Westboro Church pleased with ruling
10:50 p.m. Wednesday, October 31, 2007
A Baltimore jury told Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church to pay up Wednesday. The Topeka church was ordered to fork over $10.9 million to the father of a Marine who was killed in Iraq.
Jurors said the church invaded the father’s privacy and inflicted emotional distress on him by protesting his son’s funeral last year. Westboro members say the Iraq war is punishment for the nation’s tolerance of homosexuality.
Brandy Sacco, Topeka, remembers when the church protested her husband’s funeral. She was happy to see the church take a hit.
“I just screamed really loud,” said Sacco. “My kids probably thought I lost my mind or something. It’s exciting to see that there’s actually somebody who’s taking a stand against them.”
Sacco said she hopes the ruling cripples the controversial church’s ministry forever.
“I kind of feel like I won in a sense, too,” she said. “Somebody’s finally getting somewhere with it.”
The judge said the church and its members don’t have enough money to pay up. But, the church said the Baltimore case won’t stand in its way of future protests.
“We haven’t completed our testimony yet,” said Jonathan Phelps, Westboro Baptist Church. “We have things to preach and we have things to tell.”
The church said it will appeal the jury’s decision. Church members are actually happy about the ruling. Jonathan Phelps said the national media attention will just give church members another platform to preach their message.
Comments
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Nov. 1, 2007 at 6:59 a.m. (Suggest removal)grim_farva (anonymous)
I am glad that they will have to pay the money if the ruling holds up in the appeals. They are making Topeka look bad, and I for one hope the will have to close the church to pay the fine.
Nov. 1, 2007 at 10:03 a.m. (Suggest removal)Rick_S (anonymous)
I find the westboro baptist church to be about as irritating as an itch you can't scatch.I loose no sleep about Mr.phelps and his followers.
However as a former Marine and Patriot I am truly appalled in the fact that these poeple even consider themselves part of this country.I swore to defend this country the constitution and the rights of all Americans.
But is it a right to cause grief and suffering to a family who just gave their Son or Daughter or perhaps their Husband or Wife in defense of our Country and our Freedoms that we enjoy?
When our founding fatheres designed our Country they could not forsee the phelps or poeple like them how could they?Rather they simply promised their right to do as they please.
What can we do about them?Nothing. They are Americans.
The only thing we can do is try to appeal to any sense of decensy they have left we should be sending letters and signed petitions to the church requesting that they do the right thing by these greiving families and leave them alone.Inundate the church with so many requests that the mail service would have to employ a special carrier to deliver them.
Well enough high horse,as Americans we are resposible to ourselves and each other to do what's right by the laws of God and the laws of man.Please let us all, each and every American continue to rememer Sept.11,2001 and let us remember why our troops continue this fight on behalf of America and Americans support them anyway you can.They and their families need our prayers and anything we can give them to help win this war.Stay the course.
Nov. 1, 2007 at 12:47 p.m. (Suggest removal)Shaton (anonymous)
Everyone needs to understand that what Fred Phelps and his gang want is "attention"! I truly believe that if they were never again mentioned in any media form, never interviewed again, etc., that they would back off some. They crave attention.
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