Matthew Shepard

John Mielke's diatribe against the homosexual "lifestyle" (Sunday's Juneau Empire) would be funny if it wasn't so ignorant. He needs to be a little more careful in his choice of words.

Background: The (Snyder v. Phelps) case dealt with the First Amendment and what it protects. A congregation of the Westboro Baptist Church was protesting Matthew Snyder’s funeral and caused the family a lot of emotional distress. Matthew Snyder was a former Marine who died while serving a tour in Iraq. The protestors were holding up signs that said, “Semper Fi fags, God Hates the USA, Thank God for IEDS.” (Lee Epstein, Pgs 469-72). The Westboro Baptist church has picketed many military funerals. They resent that the military will allow homosexuals to fight for their country. In June 2006, the father, Albert Snyder filed the lawsuit against the Westboro Church. He claimed that the protest caused the family intense emotional distress and that the church intentionally meant to inflect the distress. The Westboro Baptist church said that what they did was protected under the First Amendment. Although this is the first court case that’s been brought up against the Westboro Baptist church and made it to the Supreme Court. They’ve done forms of protests for many years. For example they’ve picketed anything they believe to have in relation to homosexuality. They’ve even protested some of the Kansas

The case arose after the death of Marine Lance Corporal Matthew Snyder during his service in Iraq. The Westboro Baptist Church, known for their intolerance of homosexuality, picketed his funeral, wielding picket signs with hateful messages on them such as, “Thank God for Dead Soldiers,” and “You’re Going to Hell” (Snyder v. Phelps, 2011).

In 2006, Matthew Snyder, a Marine Corporal was killed during combat in Iraq. Snyder’s family had made funeral arrangements at a Catholic church in their hometown of Westminster, Maryland. The time and location of this service was made public by local newspapers, thus being easily accessible by the public. Fred Phelps, the founder of Westboro Baptist Church located in Topeka, Kansas, was made aware of this service and chose to travel to Maryland to picket it with his two daughters and four grandchildren. The members of the WBC believe that God will forever despise and punish the United States for its lenience towards homosexuality, especially within the military. In order to ensure that their beliefs be known, Phelps and his members frequently

In the case of Snyder vs Phelps The family of a departed Marine named Lance Cpl, Matthew Snyder put forth legal action against parties of the Westboro Baptist Church for picketing at his funeral. According to the family the church was responsible for defamation, invasion of privacy and the deliberate punishment of emotional suffering, The members of the church held signs that read "Thank God for dead soldiers" and "Fag troops" at Snyder's funeral. U.S. District Judge Richard Bennett granted the Snyder family $5 million in damages. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled that the decision violated the First Amendment's protections of religious expression. Does the First Amendment defend protesters who deliberately cause emotional

Snyder v Phelps Many people have heard of the Westboro Baptist Church as they are widely known, especially for their protests, and hate speech. The Snyder v Phelps case particularly focuses on an instance where the Westboro Baptist Church protested in front of the funeral of Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder. The question in which the Supreme Court was addressing was “Does the First Amendment protect protesters at a funeral from liability for intentionally inflicting emotional distress on the family of the deceased?

Westboro Baptist Church is from about a year ago, but it is still sad that they would protest at funerals of people who fought for them. Westboro Baptist Church Should be shut down and everyone that has ever had some type of connection with protesting at military funerals should be arrested. It should not be right for someone to say that god killed them because their country allows gays. If they understood freedom, and rights then they would not be protesting that “god hates gays” and “god killed soldiers for punishment of allowing gays”. This are the type of people who are ruining America for everyone else. America may be the land of the free, but it is not the home of protesters. Westboro is one of the many protesters but there are many other people out there in the world, ready to take down

In the works of Jonathan Edwards “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” uses numerous persuasive techniques and biblical allusions to manipulate his audience, the Puritans. Edwards’ sermon lectures Puritans, people who strictly pursue to live by the bible, on how they are straying from the path of the Bible. During his sermon, the Puritans were terrified of what he had said ,because every little sin each Puritan had committed they thought they were going to go to Hell. Edwards had convinced the Puritans that there everyday activities had crossed the line ,but which they had not. Edwards’ play on words, as well as his use of persuasive techniques, and biblical allusion convinced the Puritans that they were severely in trouble of going to Hell.

The Laramie Project People are judged all the time. We may be judged by how we look or by the way we talk. I’ve learn you may never know truly how somebody’s feeling or what situation their going through in their life. These circumstances tend to bring alive certain emotions that eat you up which are by far the worst feeling you may ever have. In this play, The Laramie Project is a play about Matthew Shepard who was a hardworking, smart young man.

Furthermore, his sermon Edwards provides several similes to scare the audience. He states, "Your wickedness makes you as it were heavy as lead, and to tend downwards with great weight and pressure towards hell;" this comparison shows that our sins are plenty enough to punish us. Furthermore, people are ignorant and don't realize that with all these wicked actions they are directing their future into hell. This is not the only simile, he includes "The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect over the fire". This comparison shows that God is saving us from an eternity of fear and despair. Edwards' statement does not mean God does not love his followers, however sins are weighing down on his decision that can end with a terrible end.

On March 10th 2006, The Westboro Baptist church picketed the funeral of Marine Lance Corporal Matthew A. Snyder. On June 5th 2006, the family sued WBC for defamation, invasion of privacy, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. WBC had even gone as far as to say that the Snyder 's raised their son for the devil. They dishonored the fallen soldiers memory on the internet and in their protesting. In 2007-2008 the courts primarily ruled in favor of the Snyder 's and had ruled that Snyder family was owed money. The price

In the beginning of this article, Rosenbaum relies on the appeal of emotion, pathos, to persuade his audience to agree with his claim. He tries to achieve this by telling a story of a church group picketing the funeral of a gay marine. He states, “The Supreme Court upheld the right of a church group opposed to gays serving in the military to picket the funeral of a dead marine with signs that read ‘God Hates Fags’ ” (Rosenbaum). This event caused an uproar and disrupted the peace of a marines’ funeral. Many people began to question the limits of free speech because of this. How can people use hateful speech such as

October 7, 1998, 21-year-old Matthew Wayne Shepard was murdered in what is likely the most infamous anti-gay hate crimes in American History.

In the words of the court, “no reasonable reader could interpret any of these signs as asserting actual and objectively verifiable facts about Snyder or his son”.[14] In concluding their decision, the court let it be known that they were not defending the Phelps’ actions, quoting a colleague and saying that judges defending the Constitution “must sometimes share [their] foxhole with scoundrels of every sort, but to abandon the post because of the poor company is to sell freedom cheaply. It is a fair summary of history to say that the safeguards of liberty have often been forged in controversies involving not very nice people."[15] Essentially, although the court was morally against the Phelps family, they recognized the importance of upholding the Constitution and protecting individual freedoms. Looking at the facts of the case and the decision of the court, it seems evident that the Westboro Baptist Church does have the legal right to continue their

I did some research and what keeps coming up is the U.S. Marine Matthew Snyder. The church protested his funeral and it sparked tremendous outrage amongst a lot of people. What is sad is that the court ruled that the protesters were protected under free speech. The ruling was an 8-1 and was won by a land slide in the churches favor. This blew me out of the water reading that Chief Justice John Roberts stated that "Whether the First Amendment prohibits holding Westboro liable for its speech in this case turns largely on whether that speech is of public or private concern." And in this specific case, the judges determined the words on Westboro’s signs indeed dealt with “matters of public import” (Gregory 2011). Free speech is a beautiful thing, but when you want to basically shit on someone’s funeral especially when that person fought for your freedom is wrong in my eyes and there should be bans for protesters on certain occasions. Private matters should be only the family and others not a huge mob of people ragging on soldiers and other situations. I am not a soldier and it made me mad that these people would basically slander this man who died to fight for