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Justices to hear case over protests at military funerals
* By Bill Mears CNN *
Washington (CNN) — A small Kansas church that has gained nationwide attention for protesting loudly at funerals of U.S. service members will receive a Supreme Court hearing over free speech rights.
A member of the Westboro Baptist Church protests outside a Veterans Affairs hospital in Maywood, Illinois, in 2006. AFP/Getty Images Photo
The justices Monday accepted an appeal from the father of a U.S. Marine killed in Iraq over efforts to keep members of the Topeka-based Westboro Baptist Church from demonstrating near memorial services and burials.
The Marine’s family won a $5 million judgment from the protesters, which lower courts overturned.
The church, led by pastor Fred Phelps, said it believes God is punishing the United States for “the sin of homosexuality” through events such as soldiers’ deaths.
Members have traveled the country, shouting at grieving family members at funerals and displaying such signs as “Thank God for Dead Soldiers” and “God Blew Up the Troops.”
At issue is a balancing test between the privacy rights of grieving families and the free speech rights of demonstrators, however disturbing and provocative their message.
Read more at CNN
Short URL: http://www.veteranstoday.com/?p=20454
Posted by Bob Higgins on Mar 9 2010, With 0 Reads, Filed under Legislation, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
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These people are so misled and so wrong.
And they just plain have no manners and common decency.
It seems that they have failed to the learn the Bible’s lessons of grace and mercy:
From what I understand…
God’s Grace and Mercy can never be earned…
only given… and not because of any merits of the person it is being given to.
Why do these people believe that they have earned God’s Grace and Mercy for their eternal salvation by being ‘righteous’… when every man and woman misses the mark of being perfectly righteous? It really takes the point out of the sacrifice of Jesus that they believe brings them salvation.
I have other thought on this… however… I will withhold them.
I can only shake my head and hope and pray the Court will use some wisdom and commonsense in this matter.
I commend the people who are on top of this situation and actively go and help protect the mourning families from THIS TRAVESTY… as well as the members of the different communities where these people have been and go… coming forward for the mourning members in their community. The people who have stepped up to combat this pure hared and frankly.. severe ignorance.
Thanks for posting this.
Here’s one of the many Scripture these people AND the people in the background who MUST be FUNDING these folks to travel around the United States… might want to try meditating on for a moment:
“What does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” – Micah 6:8 (Old Testament)
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Remember the yelling “Fire!” in a crowded theater argument? You are free to do it,
and you are also free to accept the consequences. If someone yells that crap at
a funeral they should not complain if someone decks them. These idiots are no
better than Pat Robertson blaming 9-11, Katrina or Haiti on “godlessness”.