Jury Says “God Hates Self-Righteous Fundamentalist Assholes”
by: Rev. DanOk, the title is an interpretation, but this is amazingly great (via FoxNews.com):
BALTIMORE — The father of a fallen Marine was awarded nearly $11 million Wednesday in damages by a jury that found leaders of a fundamentalist church had invaded the family’s privacy and inflicted emotional distress when they picketed the Marine’s funeral.
The jury first awarded $2.9 million in compensatory damages. It returned later in the afternoon with its decision to award $6 million in punitive damages for invasion of privacy and $2 million for causing emotional distress to the Marine’s father, Albert Snyder of York, Pa.
Snyder sued the Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church for unspecified monetary damages after members staged a demonstration at the March 2006 funeral of his son, Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder, who was killed in Iraq.
Church members picket military funerals out of a belief that U.S. deaths in the war in Iraq are punishment for the nation’s tolerance of homosexuality.
A number of states have passed laws regarding funeral protests, and Congress has passed a law prohibiting such protests at federal cemeteries, but the Maryland lawsuit is believed to be the first filed by the family of a fallen serviceman.
Snyder’s suit named the church, its founder the Rev. Fred Phelps and his two daughters Shirley Phelps-Roper and Rebecca Phelps-Davis, 46. The jury began deliberating Tuesday after two days of testimony.
Snyder claimed the protests intruded upon what should have been a private ceremony and sullied his memory of the event.
The church members testified they are following their religious beliefs by spreading the message that the deaths of soldiers are due to the nation’s tolerance of homosexuality.
Out of anything I’ve ever posted on Outchurched, this is the single story which makes me the happiest. I hope that news of this reaches far and wide and that any and every family who has been tormented by Westboro Baptist Church will sue the Phelps’ into oblivion.
This is one of the first stories I’ve read in ages that makes me proud of the American Legal System.
Crapola! I was wondering when this would happen. It took long enough. I guess the tolerance of Christian fundies far outweighs tolerance of homosexuality.
Even I’m not prone to actually labeling Westboro Baptist Church as being “Christian Fundamentalist.” They’re really in a category of their own, from what I’ve seen/heard/read from and about them, and I think they’re quite happy with that distinction. I get the idea that all they care about is spreading the “Word of God” which is essentially that “God has damned you because you’re not one of us… you’re screwed.”
Holy sh#$!! VERY good news. I’m surprised no ones been unbalanced enough to do something to these nuts! That’s the best news I have heard all year!! Thanks.
People do, in fact, do negative stuff to the Phelps’. In the segment that BBC2 reporter Louis Theroux did on the Phelps Family (titled “The Most Hated Family in America”) there’s a scene where an angry passer-by throws a beverage at (and hits) one of the kids. The Phelps’ receive a lot of abuse from angry passers-by… a majority of which is merited (they deserve to be told to go fuck themselves and given the finger, etc.), but some people do cross the line and do wrong things. Throwing a soda at a bigot’s kid does nothing but reinforce the bigot’s self-righteousness, and harming a child is categorically wrong (no need for even .04 seconds of discussion on that one).
The amazing part of the Theroux documentary was that he spent a week or so with them, and after watching it you can almost understand/appreciate and almost empathize with the Phelps’ psychosis. Theroux has the ability to ask questions that humanize the person who’s being interviewed… he’s quite amazing. Anything associated with Louis Theroux is worth watching, and especially The Most Hated Family in America.
I hope this is the tip of the iceberg of lawsuits that Westboro Baptist Church will begin to face. Their protests are definitely immoral, and Westboro Baptist Church doesn’t provide any value to society.
In fact, I find WBC hard to understand… not because they’re ignorant bigots, which they definitely are, but because of how they promote themselves. Their stance seems to be “You are all going to Hell and God hates you. You are not one of us, Godless Sodomites, you are damned for eternity. There’s no point in repenting, we’re just here to rub our righteousness in your face so that when you’re in Hell you’ll remember the righteous (us) and it’ll make your torment worse.” I have yet to see a Phelps holding a sign that suggests that it’s even possible for someone to repent. They seem to hold a hardline Predestinational stance… hardline to the extreme.
There’s gotta be some seriously toxic-bad stuff in the water in Kansas.
Rev. Dan:
They are “predestinational,” if you wanna use that word. The folks are WBC are TULIP Baptists — TULIP being the famous Five Points of Calvinism: “Total depravity” (we’re all horrible sinners), “Unconditional election” (God picks his chosen, and isn’t swayed by anything anybody might do), “Limited atonement” (not everybody’s gonna get saved), “Irresistable grace” (you must and will do as the Holy Spirit demands) and “Perseverance of the saints” (those whom God has called will never waver in their belief).
Taken together, these beliefs don’t leave much room for “free will,” though they do leave room for agents acting on behalf of God and effecting change in the world (or in a person’s mind [or whatever]). Naturally, WBC is delighted on those rare occasions when somebody’s sufficiently moved by their signs to want to join up. This was the case several years ago, when a documentary filmmaker spent several months with them and was so astonished at how consistently they lived up to the dicta of scriptural minutia that he and his family converted, en masse.
Though WBC didn’t credit themselves with the conversion. They credited God. WBC credits everything to God, ergo “Thank God For 9/11″ and “Thank God For Dead Soldiers” — and now, “Thank God For $10.9 Million Verdict.” Yep: they’re even thanking God for their imminent financial ruin. Which means you can say what you will about them, but you’ve gotta at least figure that they really, really mean what they say. In fact, their sincerity most likely far exceeds that of the counter protests their appearances inevitably draw; folks who hang around with their own hastily-made signs saying things like “God Is Love.” These people probably return to secular lives where they’re “loving” as a default, and unloving whenever it’s convenient. The Phelpses never do anything just because it’s convenient. They actually believe something. And if that’s not necessarily admirable (and it’s not), it’s at least worth watching.
I can’t stand those bastards.
That said, I’m uneasy about this ruling. I don’t specifically know the grounds for the arguments against WBC, but, as much as I hate what they do, I believe the Constitution protects their right to do it. If they can be held liable for the content of their message, then what is there to protect your minority opinion, or mine? If Christianism isn’t protected, then neither is atheism. If that’s the case, then the prevailing winds of opinion will always prevail. I’m not comfortable with that.
I think what protects our “minority opinion” is simple common sense that tells us not to go spouting it off to grieving families at what is probably one of the worst moments of their lives.
This judgment wasn’t passed down because of the content of their message, it was passed on the inappropriate nature of it’s method of delivery. If it were a multi-million dollar anti-war organization doing the picketing in the same manner, I would be willing to bet the jury would have ruled the same way.
Free speech protects what you say, but you are still responsible for how you deliver your message. You can have websites and pamphlets and lectures up the wazoo that let anyone know exactly what it is that you think, but there is a fine line between free speech and verbal assault and the Phelps’ love to cross it.
On another note.. can these people honestly not see the giant holes in their logic for connecting the Iraq war with tolerance for homosexuality? Further proof that childbearing should require a license.
I think the major distinction in this instance is that protesting at funerals is not an exercise in free speech the same way that yelling “FIRE!” in a crowded theater is not free speech. And really, I don’t disagree.
What purpose does it serve to go stand outside a funeral and be an asshole? It seems very much like kicking somebody in the crotch after they’ve been hit my a train.
> Further proof that childbearing should require a license.
This is yet another example of why I like you, DJ. :)
Dorsey and I have discussed this before, and I see his point. However, I believe this goes beyond free speech. This is a malicious, verbal attack on a private citizen and indirectly, his family.
I say YAY!
If the ruling was, indeed, based on the delivery of their message and not its content, then I’m with you guys. I tend to be a little (ok, a lot) libertarian when it comes to stuff like this. My friends tell me that’s only because I want pot to be legal. I’m not prepared to deny that.
If pot was legal, I’d bet the Phelps’ would leave people alone.
/punches Dorsey in the face while screaming “JESUS DIED FOR YOU, DORSEY!”
/kicks Dorsey in the groin while bellowing “JESUS LOVES YOU, DORSEY!”
/Chuck Norris roundhouse kicks Dorsey in the gut while shrieking “ACCEPT JESUS AS YOUR SAVIOR DORSEY, ELSE YOU’LL ROT IN HELL!”
(Not really… I <3 the Dorsester)
I really have no idea why the Chuck Norris line is all big and bold, aside from the possibility that WordPress acknowledges the awesomeness of Chuck Norris’ roundhouse kicks by auto-formatting text about him as a sign of respect.
I saw Chuck Norris on TBN the other night. That probably had something to do with it…
hehehe