Running head: WESTBORO BAPTIST CHURCH PROTESTS AND DEONTOLOGY
Westboro Baptist Church Protests and Deontology:
An Analysis of Ethical Decision-Making
WESTBORO BAPTIST CHURCH PROTESTS AND DEONTOLOGY
Westboro Baptist Church Protests and Deontology:
An Analysis of Ethical Decision-Making
The freedom of speech has been a right provided to every American citizen since the time
we were born. People are free to speak about a vast amount of topics because our founding
fathers granted this right through the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights. This amendment
states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the
free exercise thereof; pr abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the
people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances”
(Pember & Calvert, 2013, p. 42). This right enables citizens to practice any religion they prefer
and allows them to speak about any topic they would like. With any law that comes from the
government, there are some regulations that disables the practice of free speech. Some forms of
communication that are not allowed within this amendment are forms of defamation, obscenity,
speech critical of the government, and several others.
Over the past several years, these forms of unprotected communication have become a
huge discussion for debate in our society. Many people have started looking at these aspects of
communication and questioned various individuals or groups intentions with the way they
communicate. The one group that has been notoriously criticized for their activism in the
Christian world is the Westboro Baptist Church. Throughout this paper we will critically analyze
their protests through the ethical perspective of deontology. This paper will proceed as follows:
the analysis of the moral decision-making system of deontology, an in-depth study of the
Westboro Baptist Church, then the application of deontology to the Westboro Baptist Church
protests will then bring this paper to a conclusion.
WESTBORO BAPTIST CHURCH PROTESTS AND DEONTOLOGY
Deontology Decision-Making System
Throughout the day, many people experience internal decisions that force them to make a
decision based on their morals. The determining factor in many ethical decisions comes from
their reasoning to themselves or outside factors. Deontology is the moral decision-making that is
related to the obligation of our duties. According to May (2006), deontology based on duty ethics
is “actions that are judged on the intrinsic character of the act rather than on its effect” (p. 26).
This analysis of deontology will look at the duties within deontology, the study of Immanuel
Kant and the categorical imperative, and the Divine Command Theory.
Duty within Deontology
Deontology ethics is the decision-making process that individuals hold true for their
duties as citizens of the world. These duties can come in different forms and can be determined
from whether someone is actively doing a task or holding someone back from something.
According to Boss (2011), “moral duties require the recognition of and submission to moral laws
or rules.” (p. 308). These duties involve the different types of decisions that people make when
determining what to do in ethical situations. May (2006) believes that deontology is considered
to be a form of foundational ethics because people have to follow a set of standards, rules, or
duties (p. 26). The different types of duties can either be a prima facie duty, a positive duty, a
negative duty, or an absolute duty.
Many scholars of deontology believe that there are four different types of duty. These
two closely related types of duties are believed to be positive duty or negative duty. When
looking at positive duties, these duties entail an individual to be actively doing something to have
a greater outcome (Boss, 2011, p. 308). These types of duties are the process of doing something
WESTBORO BAPTIST CHURCH PROTESTS AND DEONTOLOGY
or following through with something to help another. An example of positive duty is when
someone pushes another person out of the way as a car is about to hit him or her. This is an
example of positive duty because the person had to actively push someone out of the way to save
the other person. Although people believe that positive duty is involved in most situations, there
are also instances where negative duty plays into this ethical decision-making.
When looking at the opposite of positive duty, negative duty is the void of doing
something. According to Boss (2011), a “negative duty requires individuals to restrain
themselves from doing something” (p. 308). This type of duty is the person’s choice to not do
something to refrain from being seen as unethical. An example of negative duty is choosing not
to smoke because they do not want to expose others to second hand smoke. This is an example
because the person actively chooses not to participate in smoking cigarettes because they do not
want their character to be viewed as bad by others.
The other types of duties are those that involve the level of degree to which people are
morally bound to their guidelines or ethics. These two types are the absolute duty and the prima
facie duty. Prima facie duty is “morally binding unless it conflicts with a more pressing moral
duty” (Boss, 2011, p. 308). This type of duty focuses on the importance and competing forces
between multiple moral dimensions. When determining whether to lie about eating a friend’s
cookie or stealing a cookie from a bakery, prima facie duties would determine which one
overrides the other by moral standards. Some extreme deontologists believe in the absolute duty
or “one that is always morally binding regardless of the circumstances” (Boss, 2011, p. 308).
Immanuel Kant is one of the deontologists that are noted to believe in the absolute duty.
WESTBORO BAPTIST CHURCH PROTESTS AND DEONTOLOGY
Immanuel Kant and the Categorical Imperative
The perspective that Immanuel Kant believes in when it comes to duties is absolute
duties. These duties are individuals who choose to follow a specific moral decision no matter the
issue. Immanuel Kant is also noted to have formulated the idea of the categorical imperative.
According to Kant (1997), the categorical imperative is when people “act only in accordance
with that maxim through which you can at the same time will that it become a universal law” (p.
4:421). Kant is explaining through his work that when people act into accordance to their morals
in the same situations that the outcome and expectation will become predictable. When people
act the same way in particular settings, the audience will find their responses to be predictable
and based on precedence.
Kant distinguished that there are two different types of imperatives that people can draw
from in order for them to do something. These imperatives can be hypothetical or categorical,
which both require positive duties. According to Boss (2011), “hypothetical imperatives are ones
that tell individuals that they ought to do something if they desire to achieve a certain result” (p.
318). Hypothetical imperatives give the decider a feeling of obligation to perform a duty in order
to get a satisfactory outcome. An example of a hypothetical imperative is when a student is
sitting on the couch thinking of doing their homework and then doing their homework to get a
good grade. This is an example of this imperative because the student felt like they had to do
their homework in order to get a good grade.
Kant also heavily believed in the categorical imperative for many reasons. This
imperative is different from the hypothetical imperative because the outcome is perceived in a
different way. According to Boss (2011), “ a categorical imperative states that the individual
ought to do something regardless of the consequences” (p. 318). This imperative is difficult to
WESTBORO BAPTIST CHURCH PROTESTS AND DEONTOLOGY
understand because this term states beings as doers instead of understanding what we are doing
about it. Categorical imperatives are those, which people have no reason to do something for a
specific reason, but to just do this because.
Divine Command Theory
The ethical decision making of deontology heavily looks at the duty or obligations one
has towards another figure. The advancement of this concept has been proven to be helpful in
many different aspects for people’s specific duties. As a Christian nation, there is no doubt as to
understanding people’s desire and duty towards a god like figure. When people start to figure
their morals and actions based off of the bible or religious affiliation, they are falling under the
Divine Command Theory.
According to Rachels (2001), the Divine Command Theory is defined as “what God
commands is what is morally right and what God forbids is what is morally wrong”. People
place their decisions in what another person believe is the right and wrong ways to live. This
theory places heavy burden on this God-like figure because people believe that when they follow
through with God’s plan, they will be guaranteed a spot in heaven. Because people follow this
particular mindset, they would be falling under the hypothetical imperative that Kant proposed.
This is because they are doing what God believes is morally right because they want to secure a
spot in this hypothetical heaven.
Many instances have come into legal terms with religious affiliation and the reasoning of
being morally guided by God. People have committed crimes because they were supposedly told
by God himself to commit these crimes. Andrea Yates v. the State of Texas was famously noted
to fall within this realm of Divine Command Theory. According to Nuchia (2005), the judges’
opinion stated that Yates murdered her five children because she was commanded to do so by
WESTBORO BAPTIST CHURCH PROTESTS AND DEONTOLOGY
god. Andrea Yates was convicted of murder even though she followed the ethical framework of
deontology because of her commitment to God. This is an example of Divine Command Theory
because Yates believed that god thought it was morally right to kill her children, therefore,
killing them was excusable.
The next portion of the paper will be an in-depth analysis and beliefs of the Westboro
Baptist Church.
The Westboro Baptist Church
Over the last several years, an organization has been picketing many different types of
events because of their belief in God’s command. The Westboro Baptist Church has been known
to picket different types of events, such as, funerals, basketball games, theatre openings, and
many more for their advance on God’s word. This organization has been considered a “cult” to
many individuals for the way they preach the activism in God’s word (Vultaggio, 2013). This
group attends many emotionally laden events in support and celebration of the deceased because
they believe their death should come as a sign to the American Citizens.
The Westboro Baptist Church has not been recognized as a religion for very along.
According to the Westboro Baptist Church website (2013), the organization has been around
since 1955 and is located in the city of Topeka, Kansas. This organization believes in a very
tradition understanding of the Bible as well as a strict interpretation. Many news reports have
shown these individuals protesting the various events listed before stating: “God hates fags”,
“Thank god for dead soldiers”, and many other controversial slogans. This Baptist church
believes that the current way people are teaching the Bible is wrong because God does not love
everyone (Westboro Baptist Church, 2013). The Westboro Baptist Church increasingly shows
their reasoning for guidance based on the word of God.
WESTBORO BAPTIST CHURCH PROTESTS AND DEONTOLOGY
Since the beginning of the organization, the church has been known to protest many
different public events that have high emotional experiences. This organization has been to many
different funerals, sporting events, and others as a form of spreading the word of God. According
to Westboro Baptist Church website (2013), the Church does daily “peaceful” sidewalk
demonstrations and has conducted 50,349 different demonstrations over the last 58 years. The
vast number of demonstrations conducted by these individuals has been numerous and has
created national attention to their actions.
The Westboro Baptist Church has been on several different talk shows to discuss their
reasoning behind their protests. Most of the talk shows have described the group as being an
organization that is based on anger. According to a broadcast of the Tyra Banks Show, the
episode was titled “The Most Hated Family in America” and they talked about their hate in their
protests. Shirley Phelps, the Westboro Baptist Church advocate, stated on the Tyra Banks show
“that she loves the gays more than anyone in the room because” she “believes that she has
enough love for them to tell them that they are going to hell” (Banks, 2012). Shirley was also
stated “we are supposed to thank god for his righteous judgments’ on September eleventh,
hurricane Katrina, and dead soldiers” (Banks, 2012). These statements show their beliefs in what
the word of God is and how they express it to others through the media.
The Westboro Baptist Church has been in legal situations for their exposure to the way
they believe God has told them to act. During these protests, people have tried to sue the church
members for bad acts and defacing the American symbols. The most famous case involving
these issues was the case of Snyder versus Phelps. This court case involved members of the
church who were protesting at a funeral of a fallen soldier. According to Pember and Calvert
(2013), the Westboro Baptist Church won the case because the judges stated that “they were not
WESTBORO BAPTIST CHURCH PROTESTS AND DEONTOLOGY
shouting profanity and there was no hate speech involved” (p. 128). The primary reasoning
behind the court cases involved with this church are instances of hate speech. In the next section,
this paper will look at the ethical decision making process of deontology and relate this to the
Westboro Baptist Church.
Analysis of Westboro Baptist Church and Deontology
The Westboro Baptist Church has been criticized for being a strong contributor to the
word of God and their activism in protest of people’s death. This church believes that they are
positively impacting the citizens of the United States by telling them that they are doomed for
hell for following a homosexual agenda. Through the terms presented on deontology, the
Westboro Baptist Church protests and activism are favored based on the Divine Command
Theory, positive duties and their relation to absolute duty.
As stated in the study of deontology, the Divine Command Theory believes that
individuals hold their duties and moral judgments based on what they believe god is expecting of
them. Because the Westboro Baptist Church is following the agenda of what they believe God
wants them to do, they fall under this theory. By making God the primary reasoning for their
decisions, they are actively doing their duty as God’s followers. These individuals are allowed to
freely express their opinions on natural disasters and deaths because deontology and the Divine
Command Theory state that their actions are okay. Any group, organization, or person that is
preaching the word of God is deemed to be an ethical figure because they are holding their duties
true to God.
Following the terms even closely by relating them to duties, the Westboro Baptist Church
believes in an absolute duty towards their god as well as a positive duty. The reason why they are
believed to be following absolute duty is because they believe that the only thing to believe in is
WESTBORO BAPTIST CHURCH PROTESTS AND DEONTOLOGY
the duty of God. Westboro Baptist Church followers believe in absolute duty because they are
not necessarily concerned with the consequences they will receive from outside sources. The
church is also believed to be followers of positive duty because they are actively doing standing
up for something they believe in. Because positive duties look at the way people actually do
things, the Westboro Baptist Church actively involves in daily protests as they have stated on
their website.
Closing Remarks
Deontology is the ethical decision making way of deciding something based on the duty
individuals have to other sources. In the Divine Command Theory, the duty people hold to their
God is the most important duty an individual can hold. The Westboro Baptist Church follows the
beliefs of the Divine Command Theory because they actively protest events to spread the word
of God to others about their anti-homosexual agenda. Even though they have been tried in court
for many different reasons, the Church has stuck to their firm beliefs in what the Bible says.
Based on the reasoning of Kant and the Divine Command Theory, the beliefs of the Westboro
Baptist Church are considered to be ethical because they are holding true to their duty to God.
WESTBORO BAPTIST CHURCH PROTESTS AND DEONTOLOGY
References
Banks, T. (2012). The most hated family in america. The Tyra Banks Show. Retrieved from:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TULrScZvX4
Boss, J. A. (2011). Ethics for life: A text with readings (5th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill
Companies, Inc.
Kant, I. (1997). Groundwork of the metaphysics of morals. New York, NY: Cambridge
University Press.
May, S. (2006). Case studies in organizational communication: Ethical perspectives and
practices. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.
Nuchia, S. (2005). Yates, andrea pia v. the state of texas: Appeal from 230th district court of
harris county. Retrieved from: http://law.justia.com/cases/texas/first-court-ofappeals/2005/81309.html.
Pember, D. R. & Calvert, C. (2013). Mass Media Law (18th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
Rachels, J. (2001). Divine command theory and god’s benevolence. Retrieved from:
http://faculty.unlv.edu/jwood/nyu/Divine%20Command%20Theory.htm.
Vultaggio, M. (2013). Westboro Baptist church hails boston marathon explosion, plans to picket
funerals. International Business Times. Retrieved from:
http://www.ibtimes.com/westboro-baptist-church-hails-boston-marathon-explosionplans-picket-funerals-1194185#.
Westboro Baptist Church. (2013). God hates fags. Retrieved from: www.godhatesfags.com.