Restricting Christian extremists who hate America, dishonor our soldiers and sneer at their widow and orphans
The fanatical Christian white folks who follow radical cleric Fred "God Hates Fags" Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church have made it one of their Christian missions to protest at the funerals of American soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. They believe it's a good thing for American soldiers to be killed because America is too tolerant of gays and lesbians. Or, more precisely, because America and Americans have any tolerance whatsoever for gays and lesbians.
Some members of Congress are considering federal legislation to restrict such protests: Lawmaker proposes bill to ban protests at military funerals by Leo Shane III Stars and Stripes Mideast edition 03/18/06. I haven't really worked through the Constitutional law implications of this. But this is a case where freedom of religion and freedom of assembly on the part of funeral mourners has to be protected from deliberate mob disruption by others. On the face of it, this proposal by Democratic Senator Evan Bayh seems reasonable to me in its restrictions, though the proposed penalty strikes me as excessive:
On Thursday, Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., introduced similar legislation in the Senate, creating a 300-foot buffer zone and making violations punishable by up to five years in prison. Bayh's bill would apply to "all funerals for soldiers who were killed in active duty service."
I normally hesitate to link to crackpot Web sites. But it's not like they're hard to find. And it's worth taking a look at the Westboro Baptist Church Web site to see a bit of what this brand of Christian fundamentalist extremism is really about.
At this writing, the site lists locations of several planned demonstrations, most of them at other Christian churches that Phelps' followers deem excessively tolerant of gays, including the Catholics and Southern Baptists.
One article by "Shirl", which is phrased in cultish-sounding language with eccentric phrasing, criticizes FOX News for its rampant liberalism and brags about some of her group's favorite signs for soldiers' funerals:
God Hates Fags and God Hates Fag Enablers ... Then – God Hates America, Thank God for Dead Soldiers, Thank God for IEDs, God is Your Enemy; Thank God for 911; God Hates You; and last but in no wise least, God Hates the USA (Lukie’s little sign with the skeleton head guy with the Uncle Sam Hat) – Of course you know I had to explain to her why it was small and about how Luke calls the that image the "ebil guy".
Like I said, cultish-sounding language. I suppose "ebil guy" is supposed to be mocking African-American speech, but who knows with these loonies?
Reading through this stuff makes me want to puke. But I'll mention one other piece of Christian extremists crackpottery from the Westboro Web site. Because someday, and probably not that long in the future, the Mad Annie Coulters and Sean Hannitys of the world will be saying that it was liberals and Democrats who were doing stuff like this.
It's an account of one of their demonstrations in Flushing, Michigan. Again, the cultish language is striking. The Christian extremist demonstrators - all six of them - are referred to approvingly as "the slayers". They refer to their action as "whacking", by which they evidently mean just demonstrating. And, of course, they were persecuted and reviled by the godless there who are headed for Hail. This account and others are called "IED funeral epics", and Lord only knows exactly what that's supposed to mean.
And they sang what the report calls their "correct version" of the Marines Hymn". Vile as it is, I do have a reason for reproducing the text here:
From the halls of Montezuma To the shores of Tripoli Fighting this vile nation’s battles Has made God your enemy
First you fought for feces eaters Then for sinners - proud and mean Shame on those who claim the title Of United States Marine.
For the filthy bloody US flag They are coming home in bags With the IED God's blown them up No toes left for their toe tags
If the army and the navy Ever gaze on hell's grim scenes They will find the streets are loaded up With United States Marines
There's a rule in war that’s number 1 You must know your enemy With God's fury pouring out on you -- Say goodbye to victory
All your laws and worship of the dead Will not stop one IED It's too late to ask for God to bless The United States Marines
I won't try to unpack the individual lines. It's just a bunch of stock rightwing hate speech, unusual only that it's explicit in its hatred of America and the celebration of American soldiers being killed.
But here's something important about these tiny fringe protests. If they sound like some caricature of what rightwingers constantly say about anti-Vietnam War protesters, that's not entirely an accident, I'm sure. You know, how the antiwar protesters back then supposedly "spit on soldiers", hated America, hated our soldiers, didn't support "the troops", yadda, yadda.
Well, these crackpot Christian extremists are very explicit about hating America and celebrating the death of soldiers. And so, years from now, a lot of people will remember of today how "some of those antiwar protesters" actually demonstrated at soldiers' funerals and talked about how they hated America and how they were glad our soldiers were being killed by IEDs.
And they will be right!
Only the Mad Annies and OxyContin radio talking heads will be happy to encourage people to remember that it was Democrats and liberals and gays and feminists who took those positions. This is how urban folklore works, and how it gets translated into political folklore. The fact that no "spitting on soldiers" incidents have ever been verified from the days of the Vietnam War hasn't stopped that from becoming an unquestioned factoid for all good Republicans, and even a lot of Democrats who should at least be critical-minded about accepting such things.
But there were incidents of veterans being spat upon, verifiable from contemporary accounts and news footage. All of them are incidents of prowar spectators or counter-demonstrators spitting on Vietnam veterans who were demonstrating against the war. The antiwar veteran Ron Kovac, whose story was dramatized by Tom Cruise in Born on the Fourth of July, got into the 1972 Republican convention and heckled; some of the fine Republican white folks that spat on him.
But they don't tell it that way on the Rush Limbaugh or Michael Savage shows today. And the same kind of Republican scamsters will be happy to adjust their listeners' memories about the anti-Iraq War protests.
There are protests going on today nationwide against the war. Liberals will undoubtedly be disproportionately represented at them, although a quick browse of the Antiwar.com Web site will show there are plenty of moderate and conservative opponents of the war. If there are any signs at those demonstrations saying "Thank God for Dead Soldiers" or "Thank God for IEDs", it will be from the fanatical Christian extremist white people who follow Fred Phelps.
They probably won't show up at today's antiwar demonstrations, though. They would worry too much about getting their butts kicked by the other people who show up to demonstrate.
If dying and going to Heaven means I have to hang around there with those Phelps people, I'd rather go to the other place.
