I hesitate to even mention the evil folks of Westboro Baptist. They crave any attention or publicity that they can get. But, I want to make clear a few things in regards to them because some people might get confused by their name.
This group of people, and their cult like leader Fred Phelps, have made a name for themselves by protesting with very offensive signs at the funerals of soldiers, politicians and officials. This last weekend there was a tragic shooting of a congresswoman. She lived. Six others died, including a nine year old girl. There are reports that the group from Westboro is going to come and picket at these funerals. ( I have since seen conflicting reports about whether they will or will not picket at this funeral)
I won’t detail what their signs say, but they are very offensive and completely inappropriate for people who are grieving at a funeral.
I want to set the record straight. Although they claim the name ‘baptist’ they are NOT a part of the Southern Baptist Convention. In fact, they are not officially a part of any brand of official Baptist organizations. They are completely their own independent group( I won’t even call them a church, because they aren’t a true church).
Beyond that, I don’t think that they are even Christian. Their actions do not reflect a group of people who understand the gospel of Jesus Christ and are seeking to follow Christ. For example, Jesus himself said that the greatest commandment is to love God and the second is to love your neighbor as yourself(Matthew 22:37-39). The actions of Westboro are completely devoid of any real vestige of true, Christ-like love. Jesus modeled compassion. Jesus did speak the truth, but He was always demonstrating love and compassion. These folks at Westboro are not following Christ’s example. I doubt whether they are truly Christian.
We do live in a free country. I have the freedom to write and speak about my objections and opinions about anyone. Freedom means that crazy people get to have their right to free speech as well. Freedom also comes with responsibility, which these people at Westboro seem inclined to ignore. Set aside Christian values for a moment, common decency should keep these folks from picketing at the funeral of a little girl! Come on! Grow up!
This group of people exhibit some clear signs of being in a cult. A cult has one dominant, authoritative leader, an aberrant teaching, and an antagonistic philosophy. This group is run by one man. What he says is law – that is a hallmark of a cult-like leader. The members of this church are made up primarily of his family members. They have a weird, antagonistic philosophy. There are some clear comparisons between this man and David Koresh.
It is also unfortunate that they chose to use the name ‘baptist’. It bothers me that someone might associate who I am as a baptist with what these people at Westboro stand for. I do not want to be lumped in with those nut-jobs.
Here is a great quote from Christian apologist and blogger Phil Johnson:
It is unfortunate that in the media (and thus in the minds of many non-Christians) the Fred Phelps family have become the representative face of religious opposition to homosexuality. For the record, they are not Christians at all. They are gospel-corrupters who have exchanged the gospel of Jesus Christ for a twisted message of fierce, ungodly hatred.
The true gospel is good news about forgiveness and cleansing from every kind of sin—from homosexuality and heterosexual fornication to white-collar sins such as greed and fraud (1 Corinthians 6:9-11). But the Westboro Baptist heretics have exchanged the gospel for a graceless, hopeless harangue that is an embarrassment and an affront to true Christians—and a gross insult to both the Person and the work of Christ.
Such gospel-twisting is expressly condemned in Scripture as the profoundest kind of blasphemy, a desecration of the Name of Christ, and a more horrific crime against God than any sexual perversion. See Galatians 1:7-8; 2 John 7-11.
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