Last week an amazing man died. He created an industry that today has an effect on almost every individual in the United States. He created software used in homes, businesses and almost every artistic industry, and he created a movie studio that hasn’t had a bad film yet and has rave reviews worldwide.

This man, of course, is Steve Jobs. His life was celebrated by many last week for good reason. But one group sought to cash in on the news of Jobs’ death to further their own agenda of hate. That group is of course the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan. Many of you have likely heard about their tweet proclaiming that “[Jobs] had a huge platform; gave God no glory & taught sin.” and stating that Westboro would picket his funeral (which they didn’t).

The great irony of Margie Phelps’ tweet was that it was sent with an iPhone — a phone developed by Apple under Jobs’ direction, which created a communication revolution worldwide. Due to the fact that Twitter reports how an individual sends each tweet, the news of Phelps’ hypocrisy soon reverberated around technology circles online and was soon mentioned by other news sources.

Phelps noticed the criticism and responded, saying that God, not Jobs, created the iPhone to allow her to tell the world that Jobs, gays, Jews and President Obama are going to hell. While we shouldn’t worship Jobs or act as if he was a deity, he — along with the many other men and women protested by Westboro — should at least get some respect from the living.

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Westboro Baptist’s habit of voicing their criticism of those that have died is both disrespectful and unfair. Why did Westboro not criticize Steve Jobs in life, when he could have offered a proper response? Jobs could have explained his belief in Buddhism and noted that he is human and imperfect like the rest of us.

The only explanation is that the Phelps family and their church only seek public attention and would be willing to criticize Mother Teresa if it would get them more media time and money to fund their endless campaign of hate. To make this world a better place we need a sharing of views and collaborative thinking — not something that will come from this Topeka church any time soon.

And if you follow suit and criticize a brilliant businessman anytime soon, make sure you do it using someone else’s product.