It’s a landmark that has become synonymous with all that is good about Auburn University. On Monday, AU students gathered on the lawn of Samford Hall to make sure it stayed that way.
A memorial service for Lauren Burk, 18, was held Monday at the Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum on campus.
Many of the students who turned out for the memorial service learned about the event by visiting Facebook, a social networking Web site, While there, many of them also became acquainted with another planned event Monday.
Fred Phelps, the pastor of the Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church, and his followers — many of whom are his relatives — have become menacing mainstays at funerals of fallen soldiers all over the country. They attended Burk’s funeral Sunday.
The group had plans to protest the Monday memorial for Burk, but ultimately never showed up.
“I look at it as a victory,” said Nick, an AU student who only chose not to give his last name. “The point of rallying students isn’t to cause a conflict. It was to prevent Westboro Baptist Church from further spewing out their propaganda of hate and allow those who want to mourn Lauren without that distraction.”
Heather-Ann Schaeffner agrees.
“I think he’s purposely offensive,” said Schaeffner, who first learned about the preaching Phelps family from a magazine article. “To say that someone’s death is an act of God in response to the nation’s tolerance of homosexuality is outrageous.”
Schaeffner made up a sign in response to some of the hate-oriented signs Phelps’ followers carry at their protests.
“Auburn University does not tolerate hatemongers” was written in AU colors as Schaeffner displayed her sign in front of the coliseum Monday.
AU student John Pitzer heard about the Phelps family making plans to protest Monday as well as their earlier visit to Opelika to protest and called it “completely inappropriate.”
“I think everything (the Phelps’ family) claim to stand for is completely hypocritical,” said Pitzer, a senior theater student from Washington, D.C. “I think they’re basically here to just get a rise and disrupt things here on campus.”
But regardless of the what motivates the Phelps, remembering Burk was on the minds of all those that were present at Samford Hall.
“We should be able to grieve in our own way and not have to worry about people trying to offend us as we go through that process trying to push their political or religious agenda,” Pitzer said.
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