Westboro Baptist Church: A sign of the times?

SPaul note: The current situation with the Westboro Baptist Church is not only absurd, it is the antithesis of Christian behavior. Though the Bible does tell the story of Sodom and Gomorrah being wiped out by God's wrath for the activities occurring there, the absolute condemnation and judgment of all other people believing in or acting in ways that are contrary to WBC preachings shows great non-Christian behavior. These people have decided to pick and choose the parts of the Bible that garners the most anger and hate possible. If they are a Church then maybe it should more appropriately be called the Church of the Anti-Christ.

Then again, this could all be a series of purposeful actions where our Freedom of Speech is being weakened by those who purposely want to see it destroyed. I think we all need to give it a second thought before demands for their silencing is taken to the level of becoming one more step toward Constitutional death.

Westboro Baptist Church to 'Quadruple' Funeral Protests After Ruling
Free Speech Advocates Hail Supreme Court Decision on Anti-Gay Military Funeral Displays
By DEVIN DWYER

Leaders of the controversial Westboro Baptist CChurch today vowed to "quadruple" the number of protests at military funerals around the country following a Supreme Court ruling that the displays are protected under the First Amendment."We are trying to warn you to flee the wrath of God, flee the wrath of destruction. What would be more kind than that," a fiery Margie J. Phelps, the lead legal counsel for the church and daughter of pastor Fred Phelps, told reporters. "We have not slowed down and we will not."

Phelps and other members of the Topeka, Kan., church have picketed outside many military funerals holding signs with offensive messages such as "God Hates You" and "God Hates Fags." The church believes military deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan are God's punishment for U.S. tolerance of homosexuality and a sign the nation's destruction is imminent.

Albert Snyder, whose son Matthew was killed in Iraq in 2006, sued the Church after members loudly protested at his funeral. Snyder's suit argued that the demonstrations inflicted intentional emotional harm and should be prohibited. The Supreme Court disagreed.

"Shut up all that talk about infliction of emotional distress," Phelps said of Snyder's claim after the decision was handed down. "When you're standing there with your young child's body bits and pieces in a coffin you've been dealt some emotional distress by the Lord your God."

An eight-justice majority on the Court ruled that the protests, while hurtful, were permissible under the Constitution. One justice, Samuel Alito, dissented from the majority saying the "vicious verbal assault" imposed "great injury" to Snyder.

"He simply didn't follow his oath, he'll have to take that up with God," Phelps said of Alito. "I very much appreciate the fact that I get to be the mouth of God in this matter."

First Amendment advocates hailed the court for separating the emotionally charged nature of Westboro's message with the fundamental right to free expression.

"This is a historic first amendment case," said constitutional lawyer Cliff Sloan. "This is the kind of case that is going to have an influence for generations. It is the Supreme Court standing up and giving constitutional protection to extremely unpopular speech. It's really what the first amendment is all about."

Military Families Oppose Court Ruling
American Civil Liberties Union legal director Steve Shapiro said the court rightfully and respectfully acknowledged the Snyder family's grief. "But it correctly holds that the response to that grief cannot include the abandonment of core First Amendment principles designed to protect even the most unpopular speech on matters of public concern," he said.

A coalition of military families, including those who've lost loved ones in the line of duty, and their supporters passionately disagreed.

"This court has no problem with the government sending our children over to these wars, send them back in a body bag and not even have enough respect for that dead soldier to be buried peacefully," Albert Snyder told reporters today.

"Right now, with this opinion, it's everything goes. It's nothing stopping Westboro from going to your daughter's wedding because they think the Catholic Church is bad. And these justices, they don't have to worry about this because the Westboro church and any other nut job like this will not get near their family or their funeral," he said. "They don't have to worry about it. It's us that have to worry about it."

John Ellsworth, whose son was killed in Iraq and heads the group Military Families United, said the court's decision is ironic since the church members are exercising a right that military service members are fighting and dying to protect.

Military "families deserve the respect of a grateful nation, not hate from a group who chooses to demonstrate during the funeral of their loved one," he said.

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who's been an outspoken advocate for military families, said in a twitter message that "common sense and decency absent" in the ruling, which allows a "wacko 'church'" to spew hate messages.

Read more @ ABC




Anti-Defamation League Responding to the Westboro Baptist Church

Introduction
The Westboro Baptist Church (WBC), a small virulently homophobic, anti-Semitic hate group, regularly stages protests around the country, often several times a week, against institutions and individuals they think support homosexuality or otherwise subvert what they believe is God's law. Targets include schools the group deems to be accepting of homosexuality; Catholic, Lutheran, and other Christian denominations that the WBC feels are heretical; and funerals for people murdered or killed in accidents like plane crashes. Since 2005, the WBC has also been protesting at funerals for American soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

While the WBC has protested against Jewish institutions over the years, they were not a major focus of the group until April 2009. Since then, the WBC has targeted dozens of Jewish institutions, from ADL offices to Israeli consulates to synagogues to JCCs, around the country and distributed anti-Semitic fliers to announce planned protests at these sites. The WBC has also sent volumes (in some cases dozens over the course of a week) of faxes and emails, with anti- Semitic and anti-gay messages to various Jewish institutions and individuals. In addition, in April 2010, the group began mailing a virulently anti-Semitic DVD to Jewish organizations and leaders.

Read the rest @ ADL:Responding to the Westboro Baptist Church





Westboro Baptist Church
Anti-Defamation League

About WBC
The Topeka, Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) is a small virulently homophobic, anti-Semitic hate group that regularly stages protests around the country, often several times a week. The group pickets institutions and individuals they think support homosexuality or otherwise subvert what they believe is God’s law.

Incorporated in 1967 as a not-for-profit organization, WBC considers itself an “Old School (or Primitive)” Baptist Church. WBC’s leader is Fred Phelps and several of his children and dozens of his grandchildren appear to constitute the majority of the group’s members. WBC has no official affiliation with mainstream Baptist organizations.

While WBC members have protested at Jewish institutions over the years, such institutions were not a major focus for the group until April 2009. Since then, WBC has targeted dozens of Jewish institutions around the country, from Israeli consulates to synagogues to Jewish community centers, distributing anti-Semitic fliers to announce planned protests at these sites. WBC has also been sending volumes (in some cases dozens over the course of a week) of faxes and emails with anti-Semitic and anti-gay messages to various Jewish institutions and individuals.

In addition, in April 2010, the group began mailing a virulently anti-Semitic DVD to Jewish organizations and leaders. The DVD also attacks President Obama, describing him as the anti-Christ, and is filled with anti-gay and anti-Catholic vitriol.

Other WBC targets include schools the group deems to be accepting of homosexuality; Catholic, Lutheran, and other Christian denominations that WBC feels are heretical; and funerals for people murdered or killed in accidents like plane crashes and for American soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, a tactic the group started in 2005. Though the group's specific focus may shift over time, they believe that nearly all Americans and American institutions are “sinful,” so nearly any individual or organization can be targeted.
Shirley Phelps-Roper

In fact, WBC members say that “God’s hatred is one of His holy attributes” and that their picketing is a form of preaching to a “doomed” country unable to hear their message in any other way.

Additionally, the group has tried to stage protests in foreign countries. In February 2009, the WBC announced plans to travel to Great Britain to protest the staging at a school there of “The Laramie Project,” a play about the vicious murder of a young gay man, Matthew Shepard, in 1998. (British government officials barred the group from entering the country.) The group made it to Canada in August 2008, where they picketed the funeral of a young man who was the victim of a brutal murder on a Greyhound bus, which was national news in that country. Authorities there reportedly tried to prevent the group from entering their country, but the WBC claims it was able to evade Canadian border patrol agents to stage the protest.