Court B**ch Slaps Religious Hate Mongers

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal...0,5435099.story
By Matthew Dolan and Julie Bykowicz

A federal jury in Baltimore awarded nearly $11 million yesterday to the father of a Marine killed in Iraq, it was the first-ever verdict against Westboro Baptist Church, a fundamentalist Christian group based in Topeka that has protested military funerals across the country with placards bearing shock-value messages such as "Thank God for dead soldiers." After the verdict, Phelps and his two daughters named in Snyder's lawsuit said they believed that it was really their religious beliefs that were on trial.


"The goofy jury threw a fit at God," Phelps said.

For years, Westboro members have crisscrossed the country, turning funerals of soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan into attention-grabbing platforms to criticize homosexuals as immoral and damned. The church's 75-member congregation is composed mainly of Phelps' relatives.

The group also blames disasters, including Hurricane Katrina, the Sept. 11 attacks and AIDS, on what it views as permissive morals in violation of biblical dictates.

Alarmed by Westboro protests, at least 22 states have proposed or enacted laws to limit the rights of protesters at funerals. Months after Matthew Snyder's death, Maryland passed a law prohibiting targeted picketing within 300 feet of a funeral, burial, memorial service or funeral procession.

Fred Phelps took the stand after Snyder, testifying that he had not considered whether children would see a sign carried by protesters with the words "Semper Fi Fags" and two stick figures that appeared to be engaged in sodomy, according to the Associated Press. They said they waved placards - "Thank God for IEDs" and "Fag Troops" among others - near the funeral motorcade to bring attention to their message.

MJ: I hope very few of you have ever had the misfortune to see this "Church" in action. I have on numerous occasions in down town San Francisco, and let me tell you they are as mean and nasty as any group of humans could ever be. They'll sneak up behind a peaceful group of people and disrupt the meeting with Hate Speech shouted from bull-horns, overpowering the meeting by sheer volume. Like so many other right-wing hate mongers they would not stand for one minute for others to do what they do, but feel their actions are protected by first amendment laws. Irresponsible use of laws meant to protect the populace is, like so many other right-wing strategies, being abused with no accountability (until this verdict). If you read the article, you will only get a small glimpse of the hate-filled damage people are capable of, all in the name of their particular brand of 'god'.

If you are unable to "Imagine no religion" and all the positive implications espoused by this 'theory', then instead imagine how much better your community, as a religious community would be, if you actually stood up and told such Hate-Mongering Church members the damage they are doing for the religious community as a whole. Now that the right wing has so ensconced the 'religious right' as an integral part of their constituency, and considering how these renegades have severely damaged the party and it's long-term viability, perhaps republicans would benefit their party/allegiances if they would distance themselves from similar 'god-fearing nastiness' in a very public way and often.

 

Like Daniel said, lets keep it to one thread. Mods can you merge the two?
http://priuschat.com/index.php?showtopic=4...mp;#entry533605