Cempaka Belanda: Anti-gay US church has right to picket funerals: court

"A Summary" – Apr 2, 2011 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Religion, Shift of Human Consciousness, 2012, Intelligent/Benevolent Design, EU, South America, 5 Currencies, Water Cycle (Heat up, Mini Ice Ace, Oceans, Fish, Earthquakes ..), Middle East, Internet, Israel, Dictators, Palestine, US, Japan (Quake/Tsunami Disasters , People, Society ...), Nuclear Power Revealed, Hydro Power, Geothermal Power, Moon, Financial Institutes (Recession, Realign integrity values ..) , China, North Korea, Global Unity,..... etc.) - (Text version)

"The Timing of the Great Shift" – Mar 21, 2009 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Text version)

“ … Here is another one. A change in what Human nature will allow for government. "Careful, Kryon, don't talk about politics. You'll get in trouble." I won't get in trouble. I'm going to tell you to watch for leadership that cares about you. "You mean politics is going to change?" It already has. It's beginning. Watch for it. You're going to see a total phase-out of old energy dictatorships eventually. The potential is that you're going to see that before 2013.
They're going to fall over, you know, because the energy of the population will not sustain an old energy leader ..."

"Update on Current Events" – Jul 23, 2011 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: The Humanization of God, Gaia, Shift of Human Consciousness, 2012, Benevolent Design, Financial Institutes (Recession, System to Change ...), Water Cycle (Heat up, Mini Ice Ace, Oceans, Fish, Earthquakes ..), Nuclear Power Revealed, Geothermal Power, Hydro Power, Drinking Water from Seawater, No need for Oil as Much, Middle East in Peace, Persia/Iran Uprising, Muhammad, Israel, DNA, Two Dictators to fall soon, Africa, China, (Old) Souls, Species to go, Whales to Humans, Global Unity,..... etc.)

"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it), Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse), Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version)

“… The Shift in Human Nature

You're starting to see integrity change. Awareness recalibrates integrity, and the Human Being who would sit there and take advantage of another Human Being in an old energy would never do it in a new energy. The reason? It will become intuitive, so this is a shift in Human Nature as well, for in the past you have assumed that people take advantage of people first and integrity comes later. That's just ordinary Human nature.

In the past, Human nature expressed within governments worked like this: If you were stronger than the other one, you simply conquered them. If you were strong, it was an invitation to conquer. If you were weak, it was an invitation to be conquered. No one even thought about it. It was the way of things. The bigger you could have your armies, the better they would do when you sent them out to conquer. That's not how you think today. Did you notice?

Any country that thinks this way today will not survive, for humanity has discovered that the world goes far better by putting things together instead of tearing them apart. The new energy puts the weak and strong together in ways that make sense and that have integrity. Take a look at what happened to some of the businesses in this great land (USA). Up to 30 years ago, when you started realizing some of them didn't have integrity, you eliminated them. What happened to the tobacco companies when you realized they were knowingly addicting your children? Today, they still sell their products to less-aware countries, but that will also change.

What did you do a few years ago when you realized that your bankers were actually selling you homes that they knew you couldn't pay for later? They were walking away, smiling greedily, not thinking about the heartbreak that was to follow when a life's dream would be lost. Dear American, you are in a recession. However, this is like when you prune a tree and cut back the branches. When the tree grows back, you've got control and the branches will grow bigger and stronger than they were before, without the greed factor. Then, if you don't like the way it grows back, you'll prune it again! I tell you this because awareness is now in control of big money. It's right before your eyes, what you're doing. But fear often rules. …”

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Anti-gay US church has right to picket funerals: court

RNW, 2 March 2011

A church that pickets military funerals with signs saying "Thank God for dead soldiers" and "God hates fags" is protected by the US constitution's right to free speech, the Supreme Court ruled Wednesday.

The U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday
upheld the Westboro Baptist Church's right to protest outside
of military funerals. (Associated Press)

"Speech is powerful. It can stir people to action, move them to tears of both joy and sorrow, and -- as it did here -- inflict great pain," said the decision in favor of the Westboro Baptist church, which pickets soldiers' funerals, claiming God killed them to show anger over US tolerance of homosexuality.

"On the facts before us, we cannot react to that pain by punishing the speaker," Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in an eight-to-one decision in favor of the church made up mainly of direct members of the family of founder and leader Fred Phelps.

Phelps was sued several years ago for defamation, invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of distress by the father of Marine Lance Corporal Matthew Snyder, who died in Iraq in 2006 -- and was not gay.

According to the Supreme Court decision, the Westboro Baptists picketed Matthew Snyder's funeral, carrying signs with slogans including "God Hates the USA/Thank God for 9/11," "America is Doomed, "Fag Troops," and "You're going to hell."

But they picketed peacefully and with police permission on private land about 1,000 feet (300 meters) from the Maryland church where the funeral was held, the decision says.

While the signs "fall short of refined social or political commentary... they reflect the fact that the church finds much to condemn in modern society," the justices said, characterizing the Westboro Baptist Church's message as "speech on a matter of public concern."

"The funeral setting does not alter that conclusion," the decision added.

The lone dissenting justice, Samuel Alito, denounced the church's "brutalization" of Snyder, which he said should not be allowed on the pretext of defending First Amendment rights to free speech.

"Our profound national commitment to free and open debate is not a license for the vicious verbal assault that occurred in this case," Alito said.

"In order to have a society in which public issues can be openly and vigorously debated, it is not necessary to allow the brutalization of innocent victims like the petitioner."

Many ordinary Americans were rooting for Snyder and his family, whose grief was compounded by the fact that the justices handed down their decision almost five years to the day that Matthew died in Iraq at the age of 20.

In a Facebook posting, Matthew's sister Sarah said she was "appalled and saddened that our country would allow this to happen."

"Matt was killed 3/3/06 in Iraq fighting for a country he completely believed in, fighting for the very rights that these people have taken to an entirely new level," she said.

A supporter of the family, Joey Zovich, posted the phone number of the Supreme Court and urged Americans to exercise their First Amendment right by phoning it to express their disgust.

But free speech advocates like lawyer Andrew Contiguglia hailed the decision -- even if they disagreed with the way the Westboro Baptists express themselves.

"This shows that the old adage 'I may disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it' still stands strong in the 21st century," Contiguglia said.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said the decision had found the fine balance between respecting the Snyder family's grief and not abandoning "core First Amendment principles designed to protect even the most unpopular speech on matters of public concern."

The justices, who had mulled arguments presented by both sides in the case since November, admitted that the decision was "narrow" and reached with difficulty.

"We are required in First Amendment cases to carefully review the record, and the reach of our opinion here is limited by the particular facts before us," they said.

"Westboro believes that America is morally flawed; many Americans might feel the same about Westboro," they wrote in their opinion, which upholds a 2009 appeal court ruling rejecting a federal jury's decision that awarded Snyder's father $11 million, reduced to $5 million, against the church.

Related Articles:

US gay marriage ban: US government drops defence of law

US military to begin training on gay troops change