Strange Bedfellows

From The Washington Post:

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A Kansas church group that protests at military funerals nationwide filed suit in federal court, saying a Missouri law banning such picketing infringes on religious freedom and free speech.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed the lawsuit Friday in the U.S. District Court in Jefferson City, Mo., on behalf of the fundamentalist Westboro Baptist Church, which has outraged mourning communities by picketing service members' funerals with signs condemning homosexuality.

The church and the Rev. Fred Phelps say God is allowing troops, coal miners and others to be killed because the United States tolerates gay men and lesbians.

Where to begin.

It is no surprise that the ACLU is aiding the organization calling itself the Westboro Baptist Chruch. They are able to serve three goals with their support for WBC. One, they are able to join in with an organization which is celebrating the deaths of American servicemen. Two, they are able to defend the general right to carry on protests in the most obnoxious way possible. Three, they are able to assist in bringing publicity to an organization which misrepresents Christianity in a way which makes the true Church appear not just bigoted but over-the-top crazy as well.