The WBC are great trolls, but they're not the greatest trolls.
A source from Anonymous confronts Shirley Phelps-Roper from the Westboro Baptist Church, calling the supposed letter sent to Westboro by Anonymous a hoax, and then proceeds to hack the Westboro Baptist Church website during the interview.
This is interesting. When Pol Pot or Stalin persecuted it was because they where atheists apparently. When the WBC persecute it is because they are not religious.
Shirley Phelps is just stupid and delusional. Anonymous could eat her up and spit her out. She really had no idea who she was talking to in that clip.
They are not stupid or delusional. They know exactly what they're doing. It might matter if she's "owned" by another interview guest or documentary maker if their goal was to actually grow the movement. But it's not. Making people upset and making people happy when they're "put in their place" both attract an audience. Think about it ... these are people that write essays about why God hates Burkina Faso and Turkmenistan on a sleek interactive website.
WBC claim to be Christian. In a sense, they do believe, from my understanding, the basic Christian gospel. When it comes to living with the Bible teaches, they don't do that at all. The Bible says to be loving and kind to people. The WBC are the opposite of that.
The WBC claim they are trying to warn people against sin. What they are actually doing is turning a lot of people off to Christianity as a whole. Christians are called to reach out to people in love, but the WBC reach out to people with hate. It doesn't work very well. The WBC also believe and preach that God hates people who are sinners. That's not Biblical.
Romans 5:7-8
7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Why would God die for people he hated?
The WBC also acts like they have earned their salvation. Nobody earns salvation. It is a free gift from God. I am saved because I repented of my sin and committed to serving the Lord. I was once a sinner just like any sinner out there. I'm not better than them. I'm simply forgiven. The WBC acts like they are better than everybody else, and they believe that they were preselected to go to Heaven and everybody else in America is going to hell, since America supports homosexuality. I don't believe that is true, either.
The Bible says that homosexuality and a lot of other things are sins. We are still called to love those people and all sinners, because God loves them. If you love people, you might be able to reach out to them in love. If you hate them, you turn them off immediately. I don't think the WBC care about peoples' souls. They just want to feel superior to other people.
I can completely understand why people dislike them - I dislike them too, as an atheist. But it's wrong to distort what they're saying. If you want to attack them, do it based on the things they actually claim.
The WBC in no way claim they earned salvation. On the contrary, they believe that they received salvation as a free gift, through the grace of God - just like you. It was not something they did, but something they believe Jesus did for anyone who is saved.
Where they clearly differ with you is that they believe Jesus only died for the saved - he didn't die for everybody. His sacrifice did not remove sin from disbelieving reprobates, and as a consequence they will be punished in Hell. In their eyes, God's love is only for his flock. For everyone else, there is only hatred and wrath.
I have to agree with them that this point of view is much more Biblically coherent and logically consistent than the idea that "God loves everyone". The God of the Bible can't love everyone, or he wouldn't spend so much of his time destroying and threatening damnation.
Comments
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZJwSjor4hM
Shirley Phelps is just stupid and delusional. Anonymous could eat her up and spit her out. She really had no idea who she was talking to in that clip.
Wonder who this Anonymous is...sounds kind of British to me.
thanks for the link. Very interesting.
Do I detect a theme here?
They are not stupid or delusional. They know exactly what they're doing. It might matter if she's "owned" by another interview guest or documentary maker if their goal was to actually grow the movement. But it's not. Making people upset and making people happy when they're "put in their place" both attract an audience. Think about it ... these are people that write essays about why God hates Burkina Faso and Turkmenistan on a sleek interactive website.
I can completely understand why people dislike them - I dislike them too, as an atheist. But it's wrong to distort what they're saying. If you want to attack them, do it based on the things they actually claim.
The WBC in no way claim they earned salvation. On the contrary, they believe that they received salvation as a free gift, through the grace of God - just like you. It was not something they did, but something they believe Jesus did for anyone who is saved.
Where they clearly differ with you is that they believe Jesus only died for the saved - he didn't die for everybody. His sacrifice did not remove sin from disbelieving reprobates, and as a consequence they will be punished in Hell. In their eyes, God's love is only for his flock. For everyone else, there is only hatred and wrath.
I have to agree with them that this point of view is much more Biblically coherent and logically consistent than the idea that "God loves everyone". The God of the Bible can't love everyone, or he wouldn't spend so much of his time destroying and threatening damnation.