"God hates fags"

Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas, as some of you may know, is the name of the Westboro Baptist Church, the ragtag group of idiots and loons who "protest" at U.S. soldiers funerals. They claim that U.S. soldiers die in Iraq and Afghanistan because the U.S. military tolerates gays and lesbians. So, God is punishing them by killing them.

Michael Smerconish, columnist of the Philadelphia Daily News, sums up one such case: Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder died in combat in Iraq on March 3, 2006. At his funeral, his family had to endure the demented rantings of the Westboro Baptist Church, their placards that said "God Hates the USA," "Fag Troops" and "You're Going to Hell."

Al Snyder, the father of Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder, sued Phelps and Westboro Baptist. He won a $10.9 million award from a jury that was later reduced by the court to $5 million. Westboro Baptist, of Topeka, Kansas, appealed. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit reversed the trial court's verdict. Earlier this month, the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case.

In the meantime, Snyder (the father), as the losing party in the federal appellate case, is responsible for $16,510 in legal costs of his opponents. Smerconish has written a column urging his readers to donate money and help Snyder pay these costs.

I am not a lawyer, and I don't know if an exemption to the First Amendment can be made for offensive speech at military funerals. That's a question for the U.S. Supreme Court.

I'm only interested in the tired old saw that religious people are more moral. I came across a video by the BBC about the Phelps family who heads this group. Granted, this is an extreme example. But anyone who believes anything religion tells him, on little or no evidence, is guilty of the same thing. It's only a question of degree. Some people who are religious are upstanding citizens. Some use their religion to justify killing others. People have been cherry-picking their respective holy books to justify anything, good or bad. Why not discard the holy books and just be good to everyone?

This is the video.

By the way, "Reverend" Phelps' estranged son Nate tells his story in an article called "Dad, the hateful preacher." He has a blog. And, "for those of you who suffer or who have suffered the effects of being raised in a fundamentalist environment, please join myself and Brother Richard at our Support group, "Life After Christian Fundamentalism."