Freedom cerainly does have a cost. Not only in the lives of those who have sacrificed all in the military, but in how we allow those who wish to destroy our freedoms to affect those freedoms. The positive side is that we still live in a country that has freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and essentially freedom to pursue a sense of well-being in our society. The negative side is expressed by the WBC folks who abuse their freedoms, knowing that for the most part they can get away with it. It leaves us with some choices. We either continue to allow folks walking on the negative side to erode our freedoms through well-meaning, but intrusive, legislation, or we agree to take the hits to our society that will be inevitable if the former is not done. It's like talking out of both sides of your mouth at the same time. One one side, you will criticize government for passing laws that "protect us from ourselves." On the other we will bemoan the risks that the government allows to exist because they aren't passing legislation to curb that kind of behavior.
My concern, although biblically expected, is that organizations such as WBC bring a bad name to Christianity. Believe me, these are a radical sect of the same genre as any militant Muslim in that they are using the most public way of getting society to notice them. My Bible tells me that this kind of behavior is sinful and not honoring to God or Christianity as a whole. But Jesus spoke of this in the parable of the wheat and tares. His answer? Wait until judgment day and all things will be sorted out.
But there are many of us who don't want to wait until judgment day. We want to employ that instant gratification so prevalent in our society and do something now! And so it goes, seesawing back and forth between the two sides - and governmental leaders caught in the middle, trying to protect our freedoms while trying to protect us. If you would like to take part in that exercise, let me respectfully suggest you run for some office on that platform and see how far it gets you.
Mesquite Bob