“So the US Supreme Court has ruled that you have the right to protest military funerals. I invite you to protest in my front yard and we can see if your first amendment right is better than my second amendment right.” This post appeared on the timeline of my Facebook account multiple times throughout the course of one evening. I was intrigued by people’s sudden outrage to an issue that kept a very low profile in this area at the actual time of the event that sparked it, which was months ago. On March 2, 2011 the Supreme Court ruled in an 8-1 decision that the right to protest at military funerals is in fact protected by the first amendment.

The issue was raised when an anti-gay group, made up of members of the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas, staged a protest at a funeral of a U.S. marine. Although, this is only one of many demonstrations Westboro members have held at the funerals of servicemen. 

According to an article in the Washington Times, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. stated, “As a nation we have chosen a different course — to protect even hurtful speech on public issues to ensure that we do not stifle public debate.” 

While protests of this nature may be harmful, if executed properly, they are protected in full by our right to freedom of speech. Circumstances like these are what the first amendment was designed for, to give protection to even unpopular speech.

The court’s acknowledgement of this group’s right to exercise the first amendment was respectful and politically correct. But despite the appropriate defense of the protesters’ rights, this has only proven that America’s disregard for morality has not only made this legally acceptable, but in some twisted way, socially acceptable. 

The members of Westboro believe that the deaths of servicemen overseas are God’s punishment of America’s tolerance of homosexuality.

The protesters sport shirts advertising sayings such as “God hates America” and bear signs with slandering comments such as “Thank God for dead soldiers”. These statements I find to be utterly ironic. America gave these demonstrators the right to exercise their alleged work for God, so the need to make such an outlandish comment of that nature I find bewildering.

I cannot wrap my head around the concept that people who make claims to God have the audacity to dishonor the fallen in such a manner that this specific congregation has.