McBell
Unbound
define the parameters that make for a "religious group".
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WBC a real church, or an elaborate scam?
- Thread starter Kalidas
- Start date
So...I would think the simplest answer in this case is probably the one that makes the most sense.
Fred Phelps has been doing the religion thing a long time.
Fred Phelps - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
You think he's been working undercover or something? You gotta be kidding me. Not to mention that multiple family members have left the church of recent times, including a granddaughter that was fairly high up in church heirarchy. You would think at some point, someone would have mentioned something about it all being a scam, but that has absolutely not been the message that has come out.
Or by 'leadership' do you just mean Phelps himself?
Methinks you're looking for conspiracies because you want them to be there. If you have some evidence, by all means, put it forwards.
Pagan_Patriot
Active Member
Ya... I wonder if they are just stirring up trouble... Someone should go spy on them. They make us look bad aha.
We have a language filter here at RF. If you don't try to outsmart it with spelling and symbols, your pretty good to go around here. We can even say friggin if we like to.
You will get a friendly message from the staff if you go too far. As long as you don't habitually set the filter off, all is good.
We can't filter damn or God on a religious forum and they should not be used in the same sentence. We try to keep things simple if people are not being attacked.
Pagan_Patriot
Active Member
Ah alright thanks. Ya, they're some ballsy people...
Not as much as you think. They lodged in my town and decided it was not a good environment to exercise their rights here. We where prepared to deal with them and they knew we where not going to play around.
Pagan_Patriot
Active Member
I just can't imagine them being legit. How do they get all that money to travel? I know they're attorneys, but they're well known and disliked on tv, so who would be their client? And their church is small too. Like 72 people. And what reason do they have to do what they do?
dust1n
Zindīq
What if we are literally talking about God damning someone? I mean, to be fair, God damns.
"Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation." Roman 13:2
Kalidas
Well-Known Member
A group of people collecting for the sake of religion?
Shermana
Heretic
That link kind of ignores the possibility that someone else could be propping them up to serve as some sort of fall guy.
Pagan_Patriot
Active Member
Well we can't really know unless we know these people personally. My problem with this is that it gives all of Christianity a bad name. Sometimes when I have a discussion with people, they tell me that Christianity is so bad for the world, and when I ask them what have Christians done in modern day that is so bad, they always talk about the WBC. I know, it's a pathetic attempt to demonize some looney protestors and make us all look our to be bad people, but it's still annoying.
They don't represent us at all.
Edit: It's like when they try to say that all Muslims are like the Taliban, but then that's dumb too, because at least the WBC is non violent.
They don't represent us at all.
Edit: It's like when they try to say that all Muslims are like the Taliban, but then that's dumb too, because at least the WBC is non violent.
bp789
Member
Here's an online book I found online called Addicted to Hate which is essentially describes what it was like growing up in the Phelps household (It was written by either Mark or Nate Phelps, forgot which). I forgot the exact details, since it's been so long since I've read it. But the gist of it is Fred Phelps didn't have that great of a childhood. He eventually became more religious and followed some sort of Calvinist theology, but even the most strict religious Christian in his area was not strict enough for him. The home life essentially consisted of lots and lots of abuse. Then, since the kids were getting closer and closer to legal age, he was forced to ease up a bit, and he used religion as a way to channel his anger, and the kids are still being brainwashed a few generations later. As far as why they have lots of money, it's because Phelps wanted all of his kids to become lawyers, so they did and they're pretty good at it (they're surprisingly pretty nice if you're their client). There's also some more stuff by former member Nate Phelps, who did an IAmA on reddit IAmAn Ex-Member of the Westboro Baptist Church : IAmA
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Pagan_Patriot
Active Member
Oh I see. That's not good that he had a bad childhood... On their defense, I think that they do care about their kids. I really don't like what they say, especially about the military, but watching one of those documentaries, I saw when one of the kids got hit when a guy from a car threw a soda bottle at his head, and the mom rushed over to him, and when she was talking to the reporter about how much she opposed fornication. In a way, I sorta sympathize with them, and the fact that so many people don't like them makes me feel sorry for them, but I wish they would stop what they did with the protesting. With all that money, they could start a charity and show people the good side of Christianity, which is helping the less fortunate.
Shermana
Heretic
That would exactly be the goal of making such a plant.
Personally I can find hundreds of reasons to write off most Christians, but the WBC-angle is just...wrong. It's such low hanging fruit and that's exactly what I imagine their paymasters would want.
Pagan_Patriot
Active Member
hah, what would make you write most of us off? =p
McBell
Unbound
So then what you are asking is why the WBC gathers together?