Fred Phelps and Schadenfreud: Short-lived?

Most of our readers likely know of the shenanigans of the irreverent Rev. Fred Phelps of the notoriously antigay Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas.  In case you missed his venomous and insane ravings of the past two decades, here’s a visual demo for you taken from their web site www.godhatesfags.com. 

(Click on these images to enlarge them.)

The Phelps family, plus one other person, constitute the entire membership of this congregation.  They have sued and won hundreds of torts involving anyone who looked sideways at them.  Many of the Phelps children are lawyers, we suspect trained for exactly that.  But yesterday, a ruling in a suit went against them to the tune of 10.9 million dollars.

Albert Snyder of York, Pa., sued Phelps and his so-called church after the Phelpses protested near the funeral for his son, Lance Corporal Matthew Snyder, who was killed in Iraq. Today, a jury fired the first volley of what will likely be a hard-fought war by Phelps and his followers to have the award set aside. According to the Associated Press, "The jury first awarded $2.9 million in compensatory damages. It returned in the afternoon with its decision to award $6 million in punitive damages for invasion of privacy and $2 million for causing emotional distress."  Those damages, if upheld, will bankrupt Phelps and his church, and that is the cause of my personal schadenfreud (glee at the unfortunate events that befall another).

My glee at the moment is somewhat moderated, as there is concern that this suit’s success has sinister motives behind it.  (Could anything be more sinister than Phelps’ agenda?)   In the many years of public, venomous protesting against GLBTs, this is the first time Phelps has been held accountable.  Westboro’s dramatic protest at the funeral of Matthew Shepard, followed by dozens of others, went unpunished by the courts.  Now that their attention has been turned toward the veterans of the Iraq war, things have changed.  Some are suggesting that it is because many in the current Bush administration want to curtail protests that are aimed at them.  So how are they to do that?  Well, if a popular case can be made against public protest (Phelps), then there is a precedent for any public protest, ultimately.  We will have to watch and see; my money is on the cynics!