I am not interested in giving a particular Baptist church any more press. They do a great job churning the media machine. But I could not help but compare the issues of “Free Speech” between Albert Snyder’s case at the Supreme Court, and the one the Court declined to take over a bumper sticker at a Bush rally in 2005.

In case you’ve been living in a tree somewhere, there’s some folks from Kansas to think it is their God-ordained mission to picket the funerals of military personnel. They proudly describe their website as the “Site of anti-homosexual propagandist Fred Phelps of Topeka, Kansas.” (Wow. Now that’s some meta-data for ya.)

The Supreme Court agreed to hear the case of a Maryland man, Albert Snyder, who sued the Westboro group for their public display at his son’s funeral. They will decide if their egregious displays of hate signs were protected under the constitution.

Fine. Free speech. Let’s debate. Let’s defend. Cool and constitutional.

But then… a couple drives to a Bush speech at a space museum in Denver. On their car, there is a bumper sticker that says “No More Blood for Oil.” They were not planning on demonstrating. They were not planning on disrupting the speech. They were in the crowd, and were ejected by the Secret Service (according to The Washington Post article published today.)  They were told that the reason why they were removed was because of their bumper sticker.

I was truly amazed that the Supreme Court did not take the bumper sticker case. Apparently a threat to the President is determined by one’s bumper stickers? And those who serve in the military are deserving of public harassment and hate-spewing posters?

Would the Phelpians allow others to come to their worship services and hold up signs that say “God loves you anyway, you turnips!” (This is a G-rated blog, folks.) Probably not.

I think that there’s a question here of integrity, of compassion, of kindness and of justice. And a bumper sticker really isn’t a good screening tool for threats against the government.

Besides. I was promised donuts.