Westboro Baptist Church Plans To Picket Leonard Nimoy's Funeral

[Cyberman]

I remember when they announced they were planning to picket Heath Ledger's funeral because he played a gay cowboy in Brokeback Mountain. People were basically saying "well, good luck with that - it's in Australia."

[Thumpalumpacus]

They help secular America become the norm. These asshats make some of the more moderate people loath to be associated with Christianity, which is often the first step in being able to shake off the indoctrination.

Exactly. This is why they should be allowed to continue their behavior: they are a lever to shame every American Christian who, like it or not, abides by the same holy book as these guys.

I like the fact that WBC puts the hateful, homophobic side of their Bible out front. When my son asked me "Dad, how can religion hurt people?" their behavior was one of the examples I gave. The WBC exemplifies everything that is wrong with theistic thinking, just as abortion-doctor murderers do, just as ISIS does -- but the fact that the WBC are American takes away the "can't happen here" argument.

I think (though I've no evidence, this is simply my own unsupported opinion) that WBC are part of the reason gay rights have made such strong headway in the last ten years. In being so polarizing, they repel many folks from their own extremist views.

Just as Dubya, in another context, learnt the hard way: be careful when you say "you're either with us or you're against us". If what you stand for is this repulsive, you will kill your own cause.

Good for them, I say. Keep talking. The truth will win out.

[abaris]

but the fact that the WBC are American takes away the "can't happen here" argument.

Since the Milgram experiment it should be abundantly clear that human uglyness can happen everywhere given the right framework.

As I said in a different thread. The only distinction between certain christians, or certain jews for that matter, and ISIS or the Taliban, is the social and legal framework that doesn't allow for the killer to come foward.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Since the Milgram experiment it should be abundantly clear that human uglyness can happen everywhere given the right framework.

Of course. But the sad fact is that unless an American has had a college-level psychology class, they probably won't learn of that experiment. And American exceptionalism, be it explicit or unstated -- perhaps even unconscious -- promotes this idea that somehow our system of governance, coupled with our individualism and idealism, would act to prevent such horrors as genocide or religious war from occurring here (never mind that the first was a building plan for the nation and the second was only barely avoided).

[The Valkyrie]

I remember when they announced they were planning to picket Heath Ledger's funeral because he played a gay cowboy in Brokeback Mountain. People were basically saying "well, good luck with that - it's in Australia."

Yup.

They're banned from Oz.

[remagination]

I really want some views on this? Is this "okay" because it's free speech? Is it morally horrible? Or any other comments on it.

Free speech does not mean that all exercise thereof is morally "okay". Often, it just means that we should not forbid it ---- though sometimes, the only reason why we should not forbid it is the dangerous precedent we would set if we did.

In short --- something being a legitimate exercise of free-speech and being morally horrible are not mutually exclusive.