Tolerances of Free Speech

Societal Tolerances of Free Speech

Bryn Anderson

HUM 176

December 1st, 2012

Daniel Kreutzer

Societal Tolerances of Free Speech

How society tolerates free speech will always be a question that is asked yet this question must be continually asked. There are moral and ethical boundaries that civilized society agrees upon so that mutual respect and harmony will flourish. Many instances have occurred in the past ten years where social tolerances of free speech have been in question. Obamacare, peak oil, privatization, the Iraq War lies, Westboro Church, and the 4 deaths in Benghazi all have made headlines lately. Out of all of them the one that pushes the tolerances of free speech to the very limit are the actions of the Westboro Church. This self-proclaimed church and its ideology of hate have been in the news time and time again for its stance on mostly homosexuality. This church is considered a hate group and is monitored by the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center. They have been known to burn and stomp on the American flag as well as demonstrate at celebrity Funerals. Established in 1955 the Westboro Church has pushed the boundaries on free speech causing society to consider making boundaries. The Church would have probably not been given any attention or thought of as a problem but then it started to demonstrate at funerals of the military that were brought back from the wars.

With its website whose url is www.godhatesfags.com the Westboro Church continues to promote its anti-gay rhetoric message of hate. The church spends over $250 thousand dollars a year picketing; they have had over 41,000 protests in over 61 cities since the early 90’s and they do not seem to be letting up. The group first made the national spotlight when they picketed the funeral of Mathew Shepard in 1998. Mathew was a young man from Laramie, Wyoming who had been beaten to death by two men for being homosexual. There seems to be no limit to how low this group...