Dear Mr. Phelps and Members of Westboro Baptist Church,

I want to thank for taking the time to stop by Stanford University last Friday. I have to admit, when I heard that you were coming to Stanford, I was very concerned. I’ve seen the media coverage of some of your previous protests claiming that God hates homosexuals, America, Jews, and others. I’ve heard about your protests at the funerals of soldiers and homosexuals, most notably Matthew Shepherd who was beaten to death near Laramie, Wyoming. Your messages have always been provocative and negative. I know what you’re against, but what are you for?

There was considerable debate within the Stanford community as to whether we should simply ignore you and your hateful message. That would have been relatively easy to do given that you were planning to arrive on campus at the, dare I say it, “ungodly” hour of 8:20 am on a Friday! On the other hand, we are all students of history and we know that as Edmund Burke once said, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good [people] to do nothing.” You came targeting Stanford Hillel as well as members of the LGBT community. By targeting them you reminded us that these are beloved members of our community, that our community would not be the same without them. So the students of our community turned your message of hate and doom into a celebration of diversity.

Stanford Talisman led us in many songs of love and solidarity including “We Shall Overcome” and “Lift every Voice.” And then a bagpiper spontaneously appeared and led us all in “Amazing Grace.” People held signs affirming love over hate including “God is Love” and “Love is a Light that will Always Shine.” We recited a pledge that said in part, “We stand united, because widespread hate begins with targeted hate…We stand united, and we pledge: When we are no longer at Stanford, we will go to the home of those who are unjustly targeted – whoever they may be. We will speak out with them. We will act, united with them, and together, we will create a better world.”

I’m sorry that you couldn’t join in with us to experience the power of that moment when we were all there reveling in our shared love and community. But I wanted to thank you for helping to remind us of the importance of our community and the diversity that we cherish. Your message seems to be that diversity is something to fear and avoid while we experience diversity as essential to building the beloved community that was the dream of Martin Luther King, Jr. Thank you again for stopping by and while I can’t say that I look forward to seeing you again, our community is more that capable of turning bigotry into a stronger community.

Kind regards,

Rev. Geoff Browning, Campus Minister with Progressive Christians @ Stanford