js416256

Anti-gay group protests at soldier's funeral

"Members of the Rev. Fred Phelps' Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan., are picketing military funerals, KMBC's Micheal Mahoney reported Friday.

<snip>

Protesters said America has ignored the word of God, and those who defend the nation must pay a price.

"That's the first piece of solid evidence that you have that the young man is currently in hell," Phelps-Roper said.

"The soldier is in hell now, you believe?" Mahoney asked.

"Absolutely," Phelps-Roper said.

<snip>

Myers was buried with full military honors in Leavenworth National Cemetery. He leaves behind a wife and two children.

One of the protesters said the group is planning to picket other military funerals."

From http://news.yahoo.com/s/kmbc/2005080...E0BHNlYwN0bWE-

When I read this I was utterly shocked and disgusted, I couldn't believe these people protested right at the soldiers funeral right in front of his family and his friends. If protesting at someone's funeral and condeming them to hell for defending their country is "what God wants" I'd rather believe in nothing. I am not for the war but I admire the courage and bravery of these soldiers and by protesting at this soldier's funeral these Christian extremists are showing they are just as anti-America as the Islamic extremists.

Navy Pride

Just another stretch of the first amendment.........It happens all the time in this country...........That is the sad part............

Kelzie

Why, WHY is an anti-gay group protesting at a straight soldiers funeral? Don't these people have better thing to do than to make a family who has lost a son, husband, and father feel worse?

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vergiss

I hope God smites them. Preferably in an entertaining manner.

Dezaad

This was not a stretch of the first amendment. An abuse, yes, not a stretch. Stretch tends to imply that the freedom does not cover such speech. It is inevitable that rights be abused if we are to remain a free country. It is part of the sad price of being free, that we have to put up with people like this, and what they say. The far more sad part is the loss of this soldier as part of the price of being free. I choose to believe he gave his life for that freedom.

If you cannot see how freedom stays what it is, you cannot remain an adherent of what this country has stood for. Because, when you feel so threatened by abuses that you become wiling to chip away at freedoms to address those abuses, the freedom itself is lost. If you are willing to threaten the loss of freedoms that this country stands for, one is compelled to conclude you do not love these freedoms. You must believe that the truth will ultimately prevail, because if we cannot believe that, the alternative is truly ugly. Freedom has no place in that alternative.

The soldier's courage was given for these wackos to have the freedom they excercise, and they abuse it, and worse, his memory. They are sick attention seekers. And look upon what we do here, we transmute their abuse to the good by having this conversation about what he gave his life for. We remember our freedoms and what they cost. I can think of no greater tribute that we can give to him.

Simon W. Moon

Bcuz Phelps is pure and solid asshat. That's the short answer anyway.

http://www.godhatesamerica.com/

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"That is the problem... [we] fell in love with the idea that politicians-- even the slickest and brightest presidential candidates-- were real heroes and truly exciting people. That is wrong on its face. They are mainly dull people with corrupt instincts and criminal children. -H.S.T"

ncallaway

Hell, I'll do it.

Protesting a funeral? Pardon my asterisks, but WHAT THE ****? That's just a low blow that's reserved for people that protest funerals. Protesting a funeral of someone who died serving our contry? I suppose I have to keep with my theory of: it should be legal, but I'll beat the hell out of him. Man, if I lost a son, or brother in Iraq (or anywhere my country was fighting), and someone protested his funeral, I'd...

Violence is never okay. Never. Except when people that do that.

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I'm here to ruin any future career in politics...

Fantasea

The beauty of the first amendment is this.

A couple of guys at the local bar, bemoaning the fact that life in their town is getting dull, decide to do something for a lark.

"Hey", says one, "Why don't we start a church? I mean, what could be sweeter? All we need to do is each get one of those online ministry ordinations. We can rent out that vacant storefront over on Main Street and fix it up real nice.

Then we can do weddings, funerals, preach anything we like, and make some money, too. We can pick a catchy religious name and set up some real easy requirements so that folks will come over from those hard religions.

We can let in the folks like us and keep out the rest.

What do you think?"

His buddy thinks for a moment, takes out a quarter, flips it, and says, Heads, I'm the bishop and you're the pastor. Tails, it's the other way around."

If you think this is far-fetched, take a look here:

http://www.ulc.org/

This one came from page one of 15,000 pages, so the possibilities are endless.

Is there any money in it? According to a Reader's Digest article, this excerpt says it all:

"In the late 1940s, pulp writer L. Ron Hubbard declared, "Writing for a penny a word is ridiculous. If a man really wants to make a million dollars, the best way would be to start his own religion."

Hubbard *did* start his own 'religion,' calling it the "Church of Scientology," and it has grown into an enterprise today grossing an estimated $100 million a year worldwide. His churches have paid him a percentage of their gross, usually ten percent, and stashed untold riches away in bank accounts in Switzerland and elsewhere under his and his wife's control. Surrounded by aides who cater to his every whim, he reportedly lives on church-owned property, formerly a resort, in Southern California.

Scientology is one of the oldest, wealthiest -- and most dangerous -- of the major "new religions" or cults operating in America today. "

http://www.skeptictank.org/readdig.htm

jallman

I agree whole-heartedly with navy pride on this one...it is a big stretch. The spirit of the constitution is that one person's rights end where another's begins. Though this twisted organization (which for obvious reasons I already see as a boil on the butt of democracy)has a right to their opinion, this family also had the right to mourn and celebrate the life of a very noble man. By nature of the service this man did for our country in laying down his life, he deserves to have his memory honored. These protestors violated that right and the rights of everyone at that funeral. And I also agree, that family had all rights to pummel sh** out of the protestors and trounce Phelps into the ground.

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epr64

Jeez. Do these guys really exist? I mean.. I don't even have words for them.

I don't condone the Iraqi invasion, but picketing a burial is the crassest thing to do. OK, when you read the site, they hate and rejoice for the death of everyone.. Londoners during 7/7, Americans during 911, etc.. Those guys are totally crazy.

Y