Hating the Constitution

The Supreme Court of the United States ruled on a pivotal case yesterday. It ruled correctly, and as I at least expected. I hate the ruling.

Finding that the "Westboro Baptist Church" has a constitutionally protected right to protest at the funerals of our warriors who die in combat must have been painful for the Justices. They, unlike the Westboro members, appear to be decent and loving people. I cannot imagine myself ever ascribing that appearance to the Westboro people.

Let me be clear, in my view, Westboro is so far outside any reasonable definition of "Baptist" or "Christian" to bear no discernible relationship to either. I am sure most members of the Southern Baptist Convention and the other smaller Baptist churches are disgusted that these bigots insist on misusing their name. But, the Court made the right call.

We are Americans. Our national culture is founded on some basic ideas. One of those is that to assure our own liberties we must protect them for everyone. To assure our own right to speak our minds, we have to prohibit the government from interfering in anyone's free speech. We have used that right to break Jim Crow, to end wars, to move away from institutional homophobia and to break the grip of legal misogyny. To keep the ability to do those good things, we need to tie government's hands. Politicians, will always seek to impose the tyranny of the majority and maintain the status quo. Politicians cannot help themselves it is the nature of what they do.

Like many "gay rights activists" and many other Episcopalians, I have been picketed by these idiots. It is not a pleasant experience. They are loud, stupid, hateful and mean -- certainly not Christian virtues! But they do one good thing, they remind us of the costs associated with being the freest people in history. We do not have to worry about laws against slandering the State. We can call a politician a fool without worrying about arrest. The price is these fools with their signs. The Court has imposed the cost to protect the liberty. I hate it. They were right.

Freedom is not free. Some times the cost is the lives of patriots. Sometimes it is protecting thugs, fools and even those who use freedom to attack freedom.

That is why the angry father who all but called on people to physically attack the Westboro haters is wrong. Ignore them! That drives them nuts and it is legal!

FWIW
jimB