Funeral Protests: Defending the Indefensible
By Chuck Muth (11/05/07)
In my opinion, the members of the Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) are among the most repugnant, vile, despicable - hold on, I need to consult my Thesaurus - filthy, foul, nasty, nauseating, creepy, offensive, repellent, revolting, loathsome, rotten, obnoxious, wretched, sickening low-life creatures on the face of this planet. But then again, I'm sugar-coating it.
The Westboro Baptist Church and its 75 members are united in a singular mission: Hating gays. Of course, “hate” is a strong word and church members will surely dispute my assertion. But when your church runs a website titled “GodHatesFags.com” (now available in Spanish!), it seems a reasonable assumption that the church members do, too.
Alas, in America hating fags hasn’t gotten too many people riled up. For example, do you remember the story of Matthew Shepard, the student who was savagely beaten to death in Wyoming in 1998 because he was gay? Well, the fine folks of the WBC picketed Matthew’s funeral with signs saying the young man was going to Hell for being gay.
Was there mass public outrage over this outrageous behavior? Nope. Did Congress pass any laws banning picketing at the funerals of slain gay students? Nope. Did anyone sue WBC for invading the Shepard family’s privacy or causing them emotional distress? Not that I recall. No, it wasn’t until the WBC wingnuts started showing up at military funerals waving “Thank God for Dead Soldiers” signs that the public’s blood started to boil.
According to the Associated Press, the WBC protestors believe God is killing American soldiers because the United States “is too tolerant of homosexuality.” In response, notes the AP, “a number of states have passed laws regarding funeral protests, and Congress has passed a law prohibiting such protests at federal cemeteries.” And just last week, a court handed down an $11 million verdict against WBC for invasion of privacy and causing emotional distress at the funeral of a soldier killed in Iraq.
The problem is that what these callous WBC cretins were doing, as tastelessly and as insensitively as humanly possible, was exercising their right of free speech. And just as a reminder, here’s exactly what the First Amendment says: “Congress shall make no law…abridging the freedom of speech…or the right of the people peaceably to assemble…”
It’s painfully clear. The Constitution prohibits Congress - and thanks to the 14th Amendment, the states – from passing laws which prohibit the free exercise of speech, even if the speech is despicable and the protestors peaceably assemble to exercise their rights at a funeral. It shouldn’t surprise anyone if this verdict is overturned on appeal, and it should bother everyone who values our freedoms if it’s not.
My heart aches for the father of that slain soldier who sued the Westboro Baptist Church worms, and in a lot of ways, I’m glad he won. But rather than undermine an essential constitutional principle, might I suggest a better alternative? Let’s pass a law that says if a friend or relative of a slain American soldier, personally or by proxy, kicks the living (expletive) out of a member of the Westboro Baptist Church who is protesting at said soldier’s funeral, the infraction will be considered a simple misdemeanor subject to a maximum fine of one dollar.
Something tells me that would put a stop to all this pronto.
Copyright 2007 Chuck Muth. All rights reserved. http://chuckmuth.com/
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