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.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Various news stories argue the legality of the church\u2019s position, then. Do the protests constitute the \u201cfree exercise\u201d of religion? Is the freedom of speech beyond compromise? Is hate speech \u201cpeaceable\u201d?\u00a0\u00a0Is the protest at a soldier\u2019s funeral a government petition?<\/p>\n These are good questions to ask, of course.\u00a0\u00a0They center around the strictness of Constitutional interpretation. A strict constructionist would argue that we must follow the letter of the Constitution absolutely, as written, as the Founders intended.\u00a0\u00a0A liberal or contextual constructionist might argue that the Constitution must be followed in spirit, adapting itself to changing times.<\/p>\n Safely, predictably, the news media argue about the legal positions of the two sides.\u00a0\u00a0Just give us the rules to follow (or explain how to interpret them), they say, and we will follow them.\u00a0\u00a0The ACLU lawyers follow the same reasoning, one actually claiming that though he finds the church\u2019s position \u201creprehensible,\u201d it is protected by the Constitution. Therefore he supports the church\u2019s argument and expects to win.<\/p>\n But isn\u2019t the story in the ACLU\u2019s position?\u00a0Somehow, oddly, we get caught up in the laws\/rules and we set aside the question of morality, of principle, of humanity.\u00a0\u00a0For myself, even if the Supreme Court rules in favor of the Westboro church, it is wrong to disturb the funeral.<\/p>\n Two pieces of common sense come in conflict.\u00a0\u00a0The first is the danger of anyone\u2019s moral judgments taking precedence over legal; the second is that just because we have the right to do something does not mean we should. Both positions carry consequences.\u00a0\u00a0If we allow moral relativism to \u201crule,\u201d we risk the chaos of extremists and other weirdos claiming legitimacy for their behavior.\u00a0\u00a0But if we allow the \u201claw\u201d to govern without morality or conscience, we still risk the absurdities and chaos but cash in our humanity.<\/p>\n What concerns me most is that the ACLU lawyer\u2014like the inventors of the atomic bomb who had family, like the white collar criminals who bilk the working class out of billions each year in \u201clegal\u201d (or at least unprosecuted) transactions\u2014has set aside his moral self, his conscience, his reason in order to make a rhetorical case.<\/p>\n Socrates warned us about the rhetoricians.\u00a0\u00a0We must seek neither relativism nor law for its own sake, but Truth.\u00a0\u00a0Rhetoricians, he argued, seek only to persuade the ignorant for their own selfish ends.\u00a0We can be impressed with the fireworks of their legal arguments, but in the end we are duped because we ourselves\u00a0are told<\/em>\u00a0what to think.<\/p>\n For the past many years, the State of Michigan has advertised its law to wear seatbelts:\u00a0\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s not just a\u00a0good As frustrating as it is, legal extremism and moral relativism can only be resolved through dialogue, not posturing in courtrooms or funerals. \u201cOur message has exploded all over the world,\u201d the church spokesperson declared. \u201cThey don\u2019t deserve the protection of freedom of speech, freedom of religion,\u201d a prosecutor retorts (Ross).<\/p>\n When do we begin a dialogue of conscience, where will it happen, and who will participate?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Work Cited<\/u><\/p>\n Ross, Timberly. \u201cIs Church\u2019s Hate-filled Message Free Speech?\u201d\u00a0Detroit<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>Free Press<\/em>,\u00a04 Nov. 2007, 10A.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Westboro Baptist Church protests are the kind of example which is a real test of our tolerance for free speech.\u00a0\u00a0The church, supported by the ACLU, is appealing a US District Court decision that compels it to pay $11 million for invasion of privacy and intent to inflict emotional distress.\u00a0\u00a0What did the church do? It […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1031,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[247,256],"tags":[370,371,372,373,374,375,376],"class_list":["post-810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chizblog","category-politics-and-ethics","tag-aclu","tag-constitution","tag-freedom-of-speech","tag-relativism","tag-religion","tag-seat-belts","tag-westboro"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2017\/04\/westboro.jpg?fit=320%2C343&ssl=1","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":828,"url":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/on-daggits-and-darfur-obama-and-adama\/","url_meta":{"origin":810,"position":0},"title":"On Daggits and Darfur, Obama and Adama","author":"Steve Chisnell","date":"2009 Mar 21","format":false,"excerpt":"Truly, my first thought when I heard that the cast of\u00a0Battlestar Galactica\u00a0was debating at the real United Nations was that we've finally lost our sense of reality. And, on reflection, I admit I don't think I'm wrong. If you are not following all the latest news from the world of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "ChizBlog"","block_context":{"text":"ChizBlog","link":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/category\/chizblog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2017\/04\/032209_0251_OnDaggittsa1.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":819,"url":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/iceland-in-the-dark-day-three-12008\/","url_meta":{"origin":810,"position":1},"title":"Iceland in the Dark, Day Three: 1\/20\/08","author":"Steve Chisnell","date":"2008 Jan 21","format":false,"excerpt":"If Iceland were to be pulled apart, it might happen at \u00deingvellir, the crux of the European and American tectonic plates, the divide of the world. Here Iceland stretches, at the rate of about 1\u201d per year, dropping the bottom of valley about half that distance. Oddly, it is also\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "ChizBlog"","block_context":{"text":"ChizBlog","link":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/category\/chizblog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2008\/01\/thor2.jpg?fit=452%2C300&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":802,"url":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/on-tasers-and-free-speech\/","url_meta":{"origin":810,"position":2},"title":"On Tasers and Free Speech","author":"Steve Chisnell","date":"2007 Sep 24","format":false,"excerpt":"University of Florida\u2019s Andrew Meyer was tasered by campus police for resisting arrest following his questioning of Senator John Kerry at a recent seminar.\u00a0\u00a0The story\u00a0is, of course, all over the internet and news\u2014especially\u00a0YouTube\u2014in part for the questions of free speech it raises but also for his now t-shirted and coffee-mugged\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "ChizBlog"","block_context":{"text":"ChizBlog","link":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/category\/chizblog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2007\/09\/Andrew-Meyer-gets-tased-by-the-police-Sept.-17-2007-8x6.jpg?fit=450%2C350&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1716,"url":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/welcome-to-nepal\/","url_meta":{"origin":810,"position":3},"title":"Welcome to Nepal","author":"Steve Chisnell","date":"2009 Jun 15","format":false,"excerpt":"The\u00a0bandh\u00a0today brought the streets of Kathmandu to near silence. What yesterday was a caterwaul of sound\u2014vans, trucks, thuk-thuks, motorcycles, and pedestrians mashed against the dusty streets beneath the chaotic tangle of electrical wires-by 7:00 this morning the streets were clear of all but quiet foot traffic. One of our major\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "ChizBlog"","block_context":{"text":"ChizBlog","link":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/category\/chizblog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2017\/08\/bhaktapur-skyline1.jpg?fit=448%2C263&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1742,"url":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/american-road-trip-1-south-dakota-to-iowa\/","url_meta":{"origin":810,"position":4},"title":"American Road Trip 1: South Dakota to Iowa","author":"Steve Chisnell","date":"2009 Aug 6","format":false,"excerpt":"Day Fourteen: The Badlands to the Middle of Nowhere [Obviously, finding an internet location today was difficult, so I am behind in uploading my updates!] The storm over South Dakota's badlands was serious enough for a few to lose their tents. Mine held and I slept soundly! My early morning\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "ChizBlog"","block_context":{"text":"ChizBlog","link":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/category\/chizblog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2017\/04\/080609_0251_AmericanRoa5.jpg?fit=485%2C313&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":797,"url":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/come-back-to-the-raft-jim\/","url_meta":{"origin":810,"position":5},"title":"Come Back to the Raft, Jim","author":"Steve Chisnell","date":"2011 Jan 18","format":false,"excerpt":"As a literature teacher and one offering my students a discussion of deconstruction these past weeks, it is impossible for me not to address the recent controversy around Huck Finn. For those of you too concerned about the real news of George Clooney in Sudan, the Golden Globes, and the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "ChizBlog"","block_context":{"text":"ChizBlog","link":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/category\/chizblog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2017\/04\/011711_0723_ComeBacktot3.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=810"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1547,"href":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810\/revisions\/1547"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2017\/04\/clickit.jpg?resize=240%2C336&ssl=1\")
idea, it\u2019s the law.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0The rhetoric is fascinating:\u00a0\u00a0Never mind, it says, that we might or might not decide what is best for us; follow the law regardless of what we think.\u00a0\u00a0I would, of course, reverse it:\u00a0\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s not just the law, it\u2019s a darned good idea!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n