Is Nothing Sacred?

Monday, April 17, 2006





Is Nothing Sacred?




The congregation of the Westboro Baptist Church took it upon themselves at the April 2nd funeral service of Cpl. David A. Bass, a 20 year-old marine killed in Iraq, to picket the service adding to the grief of his loved ones and out-right leaving others at a loss for a word that sufficiently expressed this blatant showing of disrespect. All the while, they hid behind their First Amendment rights to speak their mind as they carried signs saying "Thank God for Dead Soldiers," and voiced to the bereaved and anyone else who'd listen that "God is killing soldiers to punish America for condoning homosexuality." The small fundamentalist group has since last summer been sending contingents of six to twenty members to funerals just like that of Cpl. Bass.






The reaction by many is that this is "cruel and unpatriotic", and has set off a feeling of outrage in the grass-roots community and a "flurry of laws seeking to restrict demonstrations at funerals and burials." Indiana Republican representative Steve Buyer who is among those trying to get such a Congressional bill passed said, "Repugnant, outrageous, despicable, do not adequetly describe what I feel they do to these families," and then added that, "They have a right to freedom of speech. But someone also has a right to bury a loved one in peace."






Recently nine states including Indiana have passed such a law, and twenty-three more will soon be voting on similar bills. In the case of Congress, they will be addressing the legislation in May.


So as to not impede anyone's first amendment rights the state bills and laws have been carefully worded. On average they seek to keep demonstrators one hundred to five hundred feet from the entrance of the funeral home or cemetary, and allow the protests but only one hour before the service and one hour after it has concluded. "A funeral home seems high on the list of places where people legitimately could be or should be protected from unwanted messages," said Michael C. Dorf who teaches constitutional law at Columbia University.






The church headed by Rev. Fred Phelps, which "is not affliated with the mainstream Baptist church" first gained public notice in Wyoming at the 1998 funeral of Matthew Sheppard


The congregation is small with most of it's seventy-five memebers being of relation to Rev. Phelps, and has been demonstrating for the last decade outside office buildings and by going to gay funerals. Right or wrong those were tolerated. However, since members began appearing at the funerals of soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan last year The Southern Poverty Law Center, has put it on it's watch list."




The church takes the bible in an extremely literal manner. "God is punishing this nation with a grievous, smiting blow, killing our children, sending them home dead to help you connect the dots," said Shirley Roper-Phelps who concluded her statement saying, "This is a nation that has forgotten God and leads a filthy manner of life." Meanwhile, Johnathan Anstey a close friend of Bass's tried to reign in his anger. "It's hurtful and it's taking alot of willpower not to go down there and stomp their heads in. But I know that David is looking down and seeing me and he would not want to see that."




Thursday the House and Senate unanimously approved the bill and it now only needs the signature of the Governor to make it illegal for demonstrators to be within five hundred feet of a memorial, burial or funeral service. Perhaps not much comfort for the Bass' but for those in the future it's a chance to mourn their loved ones without the additional pain such demonstrators inflict. After reading about this I had to wonder about the old "if the shoe was on the other foot" proverb. How would they feel if another hate group targeted the funerals of their loved ones. Would it open their eyes at all or would they just refuse to see it as the same thing that they do to others. I'm no fan of the war or any war for that matter, but if someone gives their life for me whether for reasons I agree with or not they should be honored and respected. Some things are sacred and should not be muddied by ignorance, bigotry, or hatefullness.






*Quotes are from The New York Times article "Outrage at Funeral Protests Pushes Lawmakers to Act" dated April 17, 2006 and written by Lizette Alvarez