Westboro Church Group.

[Spaniard]

XXDarrienX posted a link to Fred Phelps, the leader of the Westboro Baptist Church.

Sadly, these people are real. In my opinion, they are the very definition of what religion isn't. I'm not religious, but I'm pretty sure that, if I did believe in a God/dess/Buddha etc, that he wouldn't, according to most religious views (or so I think, anyway) want people spreading such vile hate in his name.

This "Church", as it stands, monitored by the Anti-Defamation League, and classed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Their 'mission' is summed up here: (Taken from the wikipedia article - Westboro Baptist Church)

"The Church bases its work around the belief expressed by its best known slogan and the address of its primary website, "God hates fags", and expresses the opinion, based on its Biblical eisegesis, that nearly every tragedy in the world is linked to homosexuality – specifically society's increasing tolerance and acceptance of gay, lesbian, and bisexual people. It maintains that God hates homosexuals above all other kinds of "sinners"[6] and that homosexuality should be a capital crime."

Not only that, but they seriously put hate on other religions.


" Whatever righteous cause the Jewish victims of the 1930s-40s Nazi Holocaust had... has been drowned in sodomite semen. American taxpayers are financing this unholy monument to Jewish mendacity and greed and to filthy fag lust. Homosexuals and Jews dominated Nazi Germany...The Jews now wander the earth despised, smitten with moral and spiritual blindness by a divine judicial stroke...And God has smitten Jews with a certain unique madness...Jews, thus perverted, out of all proportion to their numbers energize the militant sodomite agenda...Jews are the real Nazis."

"In His retaliatory rage God is killing Americans with Muslim IEDs: "Saying Touch not my anointed, and do my prophets no harm." 1 Chron 16:22. "


"So what if our guys flushed copies of the Quran down the toilet? We hope they did. They probably did; We hope they flush more. Mohammed was a demon-possessed whoremonger and pedophile who contrived a 300-page work of Satanic fiction: The Quran! Like America's own whoremonger and pedophile wangled his own hokey Book of Mormon!"

They've even been picketing funerals of soldiers, I believe.. Though I'm not sure on that one.

[Foxglove8778]

they are picketing funerals with signs that read "Thank God for Dead Soldiers".

hypocrits.

[Boozy]

I personally can't imagine that God, if he exists, hates anyone. There is no such thing as "righteous" hate. Its always vile and wrong.

What the hell is up their obsession with gay sex, anyway? Methinks they doth protest too much, if you know what I mean...

[TheRoo]

They have picketed soldiers' funerals. Their "reasoning" behind this is that the death of American servicemen in Iraq is a result of the U.S. being tolerant of homosexuality, and God is punishing us. They have also picketed the funeral of Matthew Shepard and people who have died of AIDS. In response to this, some states have created laws limiting protests at funerals.

I have been to their website, and it is the most disturbing thing I have ever seen on the internet. They have signs saying "Thank God for AIDS" and "Thank God for 9/11". One more creepy thing about this bunch is their "church" membership. Every one of the hundred or so in the bunch is related to Phelps.

[AFPheonix]

....If Jews are militant sodomites, then what does that make Jesus, also a Jew?

Makes me wonder if Mr. Phelps got touched inappropriately by a dirty uncle or something, to have so much hate in his heart.

[Spaniard]

There's a bunch of clips out there of a reporter who goes along and stays with them for 3 weeks.

The Clip 1

About the children not understanding

[MadMike]

Has anyone else noticed a resemblence between Fred and the evil preacher guy from Poltergiest 2?

[Rapscallion]

Hmmm.

I don't agree with Phelps and his ilk's continued existence, and I rather suspect his group will die out within twenty years of his death, but I'm baffled by the way posters are saying a religion should be about happy things.

Thuggee, for example, was most definitely not fluffy bunnies and light - the thuggee revered Kali and one of their rituals was to murder travellers.

Religion is not just about doing good in the world, though it could cheerfully be argued that it should. If you examine the texts of most religions, you'll find some nasty elements - the old testament has quite a supply of these, as does the koran.

Religion is about doing as you believe, and in that Phelps et al are as religious as possible. That they're a set of wankers is evident, but there's no way you can tell me they're not religious.

Rapscallion

[Boozy]

Obviously the Phelps group is religious. They practically define religious fervour.

My personal belief system holds that God is not vengeful or judgemental. That is all I was trying to express. I do not define religion as only "good" things. I define it as a set of beliefs based on faith apart from evidence. The Westboro Church meets that definition.

[Teysa]

This is what I believe. Whether homosexuality is a sin or not, is between God and the homosexual. (I've seen convincing arguments on both sides of the issue, so I'll just leave that one up to God. He knows more than I do anyways.) Whether it is or isn't though, being hateful and spiteful towards homosexuals is certainly sinful. Celebrating someone getting a horrible disease because of a 'sin' is just wrong on so many levels. Rejoicing in the deaths of people because you think they're all sinners is also wrong.

As a Christian, I believe we should help those who are less fortunate or who have fallen on hard times, not condemn them or make them feel even worse. Yes, sometimes those hard times are the person's own fault, but every one of us has gone through difficult times of our own making. It's times like those that we need kindness and compassion more than ever.

[AFPheonix]

While numerous religions are and have been violent, Christianity, if we follow Christ's example, is a religion of love for each other, even as others hate us.

Yes, even a religion of love can be twisted and used for evil, and this one has been many times and continues to be used wrongly, but at it's heart it is a religion of forgiveness, kindness, thoughtfulness, and love.

[Spaniard]

Slightly off topic.

I've never understood that myself. Christianity, at it's heart, is meant to be about following Jesus' example of treating everyone, regardless of what they are, as equal, essentially.

I'm not religious, but I personally do my best to do that, because it's just the right thing to do. Sometimes I fail, but I do my hardest.

Yet some people, those ones being the extreme in religious fervour of a bad kind, seem to try and force their way on others not of their 'correct' persuasion.

What does one's religious belief matter, if the person is a good person?

[rahmota]

Missed responding to this earlier today.

Phelps and co are definately the worst of the worst when it comes to the religious intolerant freaks.

And yes most unfortunately they picket soldier's funerals. Fortunately there has been some counter to that. When I worked at the dealership I worked around bikers and according to them the Bortherhood, Hell's Angels and the Iron Horsemen all agreed to be at soldier's funerals to stand witness against Phelps and pay their respects to the soldiers. I don't know if that was true for sure but I am not inclined to disbelieve it.

I'll agree that as long as a person does more good in general than harm then what does it matter who they sleep with or which divine being they worship if any at all.

[Rapscallion]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriot_guard for the anti-Phelps movement.

Makes me think there's some chance for humanity.

Rapscallion

[Kara_CS]

Living in Kansas, I've seen Phelps and his followers in action (the psychos are based in Topeka). Try to imagine my mother's reaction when we went to Topeka when I was 7 years old and, seeing them standing around waving their signs and screaming at passing cars, I asked her "God is love. Why do they say he hates people?"

His entire congregation is made up of his family. They're not even really a church. No one is allowed to go to Westboro Baptist Church unless he says they can. While it's true what Rap said that religion isn't all about peace and love, the point of Christianity is not to spread hate. While the Bible says that God despises sin, he does not hate people themselves. It is also not our place to pass condemnation on others (aside from the courts). That is reserved for God alone. And when the time comes for Phelps, I think he's in for a very big surprise when he stands before God for his Judgement.

The Patriot Guard deserves God's blessing. Most of them ride their bikes through the area I live in on Sundays (there's a large group of Motorcycles for Christ around here and they go to different small towns for lunch every Sunday so you can see and hear them riding through town and covering the highways). My daddy was almost killed in Iraq 2 years ago in a mortar attack and there would have been serious trouble if he had died and Phelps showed up at his funeral. I have redneck in my blood and my relatives would have beaten the WBC people with their own picket signs. Free speech shouldn't be able to protect them from nearly all the obscene things I've seen them display and yell over the years, let alone disrespecting the dead.