Casey French
On Wednesday, our class watched a documentary about the notoriously controversial religious group known as Westboro Baptist Church. I was actually extremely curious how this group looked four years afterwards. The daughter of the former filmmaker left the group. The father expelled his own daughter out of the family and even took the photos off the walls. Lauren was totally transformed with multiple piercings and her choice of clothing. The family claims "she wanted a man" and despite the obvious hole in their family structure, the father was relieved to let her go for her decision to not obey the church. The group thrives off their idea of setting aside emotions and desires for their religion. Belonging to the church and those associated with it seems to set aside the basic qualities that make us human. According to Berger, religion is a social institution involving beliefs and practices based on the sacred, and I believe that the mastermind of this following truly identifies with this ideology that they are preaching. They add value and significance to the idea that God is actually an entity to be fearful of and the membership to this group is very rigid with certain expectations on the individuals involved. Everyone has a specific duty, whether it is making signs or spreading the word. The conformity to this idea supports the theory of in/out-groups who categorize themselves between two polarized groups. You're either with us or with them. That is why so many of the former members feel that they were shut out from the rest of their family. "Some people lose their family to cancer or a car accident...I lost mine to a cult".
I had to share this clip because it was hilarious. Of course, this reinforces the idea for the younger children, but the spin-offs off Lady Gaga and Queen hit songs made me laugh. They parodied popular pop songs as propaganda. Here's the clip:
In the documentary, society ultimately rejected the ideology of the group by passively retaliating with picket signs saying "Drink the kool-aid already", in reference to the cult that committed mass suicide by drank cyanide. With lawsuits claiming that they inflicted emotional pain onto others, the Westboro Baptist Church is attempting to combat them by sending their children to law school. However, as people leave and the rigid boundaries of their exclusive religion disallows outsiders to have membership, all signs seems to point to their inevitable downfall as a social institution.
It was interesting to hear what happened to the members who left the church.I may have to watch the second video to see for myself how these people changed after leaving the group. I'm curious as to if they were able to fully reintegrate with the rest of society, or if their earlier teachings may cause them some grief when it comes to fitting in with societal norms. I also really enjoyed the video clip.
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