Westboro Baptist Church Versus Freedom of Speech

When the Friends of Voltaire needed a way to sum up the philosopher's stance on a controversial issue, they came up with the perfect line.

'Je désapprouve ce que vous dites, mais je me battrai jusqu'à la mort pour que vous ayez le droit de le dire.' It's usually attributed to Voltaire himself, but it was said about him; and about the way he thought.

It's usually translated as, 'I disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.'

Freedom of Speech is very easy to defend, when those opinions expressed chime with your own worldview. It's when the 'opposition' get to speak too that distaste can turn into a wish to silence them.

I learned this lesson as a young student on the steps of a town hall, back in the 1990s.  As a member of the Anti-Nazi League, I was working to combat racism and other expressions of hatred. 

The far right British National Party (BNP) had a candidate standing in the local council elections. A coachload of us turned up to picket the steps into the forum, where each of the candidates would be addressing members of the public.  Our remit felt so correct, as we left the University.  We were to stop the 'Nazi' entering that hall.

He turned up, in his suit and tie, looking every inch the respectable gentleman.  We crowded into his pathway, screaming Anti-Nazi slogans at him.  He stood undaunted before our masses.

"You're trying to stop my freedom of speech.  You're trying to silence a dissenting voice; and you call me a 'Nazi'."  He said.  For most of my peers, that was their cue to yell at him about his racist policies.  For me, it was a wake up call.

What on Earth was I doing here?  I was the only history student there.  I was the only one who was in the process of studying, at graduate level, the rise of the Third Reich.  I knew the reality behind our chants, our placards and our slogans.

He was right.  In our bid to focus on the issue at hand, we'd missed the bigger picture. We'd become the very thing that we sought to challenge.

Watching the backlash against Westboro Baptist Church now reminds me of standing on those town hall steps.

To my mind, there is no real defense for the message and actions of the Westboro Baptist Church.  Every syllable of it is repellant to me.  Every second of their protest raises the gall in my throat.

Yet shutting them up could well be more dangerous than letting them speak.

In 2006, Albert Snyder (pictured) sued three members of the Westboro Baptist Church, after they picketed his son's funeral.  U.S. Marine Lance Corporal Matthew A. Snyder had been killed on duty in Iraq.  The protesters took the view that this was a demonstration of God's retribution, as the soldier had been fighting on behalf of a corrupt nation.  Evidence of that corruption, in the minds of the church members, came in the fact of increasing tolerance for gay marriage within the USA.

The main issue for the court was whether the defendants had expressed their views in such an outrageous way, that they should lose the protection of the First Amendment. In short, that these circumstances voided Freedom of Speech.  The jury ruled that they should.

The Westboro Baptist Church was ordered to pay over $10.9m in damages.  But they weren't finished.

Their congregation is largely made up of the extended members of a single family.  Headed by the patriarch, Fred Phelps, many of them are qualified lawyers, including the pastor himself.  They fought back, initially reducing the costs, then taking it to the Supreme Court. 

A majority of 8-1 reversed the original ruling, leaving the church with nothing to pay. In fact, they benefited. Albert Snyder was ordered to pay the court costs of the Westboro Baptist Church, which amounted to $16,510.  The bill was covered by American television host and political pundit Bill O'Reilly.

It was a verdict which felt morally reprehensible on all counts.  Yet I support it.  I'm not alone there, as the American Civil Liberties Union also supported the Phelps family during the case. 

Had Snyder won, then the legal message would have been clear:  Freedom of Speech has its limits.  Shutting up the Phelps family and the rest of the Westboro Baptist Church would have been wonderful.  But that same ruling could have silenced all manner of dissenting voices thereon.

It would be hypocritical of me to say that I haven't thrilled to the backlash against the Westboro Baptist Church.  In fact, I've warmed to the wry observation that it's the closest to societal unity that I've ever experienced.

Louis Theroux has a couple of documentaries, about the Phelps family and their church, which he entitled The Most Hated Family in America and The Most Hated Family in America in Crisis.  It summed it up.

In December 2012, a lone gunman opened fire at Sandy Hook Elementary School, in Connecticut, USA. Twenty small children and six of their teachers were killed, along with the teenage gunman and his mother.  Westboro Baptist Church announced their intention to picket the funerals and the backlash was instantaneous and seemingly universal.

The general public took to social networking to condemn the protest; and their words were echoed by journalists in mainstream and independent press alike.  Various groups, including Anonymous, Redditors, Angel Action, the fire brigade, the military, the Patriot Guard Riders, the Ku Klux Klan and the Guardian Angels, all organized a presence there.  They would form a human chain to shield mourners from the church; and to drown out all hate speech.

Christians of all denominations have been lining up to state that the Westboro Baptist Church has nothing to do with Christian teachings.  (Even the ones who, in other forums, would concur with the anti-homosexuality message.)

Anonymous and their fellow hacktivists took it all much, much further.  Again I would be so hypocritical if I didn't confess to cheering and punching the air, as the onslaught began. 

• Websites belonging to the Phelps family were taken off-line or defaced.
• Twitter accounts were hijacked. (Pictured above, as taken by UgNazi.)
• Personal details of the entire congregation were pasted on-line, leading to a tsunami of general public calls to their places of work.
• A death certificate was issued for Shirley Phelps-Roper, one of the church's most prominent figures, thus cancelling her social security number amongst other things.
• DDosProtection, the hosting company which provides servers for their websites, came under so much pressure to close them down, that the company offered to pay the hosting fees to charity instead.
• The Phelps family learned that there were Anonymous members everywhere. As they sat down to lunch in a Burger King, a member of staff was tipping off the hacktivists.  As they checked into their hotel, another was feeding information about their room numbers into the IRC.
• Their personal e-mails were accessed, allowing counter-protesters to know the church's intentions and movements in advance.

The incredible show of unity meant that many legendary hackers came out of semi-retirement to add their strength; while people like @th3j35t3r, who usually uses his skills to combat Anonymous, found himself on side for once.

As I said, the universality of the backlash really did see old enemies standing side-by-side. It would be quite beautiful, if it wasn't for the circumstances surrounding it.  Or the wider implications.

The whole situation raises again those dark questions about Freedom of Speech.  While our emotional response is to scream, 'SHUT UP!' at the Westboro Baptist Church; our intellect should be weighing up the damage to our right to say what we like, when we like.

Naturally, with Freedom of Speech comes responsibility for what we say too.  The Westboro Baptist Church think that they're in the right, even with the avalanche of public opinion against them.  The hackers taking them down also think that they're in the right, and they do have the backing of seemingly everyone.

But if you remove websites, even those as hateful as these, then you also delete a dissenting voice.  And that can never be right.  Even now.