Fred Phelps to Pay Millions to Offended Family
1 November 2007 - 21 חשון 5768 by Huw
Danger, Will Robinson!
Despite what some might expect, I’m neither pleased nor amused in the least that Fred “God-Hates-Fags” Phelps has been fined for demonstrating at the funeral of a US soldier killed in Iraq.
$11,000,000
Look, the man is obnoxious. But for years (decades?) he’s been shouting his hate-filled rhetoric at gays and lesbians and no one has said a thing. In NYC the Roman Catholics and the Hassidim even joined in the party.
But now he yells at a dead soldier and gets fined $11,000,000?
There are two issues here - freedom of speech and freedom of religion. There’s also the parallel issue of who else will such a fine stop? War protesters? Religious people who calmly and quietly object to the war? Religious people who calmly and quietly object to things they call “moral issues”?
The Federal Gov’t has used our most obnoxious brothers and sisters to get at the rest of us. And every one of us should be worried.
Your spam word box is nearly invisible.
I hope Phelps is the only tenant in the Hell he proscribes for so many others. He created it, let him live there. Actually, I think he just one more sad case of “look at Me!” I wonder if he can find enough gullible fools to refill his coffers. If the rest of that universe is any indication, he probably can. Preying (praying for ?)the fears and hopes of the poorly raised (minds, not cash), is a multi-million dollar media money maker opportunity for religion draped predators.
“Those who claim to know the Truth are Very Irritating to those of us who do.”
Douglas Keachie
http://farstars.blogspot.com
The curious thing about FP is that his church is all his own family. I don’t think there’s anyone else involved.
I hope God forgives him. And the rest of us.
My first reaction to the judgement was to fervently hope that it is overturned quickly. If it is not, then hateful speech will be defined by those in power and used as a club over those not in power until they get in and reverse the definitions. The ACLU has consistently defended hateful speech on the grounds of free speech and won the overwhelming number of the cases.
I suspect that this judgement will eventually be overturned. If not, then free speech becomes subject to tort laws and to whomever can aver emotional damage most efficiently.