Bryan Fischer
Roberts, Scalia, Thomas dead wrong in Westboro ruling
By Bryan Fischer
Justices Roberts, Scalia, and Thomas are all wrong in their ruling on the reprehensible Westboro Baptist Church protests at military funerals. Alito alone is right. As he says, the First Amendment is "not a license for vicious verbal assault." The gay-haters at Westboro have plenty of free speech avenues open to them — books, articles, video, audio, TV, radio, public forums, internet postings, emails etc. But they do not have a right to "intentionally inflict severe emotional injury on private persons." The Supremes in this 8-1 decision have taken ugliness off its leash, turned it loose, and legitimized the most vile forms of public verbal attack. They have cried havoc and let slip the dogs of vitriol.
The free speech plank in the First Amendment was intended to protect robust public discourse, not vulgarity, profanity, obscenity or pornography. Every state at the time of the Founding, for instance, had laws against public utterances of blasphemy, and no one considered for a moment that these laws were contrary to the First Amendment. Such utterances weren't for one second considered to be protected forms of speech. And there were enforceable laws against slander and defamation of character. Those weren't considered protected forms of speech either. This latest and egregiously misguided ruling is wholly out of phase with the Founders' intent.
The only upside here is that if the Supreme Court says it's okay to say "God hates fags" — something that's not even true, since the truth is the God loves homosexuals enough that he sent his only Son to die for them — then it certainly must be okay for students in a classroom, for public officials, and for radio talk show hosts to express reasoned and rational criticism of homosexual conduct without any kind of penalty whatsoever. We just need to tell heterophobes and Christophobes to get a grip, lighten up, back off, and read the Supreme Court's Westboro ruling and go away.
And it certainly must be okay for students in counseling programs to express their moral disapproval of homosexual behavior without getting bounced out of counseling programs and having their professional careers torpedoed before they even start.
—
Despite what you've heard, DOMA (the Defense of Marriage Act) is perfectly constitutional. The Supreme Court ruled in 1939 (Pacific Employers Insurance v. Industrial Accident) that "the full faith and credit clause does not require one state to substitute for its own statute...the conflicting statute of another state." Q.E.D. States cannot be compelled to recognize same-sex marriages performed in another state if their own constitution and law prohibit recognition of such unions. http://ow.ly/47b2p
—
More confirmation that the Bible is right when it says that homosexual sex is "contrary to nature," and that those who engage in it "receive in themselves the due penalty for their error" (Rom. 1:26, 27). There has been a rash of new HIV infections in Idaho, primarily among men having anonymous sex with men in city parks, highway rest stops, university libraries, and bookstores. In a park, you signal availability by how you park your car or what path you walk. There are websites and GPS phone apps devoted to arranging anonymous encounters. A health official says, "I don't know what the future holds...if we don't do something to help educate our people." How about educating men to stop having sex with men? How about educating them that every act of homosexual sex could give them a death sentence? How about educating the public that we should not grant special rights and privileges based exclusively on sexually deviant behavior? That would be a logical, rational place to start. http://ow.ly/47cHH
—
Got your Religion of Peace update right here: a blond-haired, blue-eyed 13-year-old girl in California had to run away to escape a forced marriage arranged by her Pakistani father — to a dude in Pakistan. Her father wanted to take her on a two-month vacation to Pakistan, and I'm guessing he wasn't planning on having her come back. Islam is flatly, utterly, totally and irredeemably in conflict with the values of a Christian nation. It must not be allowed to take root and flourish here. http://ow.ly/47bhj
—
We've had to deal with Muslim pirates for 227 years. Jefferson finally stopped paying blackmail money and sent in the Marines "to the shores of Tripoli," as the Marine hymn reminds us. It's time to get tough on Muslim pirates again. Right now Muslim pirates from Somalia are holding more than 30 vessels and more than 600 hostages. They made hundreds of millions of dollars last year in ransom payments. International law permits us to execute them on the open sea when we capture them, and even pursue them into port. (Two UN resolutions, 1851 and 1897, allow "hot pursuit" of pirates right into port and onto land.) The Romans, by the way, used to crucify pirates and the Carthaginians used to flay them alive. Let's just shoot 'em in the head and dump 'em in the ocean. http://ow.ly/478y7
—
If you want to see where we're headed: Canadian doctors are now doing end-of-life discussions with patients in coffee shops because there's no place else to do them. They've got gurneys double-parked in hospital corridors. More of the wonders of socialized medicaine. Answer? Repeal ObamaCare in its entirely. Don't even attempt to reform it — it's not possible. As C.S. Lewis said, no arrangement of bad eggs will make a good omelet. Repeal and replace. http://ow.ly/4787n
—
Focal Point update: My interview yesterday with Gov. Mike Huckabee got some media mentions and a lot of traffic from the wingers in the blogosphere. For instance, the Washington Post referred to the interview. Salon mentioned it while calling me a "prominent conservative," the nicest thing wingers have said about me, maybe ever. On the other hand, Little Green Footballs called me "the religious right's most crazed fanatic." Guess you can't please everybody.
(Unless otherwise noted, the opinions expressed are the author's and do not necessarily reflect the views of the American Family Association or American Family Radio.)
© Bryan Fischer
March 4, 2011
Justices Roberts, Scalia, and Thomas are all wrong in their ruling on the reprehensible Westboro Baptist Church protests at military funerals. Alito alone is right. As he says, the First Amendment is "not a license for vicious verbal assault." The gay-haters at Westboro have plenty of free speech avenues open to them — books, articles, video, audio, TV, radio, public forums, internet postings, emails etc. But they do not have a right to "intentionally inflict severe emotional injury on private persons." The Supremes in this 8-1 decision have taken ugliness off its leash, turned it loose, and legitimized the most vile forms of public verbal attack. They have cried havoc and let slip the dogs of vitriol.
The free speech plank in the First Amendment was intended to protect robust public discourse, not vulgarity, profanity, obscenity or pornography. Every state at the time of the Founding, for instance, had laws against public utterances of blasphemy, and no one considered for a moment that these laws were contrary to the First Amendment. Such utterances weren't for one second considered to be protected forms of speech. And there were enforceable laws against slander and defamation of character. Those weren't considered protected forms of speech either. This latest and egregiously misguided ruling is wholly out of phase with the Founders' intent.
The only upside here is that if the Supreme Court says it's okay to say "God hates fags" — something that's not even true, since the truth is the God loves homosexuals enough that he sent his only Son to die for them — then it certainly must be okay for students in a classroom, for public officials, and for radio talk show hosts to express reasoned and rational criticism of homosexual conduct without any kind of penalty whatsoever. We just need to tell heterophobes and Christophobes to get a grip, lighten up, back off, and read the Supreme Court's Westboro ruling and go away.
And it certainly must be okay for students in counseling programs to express their moral disapproval of homosexual behavior without getting bounced out of counseling programs and having their professional careers torpedoed before they even start.
—
Despite what you've heard, DOMA (the Defense of Marriage Act) is perfectly constitutional. The Supreme Court ruled in 1939 (Pacific Employers Insurance v. Industrial Accident) that "the full faith and credit clause does not require one state to substitute for its own statute...the conflicting statute of another state." Q.E.D. States cannot be compelled to recognize same-sex marriages performed in another state if their own constitution and law prohibit recognition of such unions. http://ow.ly/47b2p
—
More confirmation that the Bible is right when it says that homosexual sex is "contrary to nature," and that those who engage in it "receive in themselves the due penalty for their error" (Rom. 1:26, 27). There has been a rash of new HIV infections in Idaho, primarily among men having anonymous sex with men in city parks, highway rest stops, university libraries, and bookstores. In a park, you signal availability by how you park your car or what path you walk. There are websites and GPS phone apps devoted to arranging anonymous encounters. A health official says, "I don't know what the future holds...if we don't do something to help educate our people." How about educating men to stop having sex with men? How about educating them that every act of homosexual sex could give them a death sentence? How about educating the public that we should not grant special rights and privileges based exclusively on sexually deviant behavior? That would be a logical, rational place to start. http://ow.ly/47cHH
—
Got your Religion of Peace update right here: a blond-haired, blue-eyed 13-year-old girl in California had to run away to escape a forced marriage arranged by her Pakistani father — to a dude in Pakistan. Her father wanted to take her on a two-month vacation to Pakistan, and I'm guessing he wasn't planning on having her come back. Islam is flatly, utterly, totally and irredeemably in conflict with the values of a Christian nation. It must not be allowed to take root and flourish here. http://ow.ly/47bhj
—
We've had to deal with Muslim pirates for 227 years. Jefferson finally stopped paying blackmail money and sent in the Marines "to the shores of Tripoli," as the Marine hymn reminds us. It's time to get tough on Muslim pirates again. Right now Muslim pirates from Somalia are holding more than 30 vessels and more than 600 hostages. They made hundreds of millions of dollars last year in ransom payments. International law permits us to execute them on the open sea when we capture them, and even pursue them into port. (Two UN resolutions, 1851 and 1897, allow "hot pursuit" of pirates right into port and onto land.) The Romans, by the way, used to crucify pirates and the Carthaginians used to flay them alive. Let's just shoot 'em in the head and dump 'em in the ocean. http://ow.ly/478y7
—
If you want to see where we're headed: Canadian doctors are now doing end-of-life discussions with patients in coffee shops because there's no place else to do them. They've got gurneys double-parked in hospital corridors. More of the wonders of socialized medicaine. Answer? Repeal ObamaCare in its entirely. Don't even attempt to reform it — it's not possible. As C.S. Lewis said, no arrangement of bad eggs will make a good omelet. Repeal and replace. http://ow.ly/4787n
—
Focal Point update: My interview yesterday with Gov. Mike Huckabee got some media mentions and a lot of traffic from the wingers in the blogosphere. For instance, the Washington Post referred to the interview. Salon mentioned it while calling me a "prominent conservative," the nicest thing wingers have said about me, maybe ever. On the other hand, Little Green Footballs called me "the religious right's most crazed fanatic." Guess you can't please everybody.
(Unless otherwise noted, the opinions expressed are the author's and do not necessarily reflect the views of the American Family Association or American Family Radio.)
© Bryan Fischer
The views expressed by RenewAmerica columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of RenewAmerica or its affiliates.
(See RenewAmerica's publishing standards.)
