Disgusting Speech Is Free Speech, Too
By Bill Buchanan
“Thank God for dead soldiers.” It is hard to think of a more offensive slogan to put on a placard, or shout at a rally, parade, or protest. Couple this with the fact that this slogan, and other literary gems like it, are printed on signs and screamed into the faces of grieving families at the funerals of their loved ones who have given their life for our country, and you have the perfect storm of offensive speech.
We all know the pain associated with losing a loved one. I cannot imagine going through the grieving process while just across the street hate-mongers shout slogans and shake signs celebrating the death of your loved one. But this is the mission statement of the faithful members of the Westboro (Kansas) Baptist Church. On a regular basis, they target military funerals to spew their vitriol against minorities, people of other religious faiths, and gay Americans. They claim the military sustains a government that supports gay rights, and that is why God is killing soldiers. Church members travel around the country, gather at a military funeral, get as close to the ceremony as possible, then yell and chant and wave placards as the funerals are being conducted. Their agenda is hatred, fueled by fear.
One would assume they target military funerals so as to be outrageous enough to garner significant media coverage. If so, they have been successful. Media coverage has intensified recently as an understandably upset family sued the church for disrupting Marine Lance Corporal Matthew Snyder’s funeral in 2006. The case moved through the judicial system, and a few days ago, the Supreme Court handed down an 8-1 decision in favor of the church on the basis that the slogans and chants are protected speech under the First Amendment.
The knee-jerk reaction is that speech like this cannot possibly justify protection. But as abhorrent as these tactics by this church seem, the Supreme Court made the right call. If you are going to protect and promote free speech, you have to be willing to accept things that truly disgust you. To do otherwise would go against what the founding fathers so wisely guarded in the Constitution. You either have free speech or you don’t.
The Westboro Baptist Church targets the funerals of those who have fought for the freedom that allows church members to terrorize those soldiers’ families. This church mocks the very people who died protecting the rights of their members to perform such demonstrations. That irony is probably lost on the congregation.
Sometimes our laws allow people to perform repulsive and even perverse actions — -actions that are almost impossible to understand, much less accept. But those very laws are among the things that make our country great. As a nation, we would be diminished if we compromised those laws to halt speech or actions with which we disagree.
Re: “to me this is like yelling “fire” in a crowded theater.
I support the Supreme Court’s First Amendment decision here because whether any of us likes the Westboro Baptists or not, their protests are of a political nature. They claim to believe that the acceptance of gay rights by courts of the land and state legislatures has an awful consequence. Soldiers are dying.
Madison and Jefferson had a solution for what to do when you don’t like someone’s opinion: Express one of your own. That is the American way, not getting a court to silence your opponent.
> It just shows you that extremism is not just a Muslim problem, Christians have to deal with this sort of extremism
This is an apples to oranges comparison. Blowing up innocent people in the name of Allah, is in a different class of extremism from the offensive behavior of the Westboro (Kansas) Baptist Church.
I disagree with the Supreme court decision. To me this is like yelling “fire” in a crowded theater. People who have been terrorized should not be further accosted. While legal if the Ku Klux Klan marched through a black neighborhood spouting death to blacks would there be a jury in the world that would convict anyone who hurt them?
All things are lawful but not all things are profitable.
I agree with this well written article. The Westboro Babtist Church is cutting off their nose to spite their face, by these actions because most normal people are appalled by them. It is hurting them more than helping them. As to the families, if I knew my funeral service for a loved one might be a target for these losers I would move it to a private location. It just shows you that extremism is not just a Muslim problem, Christians have to deal with this sort of extremism. If you say that , well that is not Christian behavior so they aren’t true Christians then Muslims should be able to say the same thing about those extremists in their religion. Likewise we should be tolerant of other religions and not lump the bad apples in with the good.