Posts Tagged As: Fred Phelps / Westboro Baptist

Flirting With A Westboro Man

Jim Burroway

November 18th, 2007

Charles Firth is an Australian comedian living in the US. He appears on the ABC’s (Australian Brocasting Company) The Chaser’s War On Everything in a recurring segment called “Firth In America.” In this segment, he discovers the allure of a “Westboro Boi.”

Phelps Liable for $10.9 Million

Timothy Kincaid

October 31st, 2007

phelps.jpgRueters is reporting that a jury ordered Westboro Baptist Church to pay the family of a serviceman whose burial service was picketed by Phelp’s church.

The jury in federal court determined that the Westboro Baptist Church based in Topeka, and three of its principals had invaded the privacy of the dead man’s family and inflicted emotional distress when they protested at his funeral last year.

This bothers me in a few ways.

First, I am in favor of protected speech, even vile disgusting speech like that of Fred Phelps and his family. While there is no question that this celebration of the poor kid’s death was disturbing, I don’t like the precedent this sets. Perhaps as I hear more about the details – such as whether the protest was on public property or at a private funeral home – I may reconsider. But I recognize that my speech could be unwelcome and distressing to anti-gay activists or devoutly religious bigots.

Second, I can’t help but wonder if the outcome would have been different had Westboro been picketing a gay person’s death. I somehow suspect that the family of the serviceman was held by the jury to be more deserving. Perhaps I’m cynical, but I doubt they would have given $2.9 million to a grieving same-sex spouse.

UPDATE: The final award was much more:

The federal jury first awarded $2.9 million in compensatory damages. It returned in the afternoon with its decision to award $6 million in punitive damages for privacy loss and $2 million for distress.

Fred Phelps On BBC 2

Jim Burroway

April 3rd, 2007

The BBC’s Louis Theroux spent three weeks with the Fred Phelps clan, with a BBC camera crew in tow. The resulting documentary aired on BBC 2 last Sunday. Theroux told BBC Magazine why he wanted to do this documentary:

What we’re trying to do in the documentary is look at an activity that is so antisocial, so strange, so futile and at its worst, so cruel, and we’re saying ‘Why? Why do that?’, especially when you seem to be, for the most part, kind and sensitive people. We’re exploring what is cruelty, trying to explain how something that really does very often just amount to cruelty could be perpetuated and passed down in a family. Why would nice people do such horrible things?

Here are the results:







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