1st Amendment protects military funeral protesters

Image via WikipediaI normally don't post stuff like this, but in this case I just had to say something. On one had I'm glad to see the courts actually standing up for the Constitution for the first time in what seems a very long time now.
On the other hand, the Westboro Baptist Church in this case have got to be doing one of the stupidest things I have ever seen a Church do.

Their signs DO NOT reflect Christianity in any way shape or form. Nor, do they reflect anything that has to do with Christ and their actions are far from doing anything that has anything to do with the Bible itself.

These people disgust me. they make me sick and I cannot believe they actually have the guts to call themselves Christian.


Here they live under the same banner of the United States of America, Protesting the very people who are protect their rights to do what they are doing. I would love to see how far they would make it doing this in any other Country other then the U.S.A.

Knowing many soldiers out there Fighting and more that have returned myself. I feel the need to share to them again. These people DO NOT reflect Christianity. As a Christian I will say this to the soldiers out there. Ignore these people. God Loves you no matter what you have done out there. Jesus died for those terrible things WE ALL have done. So that we may choose Him and be able to go Home. When He rose from the dead, He now has that power to remove all sin for us to do so. Including you and them.

That said. The Westboro Baptist Church. Knock it off. Stop protesting funerals like a bunch of idiots. You are not reflecting Christ, or God or the Bible with any of your actions. It's people like you all that give Christianity a very bad name, and you wonder why people don't want to be saved?
THEY DON"T WANT TO TURN OUT LIKE YOU!

Is our Country in need of God? Yes. But, it has nothing to do with any sign these people are showing and being rude to the people who fight to protect the very thing they are out there doing.
To the Military, You Rock! I thank God and Pray for you all everyday.May God bless you all and help you through everything you have to face and go through.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110302/ap_on_re_us/us_supreme_court_funeral_protests
WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that the First Amendment protects fundamentalist church members who mount anti-gay protests outside military funerals, despite the pain they cause grieving families.
The court voted 8-1 in favor of the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan. The decision upheld an appeals court ruling that threw out a $5 million judgment to the father of a dead Marine who sued church members after they picketed his son's funeral.
Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the opinion for the court. Justice Samuel Alito dissented.
Roberts said free speech rights in the First Amendment shield the funeral protesters, noting that they obeyed police directions and were 1,000 feet from the church.
"Speech is powerful. It can stir people to action, move them to tears of both joy and sorrow, and — as it did here — inflict great pain. On the facts before us, we cannot react to that pain by punishing the speaker," Roberts said. "As a nation we have chosen a different course — to protect even hurtful speech on public issues to ensure that we do not stifle public debate."
Alito strongly disagreed. "Our profound national commitment to free and open debate is not a license for the vicious verbal assault that occurred in this case," he said.
Matthew Snyder died in Iraq in 2006 and his body was returned to the United States for burial. Members of the Westboro Baptist Church, who have picketed military funerals for several years, decided to protest outside the Westminster, Md., church where his funeral was to be held.
The Rev. Fred Phelps and his family members who make up most of the Westboro Baptist Church have picketed many military funerals in their quest to draw attention to their incendiary view that U.S. deaths in Afghanistan and Iraq are God's punishment for the nation's tolerance of homosexuality.

Related articles

• BREAKING: Supreme Court Rules 8-1 for Westboro Baptist Church in Soldiers Funerals Case (towleroad.com)
• U.S. Supreme Court rules antigay Westboro Baptist Church funeral protests protected by First Amendment (miamiherald.typepad.com)
• Westboro Baptist Church Wins At Supreme Court: 8-1 Decision Upholds Their Right To Be Vile (queerty.com)
• Supreme Court rules Westboro Church protected by First Amendment (thehill.com)
• Supreme Court Sides With Westboro Church On Funeral Protests (npr.org)
• Westboro Baptist Church wins free speech case over York County dad (pennlive.com)
• High court rules for military funeral protesters (cbsnews.com)
• High court rules for military funeral protesters (ajc.com)
• Appalling: The Supreme Court Sides with Westboro Baptist... (zwingliusredivivus.wordpress.com)

Court Refuses to Stop D.C.'s Gay Marriage Law

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Romans 1:24 Why God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves: 25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.

26 For this cause God gave them up to vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: 27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet.

28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; 29 Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, 30 Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31 Without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: 32 Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.

clipped from newsmax.com The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to block the District of Columbia's gay marriage law, freeing the city to issue its first marriage licenses to same-sex couples the following day. Opponents of gay marriage in the nation's capital had asked Chief Justice John Roberts to stop the city from issuing the licenses on Wednesday while they appealed. They argued that D.C. voters should have been allowed to vote on the issue. Local courts have rejected the opponents' arguments. "It has been the practice of the court to defer to the decisions of the courts of the District of Columbia on matters of exclusively local concern," said Roberts, writing for the court. He also pointed out that Congress could have voted to stop the city government from putting the law into effect and didn't. Same-sex marriages are also legal in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Iowa, Connecticut and Vermont.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Same-Sex Couples Apply To Marry In Washington DC (pinkisthenewblog.com)
• Same-sex marriage legal in Washington, D.C. (cbc.ca)
• Same-sex marriage legal in Washington D.C. (cbc.ca)
• -Washington DC: Same - Sex Marriage in The District Beginning Wednesday? (answersforthefaith.com)
• District of Columbia To Begin Issuing Same-Sex Marriage Licenses Today (lezgetreal.com)
• D.C. same-sex marriage law takes effect Wednesday (cnn.com)
• Supreme Court Declines to Intervene, Same-Sex Marriage Legal in DC (news.firedoglake.com)