Friday, May 07, 2010

Fort Logan, Freedom of Speech and the Westboro Church of Kansas

Later today (Friday), Pastor Fred Phelps and his hate-mongering followers will be exercising their constitutionally protected rights of freedom of speech.

Their location: Fort Logan National Military Cemetery here in Denver. Their target: the funeral of a soldier recently killed in Afghanistan.

Pastor Fred Phelps and his Kansas based church are traveling the country promoting a message that espouses that God hates homosexuals and that God hates America because we have gays and thus, God allows our troops to be killed on foreign soil....

Awful, right? Baloney. Do they have a right to say these things? Yes.

Here's the challenge. Phelps and his crew have a right to free speech as Americans. But what they don't have a right too in my view is to disturb a private funeral and a grieving family. At some point, freedom of speech has a waterline.

Just as you cannot yell "fire" in a crowded theater, disturbing a private funeral is unconscienciable too...

1 comment:

Kevin J Jones said...

If certain permissive types hadn't eviscerated anti-obscenity laws, Phelps & crew could be prosecuted for some of their signs, which are pretty suggestive about his most hated sin.