Anti-gay US church ordered to pay £5.5
A fundamentalist church which celebrates the deaths of soldiers in Iraq as God’s punishment on America for tolerating homosexuality has been ordered to pay £5.5 million in damages to a bereaved family.
Members of the virulently anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church attend servicemen’s funerals across America, standing on US flags and holding placards with messages such as “God hates fags”, “Pray for more dead kids” and “You’re going to hell”.
But after they picketed the funeral of Marine L/Cpl Matthew Snyder in Maryland last year his father, Albert Snyder, sued the church.
A federal jury in Baltimore decided that the Kansas-based church and three of its leaders had invaded the family’s privacy and inflicted emotional distress.
Mr Snyder told the court that his son was not homosexual. His lawyers urged the jurors to award sufficient punitive damages to deter the group from continuing its campaign even though the church’s assets were reportedly worth less than £500,000.
The church, which is not affiliated with any major denomination, is lead by the Rev Fred Philips and most of its estimated 70 members are part of his extended family.
It has demonstrated at more than 200 military funerals over the past two years and claims to have carried out some 32,000 anti-gay protests since 1991.
Church members said they planned to appeal and would continue to picket military funerals.
They claim they are entitled to protest under the First Amendment, which guarantees freedom of speech and religion.
Source: telegraph.co.uk