Isn't this just wrong?
 

Not the monetary award but the demonstration at the soldier's funeral. The war is God's punishment for the US's tolerance of homosexuality? Wow, just wow.




Jury Awards Father $11M in Funeral Case
BALTIMORE, Wed Oct 31, 06:23 PM (AP press)


A grieving father won a nearly $11 million verdict Wednesday against a fundamentalist Kansas church that pickets military funerals out of a belief that the war in Iraq is a punishment for the nation's tolerance of homosexuality.

Albert Snyder of York, Pa., sued the Westboro Baptist Church for unspecified damages after members demonstrated at the March 2006 funeral of his son, Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder, who was killed in Iraq.

The jury first awarded $2.9 million in compensatory damages. It returned in the afternoon with its decision to award $6 million in punitive damages for invasion of privacy and $2 million for causing emotional distress.

Snyder's attorney, Craig Trebilcock, had urged jurors to determine an amount "that says don't do this in Maryland again. Do not bring your circus of hate to Maryland again."

Church members routinely picket funerals of military personnel killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, carrying signs such as "Thank God for dead soldiers" and "God hates fags."

A number of states have passed laws regarding funeral protests, and Congress has passed a law prohibiting such protests at federal cemeteries. But the Maryland lawsuit is believed to be the first filed by the family of a fallen serviceman.

The church and three of its leaders — the Rev. Fred Phelps and his two daughters, Shirley Phelps-Roper and Rebecca Phelps-Davis, 46 — were found liable for invasion of privacy and intent to inflict emotional distress.

Another example of the hate that is spewed in the name of religion.

......carrying signs such as "Thank God for dead soldiers" and "God hates fags."

Exactly what are these picketers/zealots trying to accomplish? As if any one who might see these aholes might be swayed or converted to their cause.

I hear ya', this really really bothers me though. I've ridden honor guard for a couple of local heroes and if these fools showed up, I think some of the Vets would have had a real issue with them.

Search "Fred Phelps" on YouTube or "Westboro". It's pretty out-there.

That is truly sad. Good for the Judge and Town.
My brother has given over 25 years of his life to our freedoms and safety.

The Church that I attend strongly support our military movements, fyi.

Mainstream churches are embarrased by Westboro Baptist. They are an independant church of whackos that obviously haven't read the Bible lately.

Also, if I recall correctly, all the members are biologically related to Phelps. Not so much a "church" as an (in)breeding ground for hate.

I know a few Nam vets, and "Thank God for dead soldiers" is pretty far up on the list of things I wouldn't say to them.

I'm all for Freedom of Speech, just as much as the next guy, but geez...soldiers funerals, and spewing this brand of hate? Man, that's pretty out there.

I just hope they can collect. Protesting something, anything is one thing, but to do it at the funeral of a fallen soldier, just because. I hope that if they have the money that it financially breaks them.

This is a joke, right ??

Nope.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westboro_Baptist_Church

So, do you think they'll be insulated by "free-speech" or "right to assembly" protection?

Remember...our legal system works hard to protect the wacko's. I doubt they'll collect a dime.

QUOTE: "I know a few Nam vets, and "Thank God for dead soldiers" is pretty far up on the list of things I wouldn't say to them."
__________________

Well I fall into that category and I can tell you this. Those SOB's ever showed up at a soldier's funeral around here and you would have to be taking up a collection for my bail money.

Their 'Freedom of Speech' just might end at the tip of a baseball bat!

I hope this lawsuit sends the worthless bunch back under the rock they crawled out from under.

Mo_Gearhead - thats is part of the Phelps family plan... they *want* you to get all exited and do something... see, each and every one of 'em is a Lawyer... a few of them have been disbarred, but the remaining family will go after you like you wouldn't believe...

Thankfully the Patriot Guard does a good job for families that need 'em...

QUOTE" ...the remaining family will go after you like you wouldn't believe..."
_____________________

That can work in both directions.;)

Is this another example of those disruptive and disrespectful CONSERVATIVES?

Are your blinders on just a bit tight this morning, Supe?

There is a picture in this morning's paper with him holding a sign- "God Hates You".

The Bible can be twisted into lots of different directions, but there is no way that a statement like that can be supported. Jesus was criticized by the religious elite for hanging out with sinners. The only negative things Jesus said were directed at the religious leadership.

Liberals and conservatives alike want to ring his neck for being such an idiot.

If you can find any conservatives who support these nut jobs, they are simply another embarrasement to anybody with active brain cells.

Superman,

The Westboro gaggle are Democrats.

They have threatened it around here but it is SOP it call the Patriot Riders for all funeral services we do. Active duty service men and women have the discipline to not act upon their thoughts, former service members sense of discipline is just as fierce but different. This being Texas we have has no problems.

S/F, FOG

This bunch of sick ba$tards were going to protest a funeral here in south Jersey a few months ago. Word got out that a bunch of representatives from one of the local biker "clubs" where going to meet up with them. I think that put a damper on thier gathering. They never showed up.
It would be worth the arrest to level one of these lowlifes out.

I thought the issue was homosexuality, or something. This is a fundamentalist church, right? Are liberals pretty well-known for their fundamentalist church organizations?

Yes Dan, the Bible can and has been interpreted in many goofy ways. Your use of the term "elite" for example. That's a term that has been inserted into political propaganda as a way of painting liberals with the brush of arrogance. But......the group that Jesus most vociferously decried was the Pharises. The Pharises were the church leaders. The ultra-conservative group of the time. The group that attempted to enforce their narrow interpretation of scripture. Nowhere near "liberal." The more appropriate label would start with a "c." We've been over this before. Here:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/showthread.php?t=155372&highlight=conservative+chr istian

One more remark that appears to conclude Jesus was a conservative and I'm going to exhume that thread. Jesus was the anti-conservative.

They (this church) are psychos. Don't think they deserve to even be called a "church".

That said, isn't there a free speech right to demonstrate, picket, and generally say what you think, even if it is hurtful, horrible and hateful?

I don't have time now, but think there are all kinds of examples of demonstrators saying disgusting and hurtful things against groups they hate. When anti-abortion demonstrators picket and call doctors baby killers,when other groups say that gays should be burned in hell, etc - I don't see much fuss being made about it, certainly not on PPOT.

Is it different because here this whacko group is saying hateful things about dead soldiers? Emotionally, it may be. But step back and think coldly and logically - not always an easy thing, I realize - should it be?