Westboro Baptist Church: Rhetorically Clueless or Rhetorically Genius?

image from: http://commonamericanjournal.com/?p=21882

Hate them or... hate them, it's still an obsession.

The Westboro Baptist Church is infamous for their hateful pickets against LGBT rights, American servicemen and women, Judaism, and well... just about anything. They are constantly met at picket sites with strong opposition and sometimes assaulted for attempting to spread their poisonous messages. The mere mentioning of the church is enough to send anyone into a fury. So, clearly their message isn't being accepted. Clearly, they are making no progress is convincing the world that their version of God's word is the accurate version. So, why don't they just give it up?

When it comes down to it, the rest of the world considers the members of this so-called church to be hate-spewing, uncompassionate, crazy people. And those words are far more tame than anything I would like to call them. It's blatantly obvious that their use of rhetoric is ineffective in proving their point. Rather than logically making their arguments or stating their beliefs, they choose to throw heinous signs and chants in the faces of the public. They lack any appeal to logos. After all, in what alternate universe is it logical to think the Bible literally states that "God hates fags" or that we should be thankful for dead soldiers and believe they are a divine punishment. I'm sorry but I have a very difficult time finding and logic in that. Find me a direct quote or get God on the phone... then maybe I'll see a little more logic in those arguments. They also lack any appeal to ethos. Their actions make it beyond impossible to respect them or their opinions and beyond that, they can hardly call themselves a church. The majority of their members seem to be people, within the Phelps family, who have been brainwashed from birth to spread their hateful messages. It's difficult to find any credibility in a group of people who can hardly attract a single new member unless they were born directly into the church. In fact, the only thing they appeal to is pathos, and if anything, they're only persuading people's emotions to develop more hatred towards them.

Doesn't sound like they know much about rhetoric to me.

However, on the other end of the spectrum, these people have made millions - and I mean millions - off of the lawsuits they have filed against the people who have physically assaulted them after being so offended by their messages over the years. So, what if that's their goal? To continue to fund their lives by getting such a rise out of people that they make a living simply by raising a sign and, for lack of better working, pissing people off. To some extent, I hope this is the case. The idea that they're using rhetoric to intentionally make money, despite how despicable it is, is more appealing than thinking they actually believe in such heinous values - in a sick way, albeit.

Either way, the people are sick. The only emotion they appeal to in my mind is absolute disgust and I'd love to take a swing at them as much as the next guy. But, how about we stop throwing punches and get a conclusive answer: are they rhetorically clueless and just THAT crazy? Or, are the rhetorically genius and funding their comfortable lives by getting a rise out of the rest of us?

Something tells me it's a little bit of both.