In
In
In this case, the plaintiff is Albert Snyder. He is the father of a recently killed Marine, Lance Corporal Matthew Snyder. The defendant is Fred W. Phelps Sr. He is a pastor and leader of the Westboro Baptist Church based in Topeka, KS. The church has been known to express its beliefs that "God hates America" through protests and demonstrations at military funerals across the country. In their history they have been at close to 600 funerals. Snyder's funeral was set to be held in his hometown of Westminster, VA. When Phelps learned of the time he gathered a group of church members comprised of his own family and went to demonstrate at Snyder's funeral. The proper authorities…
To many people, the swastika represents the Nazis and the many other terrible atrocities which occurred throughout World War II, but it had been used in other religions, cultures, and had various meanings before Hitler turned it into a symbol of destruction and misery. The swastika originated in religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism in India, though it was only minimally used in Buddhism ("Buddhist Swastika - ReligionFacts"). It had been an important symbol in Hinduism, used in festivals and religious rites for various reasons. In Buddhism, the swastika had represented eternity. It had also been mostly used in Asia through Jainism. The swastika was used in Greece through architecture, clothing, and coin design. Greco-Roman art and architecture…
In the past couple of weeks instead of talking about the involvement of the adults during the civil rights movement instead the focus has been on the involvement of children and adolescents. Some of the people and events talked about include Emmett Till being beaten to death and shot, the Little Rock Crisis were nine African Americans who are some of the top in their current situation are being protested against to the point of needing military involvement, the children's march were little African American boys and girls miss school to march and end up being attacked by police dogs, and fire hoses, and the sixteenth street baptist church bombing. A story that really hit me emotionally was the sixteenth baptist church bomb that took the life…
The Westboro Baptist Church was founded in 1955 by Fred Phelps. During his youth he attended various Universities and Colleges. He said that he attended a Methodist revival and that was what sparked his fire in religion. Afterwards he decided to become a minister; he changed his denomination affiliation to Baptist and was ordained as a minister. His two sons insist that church is a carefully planned cult that allows its leader to make himself seem like a demigod.…
Unlike most modern religious groups, the Westboro Baptist Church is unique in the fact that the organization doesn’t meet in a modern church setting. Instead, the Westboro Baptist Church meets on Sundays to picket and protest the funerals of people whom they feel have created blasphemous acts against God. This recently included the funeral of Apple’s co-founder Steve Jobs. In an October 7th cbsnews.com article journalist Edecio Martinez quoted Margie Phelps as posting on twitter, “He had huge platform…gave God no glory and taught sin.” This in return yielded a great a greatly deal of responses by media, family, and some other government officials as well. This is the story behind the Westboro Baptist…
In 1955 Fred Phelps, started the Westboro Baptist Church. He thought that he needed to warn people that “America is doomed” so his church started protesting. Phelps states that natural disasters are signs from God to show his disapproval of homosexuality. The church community protest to save mankind. Some people called Phelps “harsh and unloving” (Chapman) however, he counteracts this statement by saying that he is just teaching what the bible says about homosexuality. He believes that he is just offering warnings out of pure worry for the human race. Fred Phelps helped bring about the Protests by the Westboro Church to show Americans that we are all sinners and fall short of being let into heaven because of our sinful ways.…
The United States prides itself on the freedoms that are afforded to each of its citizens. Among those freedoms is the first amendment freedom of speech. However, that freedom is often called into question. For instance, the Snyder v. Phelps case. In the Snyder v. Phelps case, Albert Snyder who is the father of Matthew A. Snyder, argues how the Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) picketed his son’s funeral asserting offensive statements due to his Albert Snyder’s homosexuality. Moreover, Snyder filed a lawsuit against the WBC “for defamation, intrusion, upon seclusion, infliction of emotional distress and civil conspiracy” (“Snyder v. Phelps” Wikipedia). The speech discussed in the Snyder v. Phelps case deserves the protection of the first amendment.…
When the words "witch hunt" are heard, most people think back to the Salem witch trials, where religion governed the lives of people. They were searching for people who they believed practiced malificium. However, witch hunts are not just a thing of the past, as modern day witch hunts are happening right now. In 1993, West Memphis was shaken up after three eight year old's were found dead in a drainage ditch. The deaths of the three young boys caused an uproar. The police were rushed to find the murderer, and in the eyes of the policemen, Damien Echols, Jessie Misskelley, and Jason Baldwin were the only people capable of committing this heinous crime. Discourse played a major role in what ended up happening…
Everyone is entitled to practice their religion. Everyone has the right to voice their opinion. The bill of rights states that this right could never be taken away, but does it make it right for a person to use this right to attack a person?…
The Nationalist Socialist Party of America (American Nazi Party) had a right to march in the street in Skokie, Illinois in 1977 because the First Amendment protects their right to free speech, free press, and peaceably to assemble. The Nazis, like all citizens, are entitled to their political beliefs, even if those beliefs are sending hate messages, as long as there is not a clear and present danger, they can vocalize those beliefs. There was no clear and present danger because the Nazis had no plans to harm any citizen of Skokie, even if their message was one of hate towards those of Jewish faith. The printed materials that were being dispersed did have messages of hate but as long as there were no actions of hate, they were still protected. People that would say they do not have a right would claim that these printed materials are the threat that would be unconstitutional, and although most Americans would disagree with these beliefs, the right of the Nazis to feel this way is warranted under the constitution. The Nazis are entitled to their religious beliefs and practices, and although we do not typically look at the Nazis as a religious party, they are anti-semantic, which is itself a belief towards a religious group.…
There are a few special women in the world known as “feminazi’s”. These ladies dedicate their entire existence to putting feminism first and foremost in their lives. Feminazi is a derogatory term used to describe an extreme feminist who believes the option of abortion is not only essential to the world, but also to the advancement of women.…
The swastika holds a vivid, powerful vision for those of the Jewish community. The impact though now changes from positive and serene as seen with the Chinese community to that of conjuring up memories of the holocaust, a time of horror and hate. The brief appropriation by the Nazi’s of the swastika has forever destroyed the positive a…
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” (First Amendment Center, 2008)…
The First Amendment states that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and petition the government for a redress of grievances.”(Beattie-Moss) Many people use this…
To sustain the many privileges of the white society, the tripartite system of racial segregation was formed. In order to function properly, the “tripartite system of domination” aimed to control the blacks in three distinct ways: economically, politically and personally.…