Westboro Baptist Church

Westboro Baptist Church is a homophobic hate group located in Topeka, Kansas. The group leader, Fred Phelps, spearheads attacks on Jews, gays, and funerals for fallen soldiers. The group claims their beliefs support God's laws and morals, and they only target those who do otherwise. Allegedly, our God is an angry God, which is why he has cast so much trauma and destruction on this Earth.The groups official website, "godhatesfags.com" shows pictures, timelines, beliefs, and events regarding the anti-semitic group. Here you can even find a schedule of fallen soldiers memorials the group plans to visit and protest at. The site also lists sister sites including "JewsKilledJesus.com" and "GodHatesTheWorld.com."

 

I think that what the WBC does is absolutely sick and immoral. While no major punishment can come of their protests due to a separation of church and state, there is a level of respect that they need to adhere to. They have a right to speak their minds, as long as they don't lose all of their dignity in the process. I have trouble understanding how a human being could find it okay to completely disregard any level of respect they had for another human beings beliefs, values, or life. While these people say they follow Christianity, they do an awful job of following traditional Christian beliefs. Most Christians, or most moral human beings, could never attack someone's life or their beliefs in such a personal and vicious way.

I believe that the worst portion of the Westboro Baptist's Church's actions are the protests at the funerals of fallen soldiers. This is where a separation of church and state definitely comes into play because soldiers fight solely for our country, not for a particular religion sector. How someone could be completely against a solider sacrificing his life for our country and for members of the WBC themselves is beyond me. Without these exact soldiers, the WBC wouldn't even be able to do what they're doing right now. What a tragedy it is to think that these soliders are giving their lives so that the members of the Westboro Baptist Church may protest their funerals. I truly cannot even fathom how the members of this Church call what they're practicing 'religion' and think that this is why they were put on this Earth. While we all have different beliefs, our religions should all have one basic belief that we hold common: Love others.

"If you're not going to stand behind our troops, feel free to stand in front of them."

Cyberbullying

Cyberbullying exists all around us, and follows us home, leaving victims with no escape. With new technology, teenagers can’t get away from the torture, as it seeps into text messaging, Facebook-ing, and tweeting. Oftentimes, school faculty and administrators feel as though they cannot help since the harassment doesn’t occur on school grounds, but that is not true. While they may be considered overstepping their authority, they can teach students and parents what cyberbullying is, why it happens, and how it can be stopped. Education is the best prevention, for most kids would stop once they see just how severe the consequences and outcomes for both the bully and the victim can be.

Websites such as these can be used to teach others all about cyberullying:

http://www.stopcyberbullying.org/index2.html 

http://www.netsmartz.org/cyberbullying

There are many forms of cyberbullying, those of which include: physical threats, rumor spreading, photoshopping, and identity theft, all of these devastating to a teenager in their own way. While most of these seem 'harmless' they are driving many innocent teens to suicide, devastating their peers and families. We have to prevent the bullying before we cause another suicide. Teens who are being victimized can seek help by talking to a trusted adult, teacher, social worker, or counselor. However, many teens are convinced that this will make the torture worse. If that is so, the student can take precautionary actions on their own, such as: blocking the number that is threatening them, or deleting an account from a social networking site. If anyone thinks before they type, together, we can put an end to cyberbullying.