Burying a child is tough. Burying a child while protesters say she was killed because God is punishing the U.S. is probably close to impossible.

That would have been the case during the Thursday funeral of 9-year-old Christina Taylor Green, who was killed in the attack on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords last Saturday in Tucson, Ariz. But radio stations in Arizona and Canada offered airtime for Westboro Baptist Church so the church would not picket the funeral, according to a story by the AP.

While the church can picket funerals and say what it pleases under the First Amendment, it’s disheartening to think the church would picket the funeral of a child.

Thankfully, though, radio hosts like Mike Gallagher stepped in to trade airtime for the church not picketing the funeral.

“I don’t like the idea of giving them the satisfaction of this, but I believe my radio airwaves are less important than them hurting families,” Gallagher said to the AP.

Gallagher said it will be the third time he has given the church radio time to prevent them from picketing funerals.

It is unfortunate that radio stations have to hand over the microphone to Westboro Baptist Church so it can broadcast its message of hate. But the stations are doing the families of Green and U.S. District Judge John Roll, whose funeral the church also planned to picket, a tremendous service by sparing them more heartache and shielding them from the stress the church’s picketing would bring.

Associate/opinion editor Marshall Doig for the editorial board.