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A cult or a group that uses the terms of persuasion such as language, message receive,
and attitude change theory, can influence people in a positive or negative way. Sadly in most cases the persuasion technique is used for followers, or persuading an individual to do what they sender is trying to accomplish. Westboro Baptist Church is a “church” or as some call it,
a cult. This controversial group has many followers that engage in questionable actions towards others.
The Westboro Baptist Church is a non-profit, unaffiliated Baptist organization that claims to study the word of God each Sunday. Sadly unlike most Christian believers they take the Bible to a whole new level. Their overzealous protests have made headlines in the news across North America. Their unorthodox thinking has brought offence and scrutiny to church goers everywhere. For example a group once went to a US soldier’s funeral. Family members, friends and the press were all present to hear Westboro’s message that God laughs when a solider dies. The pastor went on record saying, “that God laughs when soldiers die, when they die it means God is killing them now before they turn gay or punishing their parents for what they have done.” The sick and twisted ways of this church has caused major depression around the soldier’s families and around the country. Americans believe that the soldiers are doing the right thing fighting for the free country. True Christianity teaches that Jesus Christ came to die for all of man’s sins, like it says in John 3:16 “For God so love the world that He gave His only begotten Son for whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
The Westbro Baptist Church, as they are so formally known, was established in 1955 as an extension or a branch of East Side Baptist Church in Topeka. In 1954 East Side hired Fred Phelps as their associate pastor. Once they promoted him senior pastor he renamed the church Westbro Baptist, which is on the west of Topeka. After moving to the west Phelps cut
all ties from East Side Baptist Church. The church remained dormant until 1991, when Phelps started preaching his radical views. He built his foundational thoughts on the idea that
God hates gays and that God is sending everyone to Hell, other than the members of his church. The membership began protests around the city about homosexual activity. Within in
three years the “church” or cult began travelling across the country preaching and proclaiming that “America is doomed” and “God hates fags.” Members grew tired of Phelp’s
hate message and there was a church split, dropping the congregation to about 40 members.
On August 20
th
1995 a bomb exploded outside Fred Phelp’s daughter’s house Shirley Phelps-Roper. 1996 two men were arrested for the bombing and both admitted that they both were upset that Mr. Phelps was preaching against gays and against the teachings of, as quoted, “the real Bible.” By 2004 WBC was recorded to be picketed and protesting in every state in the USA. By March 2009 the church was calculated over 41, 000 protests in over 650
cities. Although a non-profit organization, the group spent on average $250, 000 on protesting in one year. Fred Phelps died of natural causes on March 19
th
, 2014. Phelp’s daughter, Shirley told the 70 or so members of the church that her father’s funeral will not be
held at the church because Westbro does not “worship the dead.” Not having the correct ethics or doing the wrong thing for the right reasons can have questionable outcomes. Ethical issues, according to “Persuasion” by Charles U. Larson, focus on value judgments concerning degrees of right and wrong, virtue and vice, and ethical
obligations in human conduct. Westbro Baptist Church used methods of persuasion to attract members. They use hate speeches to bash on the beliefs and attitudes of others. They abuse their freedom of speech condemn and incite hate, humiliation, disgust and lack of self-worth
in others. Comments such as, “God hates you, God hates what you believe or you are going to Hell” can make people, especially Christians feel like they do not believe in the right thing. Talking down to people and making them believe that the individual is underneath the persuader. Sadly, this is a very effective but non-ethical move on the persuaders’ part. The individual listening to the speech or conversation can feel they have no choice but to follow or believe in what the persuader believes. Westbro Baptist Church used this bullying tactic to
hate speeches, talking down to the people in order to gain followers. Another method of unethical use of persuasion is lying and deception. Westbro does not believe that they are lying or using deception in anyway. Deception is the action of deceiving someone or making one believe something that isn’t the whole truth. The deception that Westbro Baptist church is engaged in is dated back to Fred Phelps and his teachings back in 1955. After the church split, Pastor Phelps started taking the Bible out of context and demanded extreme actions from his clients. The deceptive message given to his congregation, made them believe that God wants them out on the streets telling people that they are going to Hell. The Bible says in Mark 16:15 “And He said to them, Go into the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.” This is indeed Christ’s message to the church, but Westboro Baptist received a different message. Instead of proclaiming God’s love and grace, they focused on telling the world God hates homosexuality more than any other sins. Furthermore they believed that everything God is allowing the deaths of soldiers because of homosexuality. James 2:10 says, “For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it.” God also says, “keep the law of man” in Romans 1, but the WBC has ignored some of the bible in order to further their agenda The language and the tone that you use during speech or even writing, can be very powerful. No matter how you say or what you are saying, if you say it in the wrong way or for the wrong reasons, it can affect your audience. Hate speeches are a pervasive tool, and Westbro Baptist church used it to their advantage. Their major thing is, God Hates. Every sign, every speech, everything they do is to get the point across that God hates everything that everyone does, and God hates America. Shirly Phelps and her daughters appeared on the Tyra Banks show and spewed their hate message. The host, Tyra said that she could feel the hate they were projecting as she questioned them about their extreme beliefs. Every organization has goals. Humans have personal short-term goals and long term goals that keep us focused on our objectives. Westbro Baptist church claims that their main goal is to persuade the world to follow Christ. However their strategy is to tell everyone that they are doing a terrible job at living their lives, and you are going to Hell. Their bold approach is to tell the public that their beliefs are wrong and that Hell is their destination. Although we can see a subtle similar message from John the Baptist, “Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand,” WBC takes it to the extreme and forgoes telling people about the love, and sacrifice of God’s son. Over the years they have become more racial and more demanding. They believed that they need to be more intense to get the message across. WBC has online videos to promote their radical thoughts. They believed that God has
destroyed Israel and now it is the Westbro Baptist churches that are the chosen people. They believe that other churches tolerate the sins of the world. The most dreaded is homosexuality.
Their children are taught to assimilate to these beliefs by holding up hate messages towards the homosexual community. The church thinks and uses the bible as example to protest the way the world is run. Clearly the bible teaches that God hates sin, not the sinner. This means that God hates the way the world acts but loves each and every person on the earth. God died
on the cross for all of our sins and all the sinners in the world. All you have to do is “… believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and though shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31). Sadly the world is very influenced by hate. Hate speeches bring controversy and controversy is often highlighted in the news, which spreads the message in a mainstream way to other likeminded
individuals. That is what makes them effective. To use a modern example, Donald Trump is a prime examples of controversial speeches. Each time that Mr. Trump speaks he is always bashing on other candidates, and the president of the United States. People don’t view Donald trump as insane like they do the Westbro Baptist church. For the most part their strategies they use to get people to follow them does not work, because the public understand
that they are extremist and deem them crazy. Their following dwindled after their funeral stunt.
They use the bible as their defensive argument for everything. God told me to do this,
God told them to do that. They establish credibility through the bible. A shocking 70% of the
United States claims that they are Christians. The thought here is that the common truths of the bible should have every bible believer join them in their mission. Using the bible as part of your defense gives the impression that this is the religiously right thing to do. Just because one person believes that they are doing the right thing by God, does not mean that the Bible teaches that. They only take the parts that they want from the Bible to make their argument stand. Scholars believe that people at WBC know the bible but participate for the fear that they may be cast away or kicked out of the church.
Every message, even from Westrbro Baptist church has a receiver or an intended receiver to listen to what they have to say. The target that the church uses for the most part is the homosexual people in America. They say that God hates fags and thank God for the dead soldiers. Even when saying thank God for the dead soldiers they are saying that somewhere in time, future with the child or sometime with the parents, was all because of them being or going to be gay. The church is trying to use the psychological method that people won’t allow their kid to be gay because they don’t want them to die in war? The craziness of this argument is surprisingly effective. The Davidson family joined WBCA because their son was
gay and wanted to be a part of the Marine Core. He did not die in during his war tour and this
assured the family that it was because of their commitment to the church. Sadly the family cannot speak to their son because of the sexual choices that he has made. The cognitive dissonance theory applies to all situations involving attitude formation and change. It is especially relevant to decision-making and problem solving. Westbro Baptist church uses the cognitive dissonance theory to their advantage by showing or telling the world that they have the solution to a world that people believe is doomed. Their solution to purge the world of homosexuality, after all didn’t god bring about the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah because of homosexuality? The cult has established the problem, the world is going to Hell. They have established a solution, repent from sexual sin and join their
following. That leaves the public to make a decision. Choosing to ignore the message is deciphered as forcing the world to fail and experience the wrath of God. It leaves the audience in a conundrum.
To be an effective speakers or you must follow the processing theories. Using most if not all, can help the message get across to the receiver effectively and persuasively. The four stages of persuasion are, principles of perception, cognitive response theory, social judgment theory and self-persuasion theories. Every good speaker knows how to use these to their advantage. Sadly Fred Phelps was very skilled in implementing these strategies.
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Westbro Baptist Church signage was a perfect example of propaganda. Propaganda information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, is used to promote or publicize a particular political cause or point of view. Westbro Baptist Church used signs that said, “thank God for 9/11.” The abruptness of the sign catches one’s attention and peaks interest. The controversial signs makes one think about the message. According to the bible, God will one day judge the earth. At the end of the age the bible records that all will kneel and bow down to Jesus Christ. WBC take what God is saying in Bible to a whole new way. Their misleading propaganda alludes to the fact that our current actions is hastening the judging hand of God. They continue to promote their propaganda through creative praise songs. The church has written and release parody songs to promote their message.
Lastly is the social movement. The cult of the Westbro Baptist church does have a social movement. All of this controversy has given them a wider social connection through the media coverage. This means that the message of WBC has been promoted all over the social network. Their songs are being bought because of the controversy surrounding the church, which in turn advertises their message to others.
In conclusion it was found that Westbro Baptist church is a cult that is very persuasive in a lot of ways. They may not have many public members but they are well known. The world knows what the Westbro Baptist church stands for, and they have a large following of “closet” members. They pretend to follow the word of God only taking bits and pieces from it, while promoting anti-Christian values. The “church” grew in popularity because of their extremist public thoughts. These made onlookers question their own beliefs and drew some into their fold. Although they have begun to shrink into the background of the
news, the organization continues their campaign to save the world from themselves.
What I did I think?
Introduction:
Identify the specific organization you will analyze. Justify the selection and study of your campaign or movement. Provide background information on your campaign organization, its goals, and objectives. Identify the opposition to the goals of the campaign organization you have selected. How does the history and/or the characteristics of the organization influence the persuasive strategies used?
Ethics Chapter 2 Apply the ethical principles discussed in class and in the textbook to evaluate the ethics of your campaign. Provide examples of messages which demonstrate these ethical principles in your scrapbook. Discuss the ethical implications of the messages used in your campaign.
Language and Symbols and Meaning
Chapter 5 - 6, Analyze the symbols in
the campaign rhetoric. Analyze the cultural meanings assigned to campaign symbols. Discuss how verbal and nonverbal symbols are used effectively or ineffectively to manipulate people's perceptions. Provide examples of symbol manipulation in your scrapbook.
Goals and Strategies Chapter 1, 7, 8, 9. Briefly outline the persuasive goals and strategies used by your campaign organization. What factors have influences strategy selection? Have goals been modified? If so, why? Are there goals and strategies well founded - are they effective? Provide examples of messages which reflect these goals and strategies in your scrapbook.
Message Analysis Chapter 7, 8, 9, 10
Identifying Message Appeals: Provide examples of different types of message appeals in your scrapbook. Consider types of appeals, fallacies of reasoning, applications of conditioning theories, and examples of message organization. Label and describe each example. Defend your claim as to why a particular example constitutes a particular type of message. Evaluating message Effectiveness: For each example or group of examples, analyze the conditions under which this type of appeal is effective. Does the appeal effectively influence the campaign target? Support your claims with persuasion theories. Is your campaign using effective message strategies? Why or why not? Based on your knowledge of persuasion research, what could the campaign use to be more effective?
Source Analysis
Chapter 3
How does your organization establish credibility? How does your organization communicate power and assertiveness? What attributions are made about the campaign source? Is the campaign in control of these attributions? Provide examples of credibility appeals in your scrapbook.
Message Receiver Chapter 11,12 identify the target or targets for the campaign. Describe the targets according to each of the following: demographics, psychographics, and behavior. Provide examples of messages which appeal to the demographic and psychographic characteristics of the target. Demonstrate whether the campaign is effective or ineffective in producing messages to appeal to the specific targets of the campaign. Using several examples and discussing persuasion research in this area, argue the effectiveness of the campaign's message-receiver match.
Attitude Change Theories Chapter 4,5 Analyze examples of campaign messages which use: Theory of reasoned action, functional attitude theory, cognitive dissonance theory, self-perception theory, learning theory. Provide
examples of these messages in your scrapbook. Are attitude change theories being used effectively? Why or why not? How could you incorporate persuasion attitude changes research more effectively in this campaign?
Information Processing Theories 3,4,
Analyze campaign messages which reflect: subliminal persuasion, progression through the four stages of persuasion, principles of perception, cognitive response theory, social judgment theory, self-persuasion theories. Provide examples of these messages in your scrapbook. Discuss how the messages address the processes of comprehension, evaluation, and integration of information. Do campaign messages facilitate information processing? Why or why not? Is the campaign
using the appropriate information processing strategy?
Propaganda Analysis Chapter 7,8,9, does the campaign literature constitutes propaganda? Evaluate your campaign for elements of propaganda, using the criteria presented in the text and in lecture.
Social Movement Analysis Chapter 11, does you campaign constitute a social movement, a public information campaign, or a professional movement? Analyze your campaign using the criteria presented in the text.
Conclusion and Critique 11-14 Provide a professional analysis of the campaign literature and the campaign organization based on what you have learned about persuasion research and theory. What are the strengths and weaknesses of the campaign or social movement you have analyzed?
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