If you have spoken to me recently, you might be aware that I have been spending a lot of time reading about and watching interviews with members of a “wonderful” (they really aren’t) group of people who call themselves the Westboro Baptist Church. This is a church of about 40 people, most of which are from the same family, who basically hold what they deem to be fundamentalist views which they say are taken directly from the Bible. In essence, they hold beliefs which most of the Christian world simply does not comprehend, the central one being that God hates the world and that he holds a “perfect hate” for all human beings who do not follow his commands and live up to the standard of his morals and such. If you want to visit their official website, it is “www.godhatesfags.com”, though I wouldn’t go there if you are not strong of heart, these people really know how to get to you and make you angry.
Personally, I first heard of the church roughly a year ago, when I heard about their attempts to picket the funerals of dead American soldiers, waving signs thanking God for the soldiers death. This was brought to my attention in a philosophy lesson, in which we were discussing Utilitarianism and then in another lesson when the topic was Fideism (the idea that we cannot use reason to understand God because we are mortal and have broken reason). Since then, I have had little reason to experience anything to do with them, but then I decided to type them into YouTube and I have since unveiled a true trove of interviews with their members, mainly with Shirley Phelps-Roper, the daughter of Fred Phelps who is the pastor of this church, and their main spokesperson.
Now, the first thing I want to point out about Shirley is that she is a very intelligent and well spoken woman and, I have to say, she has an admirable amount of conviction in her beliefs, though I will say, without a hint of reservation, that I do not agree with her on the majority of what she has to say, most of what she does say is a doctrine of hatred. However, I will admit that she is fascinating to listen to, she speaks with a great amount of passion and there can be no doubt that she truly believes what she has to say. At the end of the entry I will post some links to YouTube so you can listen to her for yourselves if you want.
My examinations into the church has revealed to me that they are Evil. Firstly, they preach a doctrine of hatred, arguing that God, (a being which in the doctrines of classical theism is described as being Omni benevolent, which is to say that he is all loving), actually hates the world. Most of the time, they are telling everybody that they are going to “go to hell” because they do not “believe in God with all their heart.” They also say that anybody who disagrees with them is “calling God a liar” and that “we cannot change God’s standard and replace it with our own”. They basically believe that only people who accept the Bible fundamentally and who follow God in the correct manner will get into Heaven. Also, the only people they say actually do this are the members of their own church. They also considered themselves to be the only real Christians in the world, arguing that the Catholic Church is the “biggest paedophile machine in the world”, as well as taking sections from the Bible which refers to prophets and speakers of the truth and such, likening these passages to their own lives and basically proclaiming themselves to be God’s chosen people.
The WBC create parody songs involving lots of uses of the words “hate”, “fag” and “death”. After nearly every tragedy to beset this world, such as 9/11, the Tsunamis, Earthquakes and even School Shootings, they make a press release saying “Thank God” that more people have been killed. This is because they consider all these events to be the “judgements” of God, and apparently, they have a duty to love all of God’s judgements.
Fundamentally, they say that they do not have “the big lie” which is that God loves everyone, and whenever they are asked about this, they spurt out several incoherent Bible quotations and then being to shout over whoever happens to be mad enough to try and interview them. Now, if we consider their attitudes towards various different things, we shall discover what kinds of people they really are. Well, as you could probably tell from the name of their website, they really don’t like the wonderful gay people we have in this world, and apparently, people who are gay, whom they dub “fags” or “sodomites”, are to blame for most of the evil in the world. Apparently, every member of America’s military deserves to return home in a body bag because America are mocking God by permitting the open practice of homosexuality. The WBC argue that being gay is the worst sin, something that God hates most of all (even more than murder or rape) as well as making many petitions to make homosexuality a capital crime. Also, unlike the official doctrine of the Catholic Church, which states that being gay is not a sin as long as it is not acted upon, the WBC argue that being gay is a curse from God and that no matter what you do, you will go to hell for this sin. If you even live in a society which allows “fags” in any form at all, you are a “fag enabler” and are going to hell all the same.
Speaking of Catholicism, the WBC have publicly announced their views concerning other religions, including Catholicism, Protestantism, Islam, Hinduism and Judaism. Concerning Catholicism, the church preys upon the Sex-Abuse scandal and openly describe members of the church as being “Vampires”, though not the kind which suck on blood, if you know what i mean. They condemn anyone who donates to the Church, apparently they are paying the wages of paedophiles, because it is logically possible to validly tar them all with the same brush. They also argue that their veneration of the Saints and of the Virgin Mary is breaking the ten commandments, for these things are idols. They place the same criticisms on the Eastern Orthodox churches which they argue are indistinguishable. The WBC mainly criticise other Christian sects because they lie about what God actually says. Fred Phelps has announced that
“Mohammed was a demon-possessed whoremonger and paedophile who contrived a 300-page work of Satanic fiction: The Quran!”
hence he has declared war on Islam as well. Not only that but the Hindu community were greet with the massage that they should:
Stop going a whoring after other gods and start serving the Living God in truth!
Jews have been told:
The only true Jews are Christians. The rest of the people who claim to be Jews aren't, and they are nothing more than typical, impenitent sinners ... the vast majority of Jews support fags. In fact, it is the official policy of Reformed Jews to support same-sex marriage. Of course, there are Jews who still believe God's law, but most of them have even departed from that.
They have also led campaigns such as “God Hates China” and “God Hates Italy”. Oddly enough, none of these caught on. Once, the planned to rally here, in the UK…we closed our borders to them and they are banned entry.
Oh, and it is also worth mentioning that Barrack Obama is the Antichrist. Apparently, he is part of the “Unholy Trinity” along with Satan and Pope Benedict XVI. They support this view with more empty quotes from the Bible, many of which are either mistranslated, misread or simply invented. Indeed, in several of the videos they have made reference to Bible Verses that I have not even heard of, not only that but when I looked through the many copies of the Bible we have in this house, I could not locate them. I wonder which Bible they’ve been reading.
So, what do these charming people do with their time? Why, they go around America protesting against…well…everything! They sing their parody songs, most of which are quite catchy, and wave their lovely signs and shout at people and then get really offended when people spit at them and run them out of town. However, no matter how much opposition they are greeted with, they simply take it in their stride, arguing that God’s true prophets were destined to be hated by the world.
Well, that is basically who these people are. I do not think that it is really worth my going into the ins and outs of their arguments, because you can find them in the following videos or contact them directly (though they will likely say you’re going to hell, sorry). What I will say is that the WBC are what I like to thing of as a group of cancerous human beings who have become so indoctrinated in their own little ways of thinking that they are unable to see the bigger picture. They are a prime example of exactly why fundamentalism is a threat to any form of peace and as to why the Bible or any other religious doctrine should be taken word for word. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against religion at all, i think that spirituality and God and belief can enrich our lives inevitably. I am a supporter of faith, but I revile zealotry, and anyone who acts as a zealot brings a bad name to anyone who has faith.
Personally, when I call myself a Christian, it is because I attempt to follow in the example of Jesus Christ. If you think to yourself, “What would Jesus do?” every single time it comes back to “love". You have to act out of Love and out of Compassion and tolerance. These people dare to claim that this world has “no tolerance for the word of God”, which is highly ironic when you consider how little tolerance these people show for other people. Personally, I cannot see any logical ethical argument against homosexuality, nor do I think that all religions but mine are false. I believe that all religions are different paths to the same fundamental truths, however, I do not think that this is so for the views of the WBC. They promote hatred whilst claiming that they are going to lead America and the World forwards where actually their views would hurl us back several hundred years in terms of progress. I also believe that, whether or not homosexuality or abortion is a sin, the nation has no right to prohibit such actions as they are part of the “private realm of morality” and they are people’s individual choices, not for the state to interfere with.
It think it is evident that these people do not follow in such an example. What these people are doing is an insult to the entire world, making themselves into Gods when they deserve no such honour. They claim to follow the scriptures, when they do not do so, they invent interpretations and then proclaim themselves the one true people of the Lord. The greatest irony? They attack religions such as Buddhism which have existed in one form or another long before the Bible was ever conceived. They attempt to content with thousands of years of debate and knowledge with their claims of hatred and, unsurprisingly, they fail.
That is all I really have to say about the WBC, that they are a hideous group of people. Thank God the UK have barred them, or I would have lost all hope in humanity. My advice? Look into them, listen to them, maybe even contact them , because these people can teach you so much about what is wrong with the world. The greatest irony is that what is wrong with the world is people like them, who hold such hatred in their hearts it chokes all else.
Learn from the WBC about how not to live your life. Tolerance is one of the virtues this world most needs and these people have nothing of the sort.
Happy watching.
That being said, here are some videos I watched and I think you should too:
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