also result in legal difficulties where one may get sued. WBC should just be ignored and no one should show up at all. However, the institution should still engage in conversations about religious tolerance.
In case such an incident took place on campus, I believe that students at Converse College would act in a manner that shows religious tolerance. They will choose not to organize counter-protests but would choose not to engage WBC in any way. Instead, most students will choose to engage in conversations that promote religious tolerance. Many individuals in the institution observe that religious tolerance is important for a diversified community to live in peace and harmony.
The missing information in the case deals with the future action that members of the F.A.I.T.H group and the general Stanford community would choose. It is clear that many individuals are still undecided about whether they should organize counter-protests or not. Additional information on some of the negative and positive outcomes of counter-protests or holding no protests at all would be important in making the right decision.
References
Hook, J. N., Farrell, J. E., Johnson, K. A., Van Tongeren, D. R., Davis, D. E., & Aten, J. D. (2017). Intellectual humility and religious tolerance. The Journal of Positive Psychology , 12 (1), 29-35.
Hodge, D. R. (2019). Spiritual microaggressions: Understanding the subtle messages that foster religious discrimination. Journal of Ethnic & Cultural Diversity in Social Work , 1-17.
