When Freedom Hurts

Alright, this is an emergency broadcast.

Many of us have seen pictures of these signs.  It is a group of "god-fearing, bible believing, love your neighbour unless they're gay" Christians.  Recently, they were sued by a father who's son's funeral was picketed by this church group.  They claim that soldiers are dying and will continue to die because of America's acceptance of homosexuality.  This is news to me since I was under the impression that soldier's were dying because there is a war going on which the USA is a part of.  So they go to soldier's funerals, among other events and protest.  The father won in court but the decision was over-turned by the state supreme court.

The father made a plea on TV that common sense should have prevailed, and that the judge should have ruled against them.  His argument is that they should know better and not protest at a funeral where their speech and message will hurt others in mourning.

That's a tough argument to refute simply because I have never lost a family member as a casualty of war.  I find this church group deplorable as they have taken a few select verses, twisted it into a bigoted, hateful message and have thrown everything out the window that has anything to do with respect for the individual (which is found throughout the new testament).  A smile would reach my face if I ever heard that one of the church leaders died in a grease fire.

That brings me to the ruling of the supreme court.  I agree with it.  As much as I hate seeing these t-shirt, sign making f*#k-tards protest and make asses of themselves, their country and their god, I have to agree with the ruling the court handed down.  When you defend freedom you have to be prepared for individuals to use it unwisely.  I am a parent so I feel for this father, but one of the beautiful things about the USA and Canada is that you can make your thoughts public without interference from our government as long as you are not inciting hatred and encouraging violence on groups.  That includes the ability to speak and protest about the most crazy, stupid and ignorant ideas.  The reason for free speech laws is that if you allow "common sense" to rule over even one hurtful case, it sets a dangerous precedent.

The freedom to dissent against what our government does is one of the most important laws we have to keep a nation free.  Allowing any ruling against free speech is a dangerous road that sets a country up for tyranny.  If the supreme court ruled in favour of the father in this case, what stops it from ruling against citizens who protest during times of war or during other times where we question government.  

I truly hope that this father is in some way allowed to grieve without being reminded about this protest group, but we can't lose sight of how important free speech is to the country as a whole.  When you provide, and demand freedom, you have to be ready for others to use it unwisely.