This story yesterday really upset me:

http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/03/02/scotus ... ml?npt=NP1

I'm all for freedom of speech and everything, but I think I heard it put best this morning..."I don't think this is what the founding forefathers had in mind!" Sure, voice your opinion in the media...voice in publication...say whatever you want in your church...but how is it right to deny people the RIGHT to morn their family and friends in peace?

The first amendment says "the right of the people peaceably to assemble"...and when has Westbro ever been "peaceful" in their assembly? How is disrupting funerals being peaceful?

Personally, if anyone close to me in the military should be required to come home in a pine box, and these people show up at the funeral, they WILL end up having words with me!!! First thing I would ask them? "How do you think God feels about you slapping Him in the face and telling Him that He cannot do things good enough by passing your judgment?" Sorry...these people truly upset me, as they give Christians a bad name! Last I checked, we Christians were supposed to be LIKE CHRIST...hence why we are called Christians. The Christ I know would not picket the funeral of anyone, and would show love and comfort to those in mourning!

I am in absolute agreement with you, Bfly!

The law just made it perfectly okay to harass people peacefully trying to mourn the death of their loved ones. Fucking brilliant!

Every family should have the right to mourn their loved ones in peace and not have to deal with a bunch of dumbfucks making a scene while they are experiencing such misery.

"Disappointed" understatement of the year - are the members of the Court even using their brains (not their hearts, obviously)? Talk about letter of the law taken to the extreme. This is extremely scary...

I agree with all the above. This is disgusting and an outrage! Words can't describe who horrible this is.

"Letter" of the law, rather than "spirit" of the law, for sure!!! I saw a picture of one of the KIDS present at these protests. Her shirt said "God hates fags.com" and she was holding a sign that said "Thank God for dead soldiers." Sad...very, very sad! The kid couldn't be more than 12, and is already having these backwoods ideals passed to her!! The more I see this whole thing unravel, the more thankful I am that I'm part of a church that gets it...a church that teaches love not hate!!! Maybe if more organizations like my church can arise (spiritual and non-spiritual alike), we can make those like Westbro go back to the rock they crawled out from under! I just keep praying!!!

That makes me sad. I hope my kids are NEVER like that. I refuse to being them up in any other than an open and tolerant environment. If they EVER act like that I'd be devastated. Truly and utterly disappointed. I would love my child, but if my kids were to act like that just...*shakes head in shame*. That's just awful.

I'd get volunteers to form a counter-protest 'human shield' to block out those nitwits.

The plus side to this is that the charities that organise counter-protests and collections at WBC protests are now going to rake it in for good causes.

To be honest, I agree with the court's ruling.

I hate the WBC as much as anyone here, but it is their right of freedom of speech. I think that it is important to uphold this right no matter what - sure they can outlaw protests of funerals, but we all know that the government takes and inch and makes it a mile.

I think that it may help if some law expert or judge illuminates a simple solution for protests of military funerals. I'm in no way a law expert, but maybe it would be possible to obtain a restraining order against that entire church prior to the funeral? I know that it is sad that people would even have to go to those lengths, but it would give the police a good reason to remove the protesters from the funeral.

I am by no means defending hateful people, or attempting to play "devil's advocate" here, when I say that, in interpreting our Constitution and the concept of freedom of speech in our nation, our Supreme Court Justices did what they had to do.

Having said that, States across the nation are enacting alternative legislation in order to thwart the Pestboro Bupkis Smirch.

The most recently approved bill was in Missouri, requiring that protestors keep a distance of no less than 500 feet from a funeral, and no protests at all are to be permitted within two hours before and two hours after a funeral ceremony. Attorneys consulted on the proposed legislation say that it will not be affected by the Supreme Court ruling, because the bill specifically spells out the restrictions on military funeral protests, whereas earlier attempts to pass such legislation were struck down on account of vagueness.

The idea is not to infringe on anyone's freedom of speech, but instead to place reasonable separation between the protestors and the grieving families, so as not to infringe on the families' right to grieve without harassment.

-- Nephele

I think the grieving families are more entitled to their peace than those Phelps Phuckers are to their hate speech.

FIFY.

This church is a good example how idiocy driven by hate can rise. I wonder which mechanism work in the human brain. A short circuit between the lizard brain (brain stem) and the celebral cortex I suppose. It's hard to tolerate things like that.

There are a lot of hateful people in the world who need little excuse to make themselves feel better through attacking others. It's not only religion that can be used to validate hatred.

Let's not turn this thread into an anti-religion diatribe, and remember that first and foremost the Westboro Baptist Church is not representative of most religious groups, but is instead composed of a cult-like, isolationist family that blindly follows every word of their authoritative and degenerate patriarch, Fred Phelps.

-- Nephele

Everything that this group stands for, in my mind, is just wrong. To protest at funerals to spread a message of hate and intolerance over people who you don't know is so singleminded and ignorant.

I once heard, and please no one kill me for this, that people who protest the loudest against something tend to be the kind who secretly are such. Not sure how true this is, if at all. It just makes me wonder if F.P (also known as Fucking Pathetic) harbors some sort of secret (if even sub-conscience) desire for members of his own sex.

No matter his idealism or reasons, be they known or unknown to him nothing will ever support is vulgar behavior and attitude. I feel both disgust and pity for him and his followers. Disgust that they would do such things, and pity that they believe it.