There is a church in Topeka, Kansas that has made it a mission to picket military funerals. The Westboro Baptist Church has been regularly picketing the White House and streets in their hometown. They hold signs and mill around generally trying to draw attention to themselves and their message. Are they war protestors? Are they anti-Bush activists? Are the using their freedom of speech and protest to speak out against our presences in Iraq? No, they are protesting against homosexuality. And now they are exploiting our fallen soldiers.

This church, though truly I hesitate to use that word to describe such a hate filled group, has decided to use the funerals of our fallen heroes to draw attention to their anti-gay rhetoric. They find scheduled military funerals and publish the dates and locations on their website. Then they organize a group to travel to the funeral and picket. They hold signs that say that God killed those service members because the United States is too tolerant of homosexuals. Examples of their signs (freely offered by their website) read “FAGS DOOM NATIONS, THANK GOD FOR DEAD SOLDIERS, FAG TROOPS, GOD BLEW UP THE TROOPS, GOD HATES AMERICA.” I repeat, they do this at military funerals. They line up as close as they can get to the flag draped casket of a hero who died defending this country and hold up a sign that says “Thank God for Dead Soldiers” in front of his widow, his parents, his children and his friends. If you are not appalled by this desecration of the final honors given to our fallen troops, you need to be.

One family who was subjected to the cruelty of the Westboro Baptist Church has taken the group to court and won. The parents of Lance Corporal Matthew Snyder sued the group for picketing their son’s funeral and posting pictures of their demonstration on their website. The family has been awarded $3,000 by a federal judge. The church is of course outraged. I am outraged too, but only because a monetary award will never make up for the pain and suffering those picketers caused the Snyder family.

It’s one thing to assemble and protest and yell at the wind if you feel the need to. But it is not acceptable to mock and desecrate the honorable sacrifice of a young man or woman who gave their life for this country. The actions of this group are beyond disgusting. They are beyond disrespectful. They are nothing short of cruel.