"You're Going to Hell"

[bemildred]

I got an e-mail from a friend a few days ago saying that the Supreme Court's ruling in the Westboro Baptist Church case confirmed his opinion that the court as currently constituted was a mere front for extreme right-wingers and their causes.

Well, maybe it is, but I don't think this case proves it.

You'll recall the circumstance. Members of the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan., picketed the funeral of Lance Cpl. Matthew A. Snyder. Snyder was killed in Iraq and buried in Maryland. The Westboro folks carried signs that said things like "God Hates Fags" and "Thank God for IEDs."

Members of the church purport to believe that tolerance of homosexuality is the handiwork of the devil and that the Army is no less culpable in the decline of America into a festering sewer of immortality than, say, Glide Memorial Church. One might also say that the pastor of the church, the Rev. Fred Phelps, never met a headline he didn't like.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/03/07/DD4T1I3DR2.DTL

FWIW, I think the best thing one can do with Fundies is let them talk. The more they talk, the more there ideas offend good sense and Christian values.

[KansDem]

1. With folks like Phelps and his wackos about...

I'm already there.

[ejpoeta]

2. as disgusting as those people are, i believe the supreme court made the right call.

we have to protect the speech of even these assholes. I can't stand any of them, but they can say whatever they want. We can crowd them out to keep them away from their intended targets. shun them.... maybe they'll go away if they aren't making money off of it anymore.

[Jackpine Radical]

4. Absolutely.

As I said before, it's a slippery slope from shutting down Nazi and other obnoxious speech to shutting down dissent of all kinds. I trust nobody as the arbiter of acceptability in public speech.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

6. i tend to agree

[phantom power]

3. Yep, they have the right to assemble peacefully, and voice their opinions.

[pwb]

5. Sad to see a Christian church kick Jesus in the balls like that.

They do come from Koch country. Nothing Christian about those fellas..

[old mark]

7. K&R- But I have a lingering doubt how the court would have found

if it had been a leftist group's free speech in question...the call was right, but I question the motive.

mark

[bemildred]

8. Well, if you read the argument carefully, it becomes clear that speech is allowed if it is impotent.

As with this particular issue. If you speak effectively, so as to be a threat to the political status quo, you can squirreled away somewhere and tortured.

[old mark]

9. Ah, yes- the "Homeland Security Loophole...."...nt