Chris Nicholson's Writing Weblog
March 07, 2006 • Tuesday
I'm a little tired of the Phelps Family. If you're not aware, they're a small group of Catholic extremists who have been protesting at private funerals of U.S. soldiers who died in Iraq, holding signs aimed at the deceased's family reading (among other things) "God hates your tears" and "You're going to hell."
(See articles on CNN.com, FOX News and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch websites.)
I'm all for free speech, but I'm more than uncomfortable with the idea of slinging arrows at the grieving just to broadcast a message.
The thing is, the Phelps Family isn't even protesting the war in Iraq. They're protesting homosexuality.
So why target soldiers' funerals? Because, the Phelps reason, those soldiers died while fighting for an army of a country that accepts homosexuality.
The logical disjoints of this approach are profound. Still, absurdity does not disallow one's right to speak an opinion.
Then what's my problem? The silliness of protesting their point. The U.S. government — by any stretch of anyone's imagination — does not promote homosexuality. By our country's nature of freedom for all, it merely allows homosexuality. It does so via the same principle that allows bigots to voice prejudiced opinions: freedom of choice, freedom of expression.
Therefore, in effect, the Phelps Family is attacking the same freedom that allows them to lodge the attack. It's self-defeating propoganda. Idealogically, they're cutting off their upturned nose to spite their fanatical face.
I know — as Americans, we have a protected right to argue. But to promote a hate-based agenda by verbally attacking funeral mourners? That's just crass.
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