Westboro Church

I fully support freedom of speech and association, but that doesn’t mean I support anybody’s right to say and do anything anywhere.

Perfect example: The Westboro Church.

It’s like every irrational and contemptible idea on the planet was squashed together into one. They are anti-American, anti-capitalist, anti-freedom, pro-blind faith; the list goes on. But it is not just their ideas that make them evil, it’s how they go about spreading them.

For those who don’t know, it is Westboro church that protested at soldier’s funerals, proudly holding up signs, “Thank God for Dead Solders”, and clapping when they where lowered in the ground (a women reported that she couldn’t even hear the eulogy because of these people.)

They are also “anti-gay”, often finding where gay couples or families live and harassing them.

In fact, there latest act in a long list of sins, they plan to go to Heath Ledgers’ funeral and protest because of his role in “Brokeback Mountain.”

They are so absurd, I almost have to believe they are a joke, to make other Christians look bad.

I will say, there are those who posses the same ideas of these people, and behave maturely, and even respect other people. Westboro church respects nothing. If it’s even possible; they seem to lack any redeeming qualities.

And I don’t even need to say, if you spend a significant portion of your life devoted to what you hate (which these people do), you’re missing out on life. Hate is all these people seem to have.

Yes, I support freedom of speech and association; but I don’t support assault, slander, or the violation of property rights. Let these people speak on there own land, or where they are invited; but when they force themselfs onto others land, point a microphone directly into somebody’s ear, or harass a person; they have stepped out of the realm of the First Amendment, and into the realm of assault.

The Westboro Churches’ right to speech doesn’t give it the right to violate another’s property and persons.

But there are cases where this group did peaceably assemble, and even though I support there right to speak in these instances, for the sake of class, and dignity, I wish they would shut-up. Supporting freedom doesn’t make the rants of the Ku Klux Klan or Westboro church any less contemptible.

Nothing I could say would be as damming as their own words. Here is a reporter from the BBC that interviews several of its members.