Funeral picketers fined millions

[AOII_LB93]

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.

[DeltAlum]

"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."

[sageofages]

Originally Posted by AOII_LB93

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.

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

[nittanyalum]

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

[Animate]

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.

[SWTXBelle]

All I can say about the verdict - Thank God!

[FSUZeta]

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

[AlethiaSi]

Originally Posted by Animate

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.

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

[SigKapAngel767]

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


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

[nikki1920]

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!

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by AlethiaSi

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

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

[Benzgirl]

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.

[33girl]

Originally Posted by Benzgirl

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.

[fyrnymph]

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.

[MysticCat]

^^^ 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. 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.