(CNN) — A federal jury in Baltimore, Maryland, Wednesday awarded $10.9 million to a father of a Marine whose funeral was picketed by members of a fundamentalist church carrying signs blaming soldiers’ deaths on America’s tolerance of homosexuals. The family of Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder — who was killed in a vehicle accident in Iraq’s Anbar province in 2006 — sued the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas, and its leaders for defamation, invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress.Church members showed up at Snyder’s funeral chanting derogatory slogans and holding picket signs with messages including “God Hates Fags.”They’ve picketed the funerals of dozens of troops killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, claiming that God is punishing the United States because of its tolerance for homosexuality.Al Snyder, father of the slain Marine, said he considered filing the lawsuit for a long time before going forward and that he hoped the judgment would make it harder for the church to continue such protests. “It’s hard enough burying a 20-year-old son, much less having to deal with something like this,” he said, recalling that some of the other signs at the funeral included “Thank God for dead soldiers” and “Thank God for IEDs.” Watch the fallen Marine’s father describe his reaction ?”As far as their picketing goes, they want to do it in front of a courthouse, they want to do it in a public park, I could care less. But I couldn’t let them get away with doing this to our military,” Al Snyder said.Snyder’s attorney told jurors to pick an amount “that says don’t do this in Maryland again. Do not bring your circus of hate to Maryland again,” according to The Associated Press.The award includes $2.9 million in compensatory damages and $8 million in punitive damages, a clerk in the judge’s chambers said.
Dave’s problem: The money they pay to this family will have been earned tax free
bernarda,
Please show me where I asked what you “feel”.
To repeat:
TO EVERYONE:
Libel and/or Slander (which is what defamation falls under) is not protected as free speech.
You need reason & evidence to prove your remarks were not knowingly false.
We need not beat a dead horse any more.
Perhaps Troy should’ve taken a time out in Sunday school to teach his boys how to put a rubber on.
Here’s a song for ya Troy:
“Tonight there’s gonna be a jailbreak, somewhere in this town…”
Sorry, I couldn’t resist!
ROFLOL,
I hated Sunday School which may have been part of the issue, I never made the boys go if they didn’t want to go.
And, since we all believe in freedom of choice, the boys made some choices, and now they have some new ones to make.
As for the jailbreak…
If there is a bounty, I’ll be around
Have a fun day.
Never Give Up,
Troy
troy,
1.Substitution of the word “good” for “true” doesn’t invalidate the fallacy. You can read about it here:
http://atheism.about.com
type in “no true scotsman” in the search box.
By the way, this is a pretty good site to investigate ideas about atheism in general.
2.Why do you think you have to be any kind of religious believer in order to participate in the efforts you refer to? Morality/ethical behavior is not restricted to the religious, Please don’t make that mistake. Many atheists participate in all sorts of altruistic projects and behavior.
They just don’t tend to brag about it.
troy,
I missed what you stated here earlier
You need to realize that Deists believe that a god created the universe then disengaged. Not believers in christianity.
Deist=belief in non-intervening god. period.
christian=belief in intervening god and j.c.
troydooly
TroyD
Only an xian could screw there kids up that bad and not realize they are the cause.
TroyD
and
Guess who’s part of the problem!
WOW!
666,
Thank you! This is a great resource for my limited knowledge on atheism.
666,
Please have patience with me on this. In a above post to me, you made the statement “what are you doing?” My response was not to imply that “only religious” people participate in altruistic projects. It was only to answer your question.
And, I was not bragging at all, just giving examples of what I was doing to be part of the solutions.
If I came across as bragging, I am sorry, it was not my intent.
I do realize that Deism contradicts orthodox Christianity, at least western orthodox Christianity. However there are also people who called themselves Deists and even Masons (seen as a cult by some) who also call themselves Christians (although most modern Christians never talk about this when they call the USA a Christian nation) men like George Washington, Ben Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson to name three.
I just think it is a little judgmental to say Deist can’t be Christians. It seems to me that would be like saying because a “orthodox Preterist” believes all prophesies have been fulfilled (including the second coming of Jesus) that they are not Christians.
And, although some Christian believe “God is always intervening” there are also Christians who believe “God can intervene” but has given humans free will and will not intervene in their personal choices.
Thank you again for your patience.
Troy
Dear “What”
I am not sure how you can come to this conclusion, but I am interested in learning more.
Can you explain just a little deeper?
Thanks in advance,
Troy
Troy
What explanation is needed? You have admitted to having too many children and having done a poor job raising them. Surprise! You’re part of the problem.
troy,
1. In my query
I was addressing “moderate xtians” collectively, not you personally. Far too often we hear their disclaimers yet without any action of substance.
Unfortunately, due to the thousands of sects of christianity, there are those who believe exactly as Phelps, etc.
2 a. Most people that call themselves christian deists don’t know what the terms mean. Once the difference has been pointed out, they quickly jump off the fence. b.People (such as GW, BF, and TJ) of the time [and even now] pander to the public in announcing their “christianity” in an effort to be considered “of the people” due to their fear of ridicule, and ostracism. Check this out:
http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/archives/2007/02/black_president_more_likely_than_mormon_or_atheist_/
3. In order to address the idea of free will vs. god, some definition of said god would need to be provided.
Omniscient?, omnipotent?, etc.
because this presents a self-contradiction. Free will is negated in regards to omniscience. When a god already knows the outcome, what’s the point of free will? Other such quandaries can be found in “Why Atheism” by George H. Smith. Try your library.
I know I’m inundating you with sites to check out, but they go into things which would take pages in this comment area to flesh out. This site might seem offensive to you but it poses some serious questions:
http://whywontgodhealamputees.com/
This particular quote has shown up in these comments before. I emphasized one important word.
“I contend we are both atheists, I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.”
Stephen F Roberts
FYI, some reasons you may find scorn/derision from many of the posters:
Questions that have been asked and answered so many times before get to be boring.
Prosetelyzing on an atheist site invites ridicule when answers have been ignored or twisted.
666,
Thanks, I understand. I’ll go do some more studying and less talking for a bit.
Troy
Good point alatham. What those picketers did was wrong, but not worth that much money. Thank god for dead soldiers? What kind of Christians are those!
jimmy,
Loud Christians.
But no less Christian than anyone else who believes Jesus is/was the son of God.