Freedom of speech and freedom of religion often go hand in hand, as with the Westboro Baptist church and Dan Cathy of Chick-fil-A fame. The Westboro Baptist church and Dan Cathy are free to practice their religion and they are free to speak out about what they believe in whatever way they want to, but we are also free to stop Westboro from picketing and to boycott Chick-fil-A.
The Westboro Baptist church in their own twisted logic decided that our fallen soldier’s funerals are the perfect venue to practice and speak out about their own religious beliefs that homosexuals are destroying the nation. Guess they never stopped to think that maybe the hate they spread is the cause for the evils we see every day.
The Westboro Baptist church has been up to now, because of their 1st amendment rights, able to protest at military funerals because they believe military deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan are God's punishment for U.S. tolerance of homosexuality and a sign the nation's destruction is imminent.
Well no more, Congress has now passed a law that will severely limit their homophobic protests. According to "The Honoring America’s Veterans and Caring for Camp Lejeune Families Act of 2012," which is now headed to President Barack Obama's desk, demonstrators will no longer be allowed to picket military funerals two hours before or after a service. The bill also requires protestors to be at least 300 feet away from grieving family members.
I’m pretty sure Obama will sign the bill with a smile on his face, I know I would.
One “Christian” hate group has been stopped from their bullying, hateful tactics, so we should be able to stop others as well. The Family Research Center, Focus on the Family and the Exodus Group, are groups that hold the same beliefs as the Westboro Baptist church and Dan Cathy.
Dan Cathy has every right to believe in the biblical definition of a family and he has every right to express his beliefs that marriage should only be between a man and a woman; no one really cares what he actually believes and he has every right to his freedom of speech as the Westboro Baptist church does. However, Dan Cathy went beyond his freedom of speech when he donated at least 5 million dollars to these hate groups.
In 2010 The Family Research Center spent $25,000 lobbying congress to NOT condemn Uganda’s “Kill the Gays” bill. They compare homosexuals to pedophiles and the mentally ill, and claim that they abuse drugs and that they are not discriminated against.
Focus on the Family opposes efforts to reduce gay bullying. They work against "special rights" for homosexuals and hate crime legislation, and they support "reparative therapy" for homosexuality, which has been widely discredited and rejected by the vast majority of doctors and physicians. FOF sponsors "Love Won Out," conferences held around the U.S. that claim to prove that "homosexuality is preventable and treatable," where many of the speakers are "ex-gays."
Two of the group’s founders ditched Exodus and left their wives to pursue their own same-sex relationship. This tells me that you “can’t pray away the gay.”
There is really no difference between the Westboro Baptist protesters and the supporters that showed up for the Chick-fil-A appreciation day. The supporters were there, whether they realized it or not, not to support Dan Cathy's freedom of speech but to support Dan Cathy’s right to hate. They gave even more money to Dan Cathy so in turn he can give more money to groups that support the bullying and killing of gays.