The Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) is a group that I really didn’t know anything about until I took Dr. Gray’s Religion 101 class this past Spring 2018. Since then, it has become a very interesting topic to me. As a psychology major, I am more often interested in the whys and hows of life than the whats. Due to this, for my final paper in the class, I decided to evaluate possible reasons for why I believe the group continues to be so marginalized aside from the obvious, polar views. This will be a part of my focus during interviews.

I find it interesting that the group holds such strong values, even while enduring all the backlash it causes. Honestly, I tend to scoff at strong values and beliefs. I do not understand the reason for a screaming battle of opinions when most people will not change their minds. I’ve grown up in an area where many of the political views are the opposite of mine. Due to this, I tend to keep quiet when politics, religion, or other “touchy” subjects are discussed. I’m certain this quality that I have consequently adapted will be beneficial for this trip, as it will be crucial to keep a critical distance from the situation and keep myself within a scholarly viewpoint.

Despite my tendency to keep quiet when faced with people whose values are starkly different from mine, I have a lot of empathy for people that I am close to. While I have never approached religious protestors, I can’t say I’ve had many critically distant thoughts towards the ones I’ve encountered at Miami University. This will likely be one of the challenges I will face in interviews. Rather than being empathetic with those in my personal life, I will need to work to ignore or put aside that empathy for my family and friends in order to understand the views of the members of the WBC, all while keeping that crucial critical distance.

I also think it might be a challenge for me not to be in complete awe of the members. As mentioned, I am incredibly curious about the whys and hows of this group. Why do they choose to follow the beliefs they are handed after they are born? Why do they feel so strongly about their message that they are willing to endure all the hatred towards them? How has being so marginalized affected their quality of life? How has it affected their mental state or capacity? While these might not be questions I can answer, this is what will be swirling my mind. I will need to work to focus and stay engaged within the conversation while also thinking about the whys and hows, within reason.

Overall, I’m excited to do this research and most importantly, learn something new about this group of people. While we are both from the same country, that does not mean we have the same culture. It will be interesting for me to learn about this new culture that I have never experienced before. I am eager to begin interviews and hopefully uncover something that hasn’t been thought about yet.