It’s about damn time.
Reuters: Kansas church liable in Marine funeral protest
BALTIMORE (Reuters) - A jury on Wednesday ordered an anti-gay Kansas church to pay $10.9 million in damages to relatives of a U.S. Marine who died in Iraq after church members cheered his death at his funeral.
Church members said Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder's death was God's punishment of America for tolerating homosexuality, and they attended his 2006 funeral in Maryland with signs saying "You're going to hell" and "God hates you."
The federal jury determined the Westboro Baptist Church, based in Topeka, and three of its principals invaded the privacy of the dead man's family and inflicted emotional distress.
Free speech is one thing, but there is a time and a place. We don't let people yell "Fire!" in a crowded theater. We don't let people make idle threats in an airport. Frankly, I don't think a graveyard is an appropriate place for that kind of behavior. Actually, I don't think anywhere is appropriate for that kind of behavior, but I don't have a problem drawing a line at funeral services.
Have you ever noticed that people tend to worship a God who is like them? Fred Phelps worships a God who is as warped and twisted as he is. Did God make man in his own image or does man make God in his? I'm not so sure anymore.