westboro baptist church

I read about that group & its plans to demonstrate at the Amish funerals. I couldn't believe a "Christian" church could be so utterly insensitive. Plus, they sound absolutely deranged.: American servicemen and women are dying overseas because God is displeased that the United States tolerates homosexuals? Huh?

Of course, msolga. You have to have faith that their statement is true!

totally sicko

I know almost nothing about the Baptists & their religious beliefs.
I'm wondering if this is some extreme fringe group, or would most Baptists subscribe to their agenda?

Only in america is right!

I was driving through this little town once a few years ago. I was on my way home from a trip. As I came up the hill to the middle of the town there on one side of the road there were what appeared to be a bunch of picketers. They were holding up signs and yelling at people as they drove by. I was like, "Humm..." So I stopped at the light right there and look around to read their signs. I don't remember what they all said. The primary ones I remember said "Turn or Burn" and "Jesus Saves".

The light turns green so I begin to pull forward and some of those standing on the road smiled and waved, the others begin yelling something about "Don't choose to go to hell, choose Jesus, HE SAVES!" I decided to pull over and talk to these people. So I did. It was rather funny actually. Some of them looked scared almost when they watched me pull over, get out, and start walking towards them. I walked right up to this old lady holding a turn or burn sign.

She looked at me wide eyed and I introduced myself and said, "Do you do street ministry?" She looked confused, so I turned to the young man standing next to her and asked the same question. He looked confused as well. I asked, "Do you know what I mean by street ministry?" The old lady pipes up... "Harumph! We are from the First Baptist Church of ______. this IS our street ministry." I explained to them what "street ministry was to me and then I said, "Ok... do you ever offer to pray for anyone out here?", "Well, no..." she said. "Ok, so how many people do you actually talk to while you are doing this?", "Uuuh well..." she paused for a moment and then say's, "We don't need to talk to anyone because our signs do."

I asked if they knew of anyone who would like to do street ministry with me. I told her I'd come back to the town some evening if anyone from their church was interested in actually talking to people. She said, "Oh my... no. Not unless you are a regular attender of our church. Tell you what, why don't you come back to our church next Sunday and maybe we can talk about it more." I was like, "No thanks lady. Here's my phone number if any of you ever decide you actually want to talk to someone instead of just waving around signs hoping they "get the message." And I left.

*shakes her head*

It saddens me that some christians will go to the extent they will and sincerely believe that God wants them to do that. That some how they are glorifying Him through treating people the way they are. Religion really sucks sometimes.

This clown and his "church" have pulled their sick tricks before. Fred Phelps, who created the Westboro "Baptist" Church (no already established Baptist ogranization will acknowledge him) was once an attorney in the state of Kansas. He requested a transcript from a court recorder on a certain date, and did not get it. Although that did not affect his case, he sued, and badgered the woman unmercifully, crossexamining her every day for a week. When he lost, he stated, in court, on appeal, that he had eight witnesses he was willing to call, and who when sworn would support accusations he had made against the court recorder (for example, he called her a slut, and attempted to subpoena a former boyfriend). But this woman obtained sworn, notarized affidavits from all eight people stating that Phelps had not contacted them, and that they were not prepared to swear and testify to anything about the woman. Barely avoiding a prosecution for perjury, Phelps was disbarred.

That's when he went into the religion business. Anyone with a sufficiently strong stomach can visit his site, "God Hates Fags-dot-com," to see how truly sick he is. A gay man in Wyoming, Matthew Shepard, was bound to a fence by some college boys who then beat him to death. Phelps and company picketted his funeral. A play about the death of Shepard tours the United States, and Phelps sends his minions out to picket every performance of which he learns.

He also claims that "God hates America," and attempts to picket funerals for soldiers and sailors killed in the line of duty. Congress finally passed an act this year to prohibit demonstrations with 300 feet of a cemetary entrance and within 150 feet of any road leading to a cemetary in which a funeral is taking place.

Phelps has thirteen children, and four of them (they are all now of adult age, i believe) have left the church and repudiated him. They say his religious beliefs were feeble to begin with, although his supporters claim he is a biblical scholar (he has used the money he has mulcted from his cult members to amass quite a collection of ancient and medieval religious texts or biographies of religious figures). His estranged adult children claim that has abandoned religion altogether, except as a pretext, and that he has become obsessionally addicted to hate, and that all his preaching consists of is an insistence on those things and persons who God hates.

Phelps was voted out of the traditional Baptist church to which he had once belonged, and the Westboro Baptist Church consists of his family ("loyal" children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren) and the families of a few members of the former congregation which followed him to his new "Church." It is estimated that this "Church" has about 150 members, and that 90 of them are his family members. This is most definitely a case of someone whose outrageous behavior has catapulted him to a fame which his character does not merit.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, the premier organization in the United States tracking hate groups, has listed the Westboro Baptist Church as a hate group--as though anyone needed to be told.

this a fringe group

from wikipedia, westboro baptist church

Thanks, Setanta & djjd.
It's a relief to know that they're just the lunatic fringe. Phew!

They're just a bunch of haters. Kind of cult-like.

Hey Buddy, did you know that Phelps and his family members will be arrested if they cross the border into Canada? Maybe you should visit his "God Hates Canada-dot-com" site sometime, although i suspect its not much different than "God Hates Sweden-dot-com," or "God Hates America-dot-com"--or however many other "God Hates" sites he maintains. He went ballistic when the Canadian Surpreme Court approved homosexual marriages.

Well... there's a big surprise.

Hows the weather in Cornyville these days, Miss Eppie?

It's positively weird, isn't it, this concept of a hating god?

Fair and mild. No storms on the horizon. How are things on your end of the world setanta?

Well not really msolga. The majority seem to see God in that manner actually. I can't say that I blame people though when you have "christians" like this walking around, starting cults, hating everyone. "Christians" like everyone else, represent what they believe internally on the outside. Yet it still seems to me that God is the one getting the bad rap here for what people do in "His name".

The majority? Really? This is news to me, hephzibah! Well, were I live, anyway. But then, politics & religion haven't gotten nearly so entangled here. (If that's what you're referring to.)

One of the principle sources for the life of King Charles II and the period of the Stuart Restoration was Bishop Burnet. Not yet a Bishop, Gilbert Burnet was the confessor of King Charles. He once wrote a letter to a friend in which he said that the King had a strange notion of God's love, and quoted Charles as saying: "The only things that God hates are that we be evil and that we design mischief."

That's an interesting quote, but what is more interesting to me is that Burnet thought that a strange notion. It appears that he had a much longer list of those things which God hates.

LOL Oops, I should have been more specific. I was actually talking about the majority in this arena. The religion forums, chat rooms, and all the let's talk about god and religion type of thing.

It sure does.