Westboro Church members to protest at funeral of Zeeland Marine, say services are for 'fallen fool'

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Westboro Church members to protest at funeral of Zeeland Marine, say services are for 'fallen fool'
Published: Tuesday, August 07, 2012, 6:00 AM
By Heidi Fenton | hfenton@mlive.com

file photo
Marine Gunnery Sgt. Daniel Price of the Zeeland area
HOLLAND, MI –– Members of the highly controversial Westboro Baptist Church have plans to protest the weekend funeral of a Zeeland area Marine lauded for his dedication to family, his country and his faith.
Gunnery Sgt. Daniel Price was killed July 29 in Afghanistan while conducting combat operations. He was a Purple Heart recipient.
In a statement released Monday, the Westboro Baptist Church publicized plans to share its divisive message outside Central Wesleyan Church in Holland on Saturday, beginning at 9:15 a.m. Price’s funeral is to begin at 10 a.m.

Joseph Tobianski | MLive.com
From left, Westboro Baptist Church members Fed Phelps Jr., Taylor Drain, Shirley Phelps-Roper, and Jennifer Phelps-Roper participate in a panel discussion as they speak at Charles V. Park Library Auditorium on Central Michigan University Campus in April.
“Military funerals have become pagan orgies of idolatrous blasphemy, where they pray to the dunghill gods of Sodom & play taps to a fallen fool,” the Westboro statement says. “This message is to be preached in respectful, lawful proximity to the memorial of Gunnery Sgt. Daniel J. Price.”
See the Westboro Church's statement here
The church acknowledges its First Amendment rights to free speech and says those rights are what Price died for. To deny them is to say he died in vain, the Westboro statement says.
The church denounces God’s ability to protect America and his place in American homes.
“These soldiers are dying for the homosexual and other sins of America,” the church says. “God is America’s enemy, and God Himself is fighting against America.
“Thank God for IEDs.”
Westboro church members have visited Central Michigan University twice in the past two years to speak with students in a media law class.
Students asked questions in a heated conversation in April.
“We don’t worry about the outcome. We just preach,” Westboro member Shirley Phelps-Roper said at CMU in April.
The members have been preaching and protesting for 21 years, and have held thousands of pickets across all 50 states, members told students.
© 2012 MLive.com. All rights reserved.

Some people should in fact be allowed to be shot and killed. I know we have free speech and all, and I'm about the last person to say we need to start limiting constitutional rights of any kind. But the premise that anyone is going to stand there and protest at the funeral of a fallen soldier, the very same fallen soldier that died ensuring they have the ability of free speech. Absolute trash and bullshit. I hope for the sake of mankind these idiots just disappear from the planet permanently at somepoint, the sooner the better. Small part of me hope's they get bold enough to get violent so we can class them as a domestic terrorist organization and just lock the whole lot of them up. Some people have no fucking shame, tact, or respect what so ever.

OK, simple solution. If every State passes laws that make being a "public nuisance" disorderly, then all of them can be cited for Disorderly Persons. From my understanding, several states have done that already. It's not saying that you can't protest either, so let's clear that one up. From my understanding, in other states, if your out causing a public disturbance while a religious service or funeral service is being held, then your guilty of disorderly persons. It's only at Christian Churches this seems to be done. Those assholes would still be able to practice their right of freedom to assemble and be assholes, it would force them to do it far enough away as not to disturb the family, thus negating their purpose. I'd love to see those ball-less bastards try to protest against a Muslim service. I'd pay money to see that one.......

Then it's a foot in the door to declare other forms of "free speech" disorderly. I would bet you'd be none too pleased if discussion about dangerous and deadly weapons became disorderly conduct, or expressing your dislike of current politicians and/or their policies, yet you and others happily support the limitations of our constitutional rights so long as those limitations don't happen to target you at the time.

The proper response to free speech is more free speech (patriot guard riders as an example), not denial of the most basic of our forefather's ideals.