On the Westboro Baptist Verdict
Nov 1st, 2007 by Micah Tillman | 13 Comments |
So Fred Phelps & Co. have been ordered by a jury to pay a lot of money to the father of a Marine whose funeral (the Marine’s) they picketed.
I confess I don’t understand how these lawsuit things work (does there have to have been a law broken? If so, which law was broken?) but I’m happy to see Westoboro Baptist get rebuked. But I can’t help but remember Proverbs 24.17-18 in such situations:
Do not rejoice when your enemies fall, and do not let your heart be glad when they stumble, or else the Lord will see it and be displeased, and turn away his anger from them. (NRSV)
Westboro, like others on both the Left and the Right, thinks America deserved to get what it got on 9/11, and say on their FAQ page:
Why do you have signs saying “Thank God for 911,” “Thank God for AIDS,” “Thank God for Katrina,” “Thank God for IEDs,” “Thank God for Dead Soldiers,” and otherwise thanking God for things that humans think are bad?
First, it is the duty of every human to be thankful to God for everything He does. He is the Creator. All His acts are, by definition, perfect and just. “… The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.” (Psalm 19:9). All things flow from and happen by Him. It is the duty of every human to bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ (2 Co 10:5). Therefore, we are to be thankful for everything He does.
Which, of course, means we should be thankful for every couple who engages in homosexual sex, because it’s not they who are doing it. It’s God.
God must have a lot of fun making people do bad things and then punishing them for it.
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Wow! I just spent a few minutes on their website. They’re pretty intense. I didn’t realize that they were extreme Calvinists.
Your sarcasm (as I take it) is well received.
Thanks
They are intense indeed!
Sarcastic I was being. What’s great (he said sarcasitcally) about non-facial/vocal communication is that it’s really hard to tell sometimes.
What’s frustrating, like I was talking to Rich about in the comments on the Limbaugh post, is that by expressing our opinions about people/groups like Westboro BC, we’re kind of helping them get what they want: attention. *sigh*
Thanks for the kind comments about my comments on them :-)
Bad publicity is publicity. I believe we live in a Jerry Springer culture where bad taste is celebrated on all sides. To be noticed you must be obscene, shallow and absurd.
How these lawsuits work… I’m finding out right now. My wife (and therefore I) is in the middle of such a suit accusing her of causing a local contractor to lose one million dollars of business since this past July through defamation. (Co-defendants include another homeowner and a Madison, WI, TV station)
We intend a counter-suit to recover damages to our home (x2) and attorney fees ($10,000 so far).
I’ll keep you posted.
My internal conflict over this is at a level that’s about as high as it gets.
I have heard of Westboro and this practice before, and it’s about as despicable as it gets. The level of overt hatred these folks display on a regular basis is just frightening. I believe they need to be dealt with somehow.
However, as I understand it, they were protesting on a public street and even had a permit to do so. As vile as they are, I think it’s very dangerous precedent to allow people to successfully sue peaceful protesters on the grounds of causing emotional distress. I don’t doubt this guy’s pain, and I don’t doubt that the Westboro folks exacerbated that pain, but there’s got to be a better way to deal with them. I find myself hoping this gets overturned on appeal, which sucks, because they’ll just see that as vindication for their actions.
Rich–
One has to wonder when it will max out and nothing will be shocking anymore.
Steve–
That has got to be so incredibly stressful! *shudders*
Scott–
I resonate very much with what you are saying. Such a weird state in which to find oneself.
As repugnant as Phelps and his merry gang of thugs are, Scott is quite right. You’re on a very slippery slope when you award people large cash settlements because their feelings were hurt. It seems highly likely (there’s that probabilistic language again) that the court will reverse this on appeal as Phelps himself has already confidently predicted.
I agree about the probabilities, despite the fact that I claim to not know what I’m agreeing with :-)
As a writer of gy/relious/political issues, I too am glad to see that Phelps has finally gotten some form of rebuke. Will he pay any of it? No. Keep in mind that Phelps insisted that all his thirteen kids have law degrees and that they marry others with law degrees. Only 3-4 children have been able to defect from the clan. Phelps can no longer practice law in Kansas, afer being disbarred yearas ago. Phelps also teahes his children that HE is their portal to heaven.
The ailing Phelps still plans to be around for some time and he will NOT give up what he is doing because of legal threats. In effect, there is almost no way to stop this “church” from continuing to promote hatred.
You can rest assured that the case will be in appeal many years.
I have a copy (I think) of a scathing biography, “Addicted to Hate” somewhere in my hard drive. I hope to find the author to help him get the manuscript published. Phelps beat his children mercilessly, hacked off his wife’s hair when she wasn’t “submissive enough” and inadvertantly caused the death of a young girl who, 6 months after an intense humiliation by the Phelps clan, died of an overdose. Topeka child welfare will not divulge the number of times they were called in to investigate child abuse.
DanV
http://thedevilanddanvojir.blogspot.com
Boo, hiss, Westboro Baptist Church! They picketed in the Harrisburg diocese last year and attempted to picket at the funerals for the poor Amish girls who were killed in the Nickel Mines shooting in Quarryville PA last year. Thank boB Rendell talked them down and bribed them to forgo the picketing with the lure of a TV interview.
Some people
!
Mrs. Nathan
I’m very happy that Mrs. Nathan commented on my blog! I miss y’all so much!
That said, I don’t like Rendell, but if he did something good for the Nickel Mines people, then that makes me happy.
[...] in such a way that you are using God’s name without authorization. I think this is what Phelps & Co. [...]
[...] And it’s what Fred Phelps believes. [...]