The Supreme Court just handed down a decision stating that the protesters of the church are completely within their Constitutional rights to protest homosexuality at the funerals of American soliders. In fact, they even voted 8-1 in favor of the Westboro people. (http://amfix.blogs.cnn.com/2011/03/03/supreme-court-rules-8-1-in-favor-of-westboro-baptist-church/?iref=allsearch)
If you ask me, these people are not an organization that qualifies as a "church". They are a group of hateful people using the term religion as an umbrella to hide under while they abuse their rights to free speech. I personally feel like the whole organization is a scam, and it makes me sick that they are getting the attention that they're working so hard for from people like us.
What's even worse about the whole thing is that these soldiers lost their lives fighting for the freedoms that protect everyone, including Westboro Baptist Church.
Former Alaska governor, Sarah Palin, was extremely unhappy with the decision handed down by The Supreme Court. She tweeted "Common sense & decency absent as wacko 'church' allowed hate messages spewed at soldiers' funerals but we can't invoke God's name in a public square". (twitter.com/SarahPalinUSA).
Palin brings up a good point, freedom of speech and religion do not matter in a healthy public school classroom setting, but are the basis of allowing a group of hateful people to ruin what should be respectful funerals.
An online Irish newspaper quoted chief justice John Roberts as saying, "As a nation we have chosen a different course- to protect even hurtful speech on public issues to ensure that we do not stifle public debate." (http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2011/0303/breaking43.html)
True. I completely understand this. However, funerals are not the venue for a public debate, and not allowing these people to protest would fall under the category of protecting the rights of the victims' families as opposed to censoring or taking away the rights of the protestors.
Regardless, it's done now. Ridiculous and aggravating as it may be, the important thing now is to pray for the families whose funerals have been intruded upon by these so-called "religious" people.
