"God hates fags" church ordered to pay 10.9 million to family of dead soldier :D:D:D

Fuck yesssss

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/law/10/31....ap/index.html


BALTIMORE, Maryland (AP) -- A grieving father won a nearly $11 million verdict Wednesday against a fundamentalist Kansas church that pickets military funerals in the belief that the war in Iraq is a punishment for the nation's tolerance of homosexuality.


A member of Westboro Baptist Church protests outside a veteran's hospital in Maywood, Illinois, in April 2006.

Albert Snyder of York, Pennsylvania, sued the Westboro Baptist Church for unspecified damages after members demonstrated at the March 2006 funeral of his son, Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder, who was killed in Iraq.

The jury first awarded $2.9 million in compensatory damages. It returned later in the afternoon with its decision to award $6 million in punitive damages for invasion of privacy and $2 million for causing emotional distress.

U.S. District Judge Richard Bennett noted the size of the award for compensating damages "far exceeds the net worth of the defendants," according to financial statements filed with the court.

Church members routinely picket funerals of military personnel killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, carrying signs such as "Thank God for dead soldiers" and "God hates fags."

A number of states have passed laws regarding funeral protests, and Congress has passed a law prohibiting such protests at federal cemeteries.

But the Maryland lawsuit is believed to be the first filed by the family of a fallen serviceman.

The church and three of its leaders -- the Rev. Fred Phelps and his two daughters, Shirley Phelps-Roper and Rebecca Phelps-Davis, 46 -- were found liable for invasion of privacy and intent to inflict emotional distress.

Snyder claimed the protests intruded upon what should have been a private ceremony and sullied his memory of the event.

The church members testified they are following their religious beliefs by spreading the message that the deaths of soldiers are due to the nation's tolerance of homosexuality.

Their attorneys argued in closing statements Tuesday that the burial was a public event and that even abhorrent points of view are protected by the First Amendment, which guarantees freedom of speech and religion.

The judge said the church's financial statements, sealed earlier, could be released to the plaintiffs.

Earlier, church members staged a demonstration outside the federal courthouse.

Church founder Fred Phelps held a sign reading "God is your enemy," while Shirley Phelps-Roper stood on an American flag and carried a sign that read "God hates fag enablers."

Members of the group sang "God Hates America" to the tune of "God Bless America."

Snyder sobbed when he heard the verdict, while members of the church greeted the news with tightlipped smiles.

i just herd about that on the nes a minute ago. good for him for winning that sui. it's aout time these stubbrn biast fucks who hide behind religion to spread their venomously ignorant point of vew got put in their place.

HAHA! awesome.
i dont understand how being a soldier makes him a fag... but whatever...
those guys are tards, i hope this near 11 million puts them out of business.

Westboro Baptist Church, and its founder and leader, Rev.(God, I hate putting that title before his name!!!)Fred Phelps have a real hard-on(pun fully intended)for gays, and the protests at soldiers' funerals are about how, because America in Phelps' view, tolerates gays, God hates America, because it violates God's Law and all the rest of that rubbish.

Hence, the protests at soldiers' funerals, which, by the way, also makes a great way of getting publicity for his nasty little cause and church.

Vile little cocksucker, he is.

too bad it won't do anything to shut them up.

Fags for Phelps!!

Butt Fuck a Phelp for Christ!

Phelps Feltcher!

I think it's more like...god hates us all

he's that dick nosed fucker who protested that gay guy's funeral who was killed in a fag bashing a few years back, wasnt he? I hate people like that. howeer, as much as i dislike ignorant cunts like phelps, they do serve a purpose in showing how ugly and hateful people can be. they're a beacon example of how intolerance masked behind religion turns you into a raving fanatical lunatic and honestly, i think i-being a FAG-am better than they are becaue i'm always evoving, wantn to learn about other people and giving people the sadow of the doubt no matter how dispicable or ignorant they ma come across. i have coworkrs and friends who think being gay is a choice and that it's a sin-i've even come across people who've thouht m a perverted social devait (well....i am a pervert but an adrable pervert) and i still conversate with them and have a good time. they have ther philosophy and i have mine. that's not to say though that if some ignrant cunt like phelps were to come up to me and call me a faggot and a butt raping heathen that i wouldnt knock his fuckin jaw out into the next county line though. heresa difference beween being open minded and letting people walk all over you.

I think it's more like, if God, Jehovah, Allah, etc, exists, he/she/it is both vastly different from ourselves, and, with at least one universe to run, doesn't have that much time to look in on our comparatively tiny doings.

Dunno, 'cos I don't know if he/she/it exists or not.

Am just tired of people thinking that God is just like themselves and is automatically on their side.

That's a quick and cheap means of justifying any policies and actions one might care to take, like the "Reverend" Phelps' proposed courses of action towards homosexuals, no matter how dirty, cheap and rotten they might be.

he's still nowhere near as bad as that iranan guy. alls i gots ta say is as long as what goes on in someone elses privat life -espcially bedroom/as long as it's legal-and does'nt hurt anyone/ doesnt concern you (not you but in general) then you (in general) really should have no opinion about what that person is like and where theyre gonna go-god or not.

........... the douchebag lives 5 miles from me in his compound and his grandkids go to my college.........

are his grandkids as bad as him?

those that haven't disowned are as bad......... lot of them are in Christian Identity groups as well so they add minorities to their list of people to hate too

that sux. ignorance breeds ignorance i guess. its sad to see it in this century.