Barring Protesters from Funerals

Buffer Zones Around Funerals: Legitimate or Infringement on Free Speech?
Members of the Topeka, Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church have long been notorious for their hate-filled protests against gays. So long as they merely targeted gays, though, everyone else tended to ignore them - but now that they are also targeting high-profile funerals to spread their message, they are suddenly a problem worth writing laws about.

Why are they protesting at funerals? Members of the Westboro Baptist Church really hate gays and they believe that God hates gays - even their web site is godhatesfags.com. They sincerely believe that the toleration of homosexuals in America is such an abomination that God is punishing this nation - for example, by allowing American soldiers to die abroad or killing the miners trapped in the Sago Mine accident.

Protests at such funerals naturally makes people upset and there have been discussions about legislative remedies - but any remedy has to be crafted carefully so as not to be worse than the original problem. Yes, the protests are hateful and disrespectful, but our right to free speech protects speech that is hateful and disrespectful, not just speech that is popular and positive.

Pennsylvania lawmakers are considering a law that would keep protesters at least 500 feet away from funerals, starting one hour before and ending one hour after. Protests could thus go on, but not right in the faces of mourners. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports:

Westboro Baptist Church, which is not affiliated with a larger denomination, has been protesting at military funerals throughout the country, including here in Pennsylvania. Earlier this month, four protesters carried signs reading "Thank God for Dead Soldiers" and "God is Your Enemy" at a military funeral in Cumberland County for Capt. Bryan D. Willard, who died in a helicopter crash. [...]

To Westboro Baptist Church, though, the lawmakers are the intolerable ones because they are restricting free speech and religious expression. "If they get us to shut up, it's not going to change the fact that the wrath of God is coming down on their heads," said Shirley Phelps-Roper, attorney for the church and daughter of its founder, Pastor Fred Phelps.

The church knows its protests are hurtful, but says that instead of complaining, mourners should listen to the message, repent and save themselves from hell. "If you are not going to serve the God who created you, then he's going to deal with you," Mrs. Phelps-Roper said. "If I turned up dead at the hands of a raging mad God, the last thing I would want is somebody outside my funeral picketing, but I would be more worried about making peace with my God."

The proposed restrictions will probably pass constitutional challenge, if any such challenge is made. The government cannot restrict speech based upon content, but the courts have generally upheld restrictions based upon time, manner, and place.

There are a couple of interesting issues which this raises, though, that I'd like people to stop and think about:

First, as mentioned above, Westboro Baptist Church has been active for quite some time, but without drawing all this attention. When they targeted gays, legislators didn't propose doing anything. If the same people were protesting outside gay nightclubs, I doubt that the same sort of legislation would be proposed. Now that they are targeting others with the same message, suddenly it's a problem. The message hasn't changed. The hate hasn't changed. All that's changed is who's being targeted. Why was it OK when gays were targeted, but not now that others are being targeted?

Second, these restrictions are very similar to those which have been imposed on anti-abortion activists who protest outside of clinics. Westboro Baptist Church members would be told to stay 500 feet away; abortion clinic protesters have been told (depending on the locality) to stay 15 feet or 36 feet away from clinics, 300 feet away from patients approaching a clinic, etc. Most of these restrictions have been upheld, even to the Supreme Court, but that's because religious and political conservatives thought the buffer zones were wrong.

Now, some conservatives are supporting buffer zones around funerals. Anyone who thought that restrictions on abortion protesters were unconstitutional should, if they are consistent, think the same about the restrictions on the funeral protesters. If these new restrictions are challenged, will anti-abortion groups file amicus briefs supporting the Westboro Baptist Church? I have my doubts.

Finally, the message of the protests is that God is punishing America for its sexually immorality and wickedness. This is not an uncommon belief and the idea that God would punish an entire nation for the disobedience of some has a long history in both Christian and Jewish theology. Pat Robertson, to cite just one recent example, has proclaimed similar things many times, though in a more subdued manner. The members of Westboro Baptist Church are taking to a logical conclusion ideas which many other Christians in America may agree with to some extent. If the actions of these protesters is a problem, though, perhaps this should cause people to reconsider what they believe.

-- Guest Blogger, Austin Cline

Poll: Should protesters be banned from demonstrating outside of funeral services? Yes or No?