ALL IN THE NAME OF GOD!

The photo is of Albert Snyder, left, who is the father of Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder, center, whose funeral was picketed by members of the Westboro Baptist Church, which had vowed to hold protests at the funeral of 9-year-old Christina Green, who was killed by a gunman during a public meeting with Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson last weekend.

Having never been in the military, never experiencing the fear of someone shooting at me, when I go to a burial where there is a military funeral and send off, I thank God the person who fought survived to come home and finish out his life. What the psychological effect on the person’s life were afterward of being in any battle for a prolonged time over a protracted period, I can’t imagine. The horror of seeing a friend fall along side of me would rip my heart out.

As that funereal event plays out, the solemnity of it all, Taps being played, the idea that the dead man or woman risk all his/her days of the rest of what should be their natural life, that the event is connecting both God and Country, as the dead would want it, makes me realize just how serious war is, and how much we should avoid it.

We have these events, these memorial salutes and last goodbyes to honor and venerate their lives, not to foster wars, not to bolster militarism, I’m sure any man of sanity will tell you, avoid war. But life has its necessities, sometimes we do go to war, rightly or wrongly, and mostly wrongly, to protect ourselves and sometimes others. I have a lot of issues with the rush to send young kids into battle, and ask them to sacrifice their lives for me, to die on a battle field, based on others poor judgments, poor calculations in both diplomacy and tactics because of prejudices unreasonableness, not to mention greed.

The “Holy Wars” is a term that especially revolts me, making my stomach turn, thinking we as people could justify killing in the name of God! But this is not about Muslim extremist, no this is about some loose cannons that exists right here in the U.S.A., the so called: ‘Westboro Baptist Church’, led by a crazy man that hates gays among other things, preaches hate to a congregation of followers, and sends idiots to military funerals, to disrupt, disrespect the dead, the country and themselves, the protestors.

Over 44,000 pickets at funerals are proudly boasted by these people, from Kansas who will defend themselves before the Supreme Court, win their case as it is a First Amendment Right to Free Speech!

"This case is about a little church in Topeka, Kansas, engaging in public speech on a public right-of-way, about issues of vital public interest and importance," lawyer Margie Phelps wrote to the court defending the protests. She is also the daughter of church founder Fred Phelps and will argue the case before the justices.

Can someone please tell me how this consoles the families of the dead? Can someone shed some light on the “Christian works” this so-called church is engaged in? Where do I miss the logic of the protest, the point that someone or group of people are in mourning, need comfort, and some point of view, no matter how noble it could be, is even brought up?

Westboro's website says the legal dispute is about the "sovereignty of the Living God" and that those who fail to live up to God's standards should be punished. Phelps, explains that their decision to picket funerals "is to use an available public platform, when the living contemplate death, to deliver the message that there is a consequence for sin." That sin in their view is homosexuality and all government policies they think support homosexuals.

Albert Snyder certainly didn't want anything do with that message in 2006 when he buried his Marine son who was killed in Iraq and was not gay.

Someone should keep track of these bastards, and when they drop dead, we should gather to picket their send-off, maybe with a sign that says: Good riddance!