What do *you* think of Fred Phelps and the Westboro "church"?

[lyonessnyc]

 Someone I've known for a very long time says that he's not seen very many Christians condemning the Westboro "church people." I told him he hasn't been listening.

Do me a favor gang -- please speak up. What do *you* think of Fred Phelps and his "church"?

Comments

[minstrlmummr]

Phelps doesn't speak for me. Nor does he speak for most of the Christians I know, many of whom are too busy living their lives as best they can to make public statements of repudiation. I can't explain why people who HAVE press offices (like Councils of Churches) do not repudiate Westboro, except that maybe they'd have to say the exact same thing every time Phelps rears his ugly head 8P

Phelps is a hate-mongering lunatic. I fervently believe he'd be a hate-mongering lunatic no matter which faith he chose for dressing up his vitriol.

There are passages in the New Testament that mention false prophets claiming God's and/or Christ's authority for their actions. (I always have to go look up whether Jesus or Paul was the one who coined the phrase ''By their fruits shall ye know them.'' BRB)

Found It 8)

[minstrlmummr]

It was Jesus, according to Matthew 7

Re: Found It 8)

[handlebar605]

"Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire."

So what this is saying to me, is that Christians need to police their own ranks. There should be some kind of religious court, which can go in & stop a person who is spewing hate & other kinds of vitriol under the guise of being a Christian.

The only problem with a Religious court, is you may start getting things like Iran, and Afghanistan where the Religious Court/Leaders believe they are the Only Leaders/Courts that their people should have.

The Short Answer Is, "It's Complicated"...

[minstrlmummr]

We're talking about a religion whose deity stated "No man cometh unto the Father but by me", which was twisted in only a few centuries into "join our church or be killed in this world and damned in the next

Re: The Short Answer Is, "It's Complicated"...

[stringlady]

Just to clarify a few points

Re: Found It 8)

[stringlady]

We had such a court. It was called the Inquisition. (*Not* the Spanish Inquisition, which ignored every directive laid down by the Vatican, starting with "this only applies to Christians...")

I think we will agree that it didn't work very well.