I am a passionate advocate for freedom of speech. One of my favourite quotes of all time is by Voltaire: "I may not agree with a word you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it".
I believe that in a free and democratic society, free speech is fundamental and should be protected at all costs.
I'm also a Christian, and am passionate about people of (every) faith having the right to express their views and beliefs.
But something about this story just doesn't sit right with me.
I mean come on. This soldier's family is mourning. Believe what you like about the deaths of American soldiers being God's divine punishment for homosexuality (no kidding), is the funeral of one of those soldiers the right place to make your stand? Protesting behind the weeping family, picketing the graveyard? Is that really the message you want to present? Is it really even going to make a difference?
Those in authority are going to see the publicity stunt by this church and dismiss them as a bunch of religious whack-jobs with no respect for the dead or the mourning. It's not going to change the mind of a single power broker in Washington about whether or not soldiers are sent to war. I highly doubt it will prove the connection between homesexuality and wartime deaths either.
Free speech is all well and good. I don't deny these people their right to say what they believe. But pick your time and place, please. I wonder how they would feel if I rocked up at their son's funeral and told them that their son was dead because of God's punishment against them for, say, not following Islam. If I gathered a group of people together and stood behind them as they interred their beloved one, chanting hate-filled slogans and being disrespectful of their right to mourn their child.
To me, common decency dictates that even if you believe that someone dies as a result of something you consider wrong, their loved ones are still entitled to peacefully lay to rest that person. Hell, even Carl Williams' family and friends deserve that much. I find much of Carl Williams' life abhorrent, but I wouldn't rock up at his funeral and spit vitriol at his mourners. Is that just me, or is that a common decency that we all share?
I don't think that issues like this should be left up to the law. Because you know what, if it comes down to a reading of black letter law - that church group is entitled to say and do what they want all in the same of free speech.
But surely somehow, somewhere, sometime, someone has got to step in and say 'you know what? This isn't right. We may be entitled to do this, but that doesn't mean that we should. Let's find another way to get our message across, that doesn't cross all bounds of common decency'.
Of course, the litigation-friendly society that we have become doesn't see it that way anymore. If you are entitled to do something, if it is your right, then you should exercise that right regardless of the consequences, or so it appears to me. And so we see stories like this, where grieving families are slapped with costs orders for attempting to maintain some kind of civility at the funeral of their loved one.
Come on people. Really? Is this the best we can do?
