On Friday, July 7, Army 1st Lieutenant Forrest P. Ewens was buried at a respectful ceremony in Arlington National Cemetery, which many consider to be the most hallowed ground in the United States. But the peace was disrupted by protests from members of the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas. In a cordoned-off area by the entrance to the cemetery, they carried signs with anti-gay and anti-American slogans and proclaimed that Ewens’ death in Afghanistan on June 16 was another sign of God’s impeding doom on the nation.
It would be difficult to understate the obnoxious and insulting behavior the Rev. Fred Phelps and his merry band of trolls from the Westboro Baptist Church have been guilty of (no, I’m not going to dignify them with a link). For these knuckle-dragging troglodytes to call themselves “Christians” is the mother of all understatements. Their narrow-minded zealotry and hatred is hardly the stuff of Christian charity. Where these inbred whackjobs get the wherewithal to direct such hatred and vitriol at those who happen not to live and believe as they do is beyond me. Scripture, my ass….
Now someone is finally taking Phelps and his collection of inbred home-haters to court, and while I applaud the effort to slap down the WBC troglodytes, I’m not sure that this lawsuit can (or should) ultimately be successful. As truly and egregiously detestable as the behavior of these insensitive maroons may be, this is still largely a free speech issue. As comtemptible as their behavior is, Phelp and his band of inbreds have the right to express themselves. Free speech can be, and avery often is, objectionable, insulting, and insensitive speech. We may not like it, but once we begin down the slippery slope of denying a group the right to express themselves simply because we dislike what they have to say, it’s going to be difficult to stop. Not that Our Glorious Leader and God’s Own Party haven’t endeavored mightily to stifle dissent.
Yes, Fred Phelps is an ahsshole, and his folowers are merely a collection of ignorant, hate-fueled trolls. You may not like what they have to say, or they way in which they say it, but that doesn’t give you the right to deny them their First Amendment right to say it.
Of course, while Phelps and his knuckle-dragging acolytes may have the Constitutional right to express themselves, that hardly means that we have to greet them with open arms. They can, and should, be treated with the contempt they deserve.
If these hate-filled hypocrites are Christians, I’m the Queen of England….
