Funeral picketers fined millions
 

BALTIMORE - 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.


Read the rest below.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21566280/

To each their own, but how disrespectful can you be to picket a funeral? I'm glad these people got fined. Perhaps this gross practice will stop.

"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."

That's sad. And so are people who would choose to interrupt the grief of others to make a religious or political statement.

Maybe I should change the word "sad" to "sick."

I hope that the grieving father goes "goldman" on the Phelps and never gives them a moment's peace in his pursuit of their assets and their children's assets. What they do is so reprehensible, it defies comprehension. The group protested a funeral in Iowa and Rolling Thunder was there to put them so in their place....but I still felt so sad for the family of the lost solider

It's only a matter of time until Fred Phelps is outed in a gay scandal...

Who is the genius that wakes up one day and says "You know what? I'm gonna tell my congregation to picket funerals of soldiers because I thing homosexuality is uber-wrong"

I swear...mishandled religion is by far the most destructive force on Earth.

All I can say about the verdict - Thank God!

these people disgust me and they should be thrown in jail. they make me sick.

I'm not religious, I never have been... but things like this make me so unbelievably sick. How can people be so..... awful?

I can't believe this...Jesus would TOTALLY want his followers to hate on people.:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:And they call themselves CHRISTIANS????:mad::mad::mad::mad:


Sorry if I offend anyone. I have MULTIPLE friends and family who served and are currently serving. I am also a military wife. If these people had ANY idea what serving was like, the sacrifices they make, and how the people that miss them hurt, they wouldn't talk. THESE SOLDIERS ARE THE ONES DEFENDING OUR FREEDOM.

Sorry for the rant:(

I am a military brat, my dad served 23 years. I have the utmost respect for those who choose to serve our country. I have NO respect for those who choose to, at the lowest time for a grieving family, use a somber occasion to make their point AND then gloat about it afterward.

These people are not Christians.

I hope the family gets every DIME! :mad:

I am religious, and always have been. It makes me beyond sick, seeing my religion perverted in this way.

Even though I am anti-war, I think what the church did was entirely disrespectful. What kind of character does that show?
If they wanted to protest, let it be peaceful, and not to disturb any family's private moments.

How would they like it if I crashed their Pre-Life demonstration by pulling their little white crosses out of the groud? Oops, I did that one already.

Nice. :)

It amazes me that someone hasn't beaten Fred Phelps to a bloody pulp yet.

Benzgirl, you are comparing apples to oranges.

Picketing a private funeral - reprehensible.They are invading a function which is religious and private.

Pulling up white crosses put up as a peaceful protest against abortion - unless the crosses were put up on public land or your yard (!), you are infringing on their protest - perhaps trespassing. It would be the same thing if they tore a pro-abortion sign down from your property - I'd say they were wrong, too.

I am perplexed by those who want to destroy the message of their opponents. Refute it, yes - but silence it? That's not the American way!

Free speech means even awful people can say what they want, but they can't say it in a way that disrupts or disturbs others' rights. As reprehensible as the group's message is, they must have the right to say it. Just not at funerals.

And we have the right to say we find them disgraceful. Thank goodness justice was done.

^^^ Very well said. It is apple and oranges and it's counterproductive. Remember Voltaire ("Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so too") and Evelyn Beatrice Hall's paraphrase of him ("I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.")

It's also childish. :rolleyes: I prefer not to fight idiocy with immaturity -- it pulls me down to their level.

Besides, they'd probably welcome someone tearing up their crosses -- it just gets them more publicity.

Sorry MysticCat, i shouldn't have put it that way. I suppose those two things don't have much to do with each other (whether i'm religious or not) and I guess I should preface by saying that some people in my family were religious zealots and I was exposed to beliefs that were just bizarre... so I find myself retreating or rejecting religion because of prior experience, when I know that this isn't always the case and I've learning to embrace some things over time. :o


Either way, its awful that they would be using a funeral to picket for a cause... that doesn't really make much sense in the first place. Those poor families and shame on them!

And that is what they really want: publicity.

I heard a phone interview on CNN this morning with the leader of the funeral picketers. Let's just say that the reporter was not objective during it. He finally cut the interview short when the leader wouldn't stop spewing his beliefs and let him ask questions. Sometimes I wonder... :mad:

To clarify....
There was land between a church and a townhouse that I owned. Most people at the church thought the land belonged to them. It was owned by a close family member and I was responsible for cutting the grass and keeping it clean. I could have charged THEM with trespassing, however I chose to make my statement non-destructive. I discussed the situation -- trespassing and their freedom of speach -- with their pastor and also received a formal apology from the church.

Back to the real story.......... $2.9mm was not nearly enough to cover what the Snyders have been through

No problem. I didn't really take it as a slam or anything -- I was just offering the parallel viewpoint, so to speak.

Thanks for the clarification -- much different situation than what I, at least, assumed. (And yes, I know what it makes of me when I "assume." :D )

Disgusting!

First of, Fred Phelps is from Kansas and this is not normal Mid-West thinking!

It is embaressing to say the least.

He is an idiot along with his family and congregation! His so called church=cult is headquatered in Topeka, Ks.

To degrade the deaths of the valient mem and women who have lost their lives is dispictable!:mad:

His legal Lawyer said in the last report that I read is to file against the judgement and will win! BS.

$11 million is just going to be the tip of the ice berg and I hope they are put out of business!

They will never get the money over this suit, but it does set a precident for further law suits against them!

I love legal lawyers.

When I was interning on the hill we got calls/faxes/letters from Westboro on almost a daily basis. Lots of lawyers in that family, which is why they've always skirted by without much interference. The best at combating them thus far is the group Patriot Guard Riders, which form a barrier between the "church" and the mourners. http://www.patriotguard.org/

It's those illegal lawyers you have to watch out for!

This church was way out of line and what they did showed the utmost disrespect. Everyone has a right to agree or disagree with the war, Iraq, etc., but please show respect to those who have gone over there to preserve our freedom and way of life.

I'm just curious as to who they think will protect the U.S if we don't?!?!?! :mad:

I pray that church sees what they are doing is wrong and stop spewing propaganda to impressionable youth.

They don't want the US protected. They want the US punished, and they think that dead soldiers, diseases, hurricanes, wildfires, etc., are all divine punishment.

The Phelps church if one can call it that was vandalized!

It was painted with "God Hates Phelps" in combat to his tirads about how God hates this and that!

We can only hope more law suits will be filled and he and his is put out of business.:mad:

Hmmm . . .so torn . . . vandalism is wrong.
But in this case, it is so karmaically(?!) perfect . . .

SWTXBelle do I have your permission to put this in my signature as required by the new signature guidelines?

Also I am DELIGHTED they got fined and I hope they collect every cent.

I usually don't get misty over much but as I read the Patriot Guard Riders website I find myself tearing up. The overwhelming support that the riders are showing the families of our fallen soldiers - in response to a comparatively puny number of whack-jobs spewing hate - speaks volumes to this country's backing of our troops.

Why, yes sister - what I have is yours!

Fred Phelps has been a thorn in the side of the people of eastern Kansas for years. We are as disgusted by him as everyone else is. His congregation is a small, made up mostly of friends and family members, but unfortunately very vocal minority.

Where are they getting the money to fund their operation?

I would have to agree...

As John Lennon sang:

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace