Sunday, February 17, 2013

Soap Box Saturday - Westboro Baptist Church


First I'll let you read the story -  
In March 2009, Libby Phelps Alvarez left the Westboro Baptist Church, saying goodbye to a life of picketing the funerals of dead soldiers and holding up controversial anti-gay signs.
Nearly four years later, the granddaughter of Fred Phelps, Sr., founder and pastor of the Westboro Baptist Church, gave an emotional interview to NBC's "Today Show," in which she described the controlling life of hatred and intolerance that she's left behind.
"They think that they are the only ones who are going to heaven and if you don't go to that church you're going to hell,” Alvarez told "Today," explaining that the congregation was driven primarily by its homophobic views.
Phelps Alvarez says she recalls a particular moment when she began to feel she could no longer support the group's efforts.
“There was a point when we started praying for people to die,” Phelps Alvarez said. “I didn't actually do that but I was around when they did it.”
She's talked about that behavior before. Soon after leaving the congregation, Phelps Alvarez gave a radio interview in which she recalled being forced to "pray for people to die."
Phelps Alvarez isn't the only one to escape the tightly-knit, secretive church, which the Southern Poverty Law Center has described as a cult and hate group. Among former members is Nate Phelps, son of Pastor Fred Phelps Sr., who has spoken openly against some of Westboro's most high-profile demonstrations. In December, he publicly condemned its announced plans to picket the funerals of victims in the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.
REALLY?  How dare they call themselves a religious order - how dare they even mention God in a church building that condones such mass hatred.  How dare they ask their congregation nutcases to pray for the deaths of soldiers and gay people. HOW DARE THEY?  Newsflash:  Once you sell your soul to the devil - you can no longer claim to be a Christian.
Picket the funerals of Sandy Hook Victims?  Most of the world wants to know what they can do to help and this?  What a disgrace to humanity - never mind religion.
Does it get any more vile than this?  Does it get any uglier?  Does it get any further away from the teachings of Jesus than it can possibly get?  Have they actually read the teachings?

I personally think they should be arrested and sentenced - get them off the streets - these are
dangerous people with severe mental health issues.  People, I believe, who are capable of great harm.
This young lady has been ostracized from her family - banned -  it couldn't have been easy for her, she is, after all the granddaughter of the founder and was raised under this belief system.  She tearfully explains that it was the hardest thing she's ever had to do but I for one know she walked into the light the moment she walked away from that darkness.
P.S. If I have any followers from this organization ( I will not call it a Church )  and I have offended them with this post,
TOUGH.
Please unfollow me - immediately - I'd personally be offended to have you as a reader.
AMSCRAY

I know all of you are just as horrified by this as I am.
I normally refuse to discuss politics or religion on my blog - they are both very personal subjects and this is not a pulpit or a dais nor does it belong on this particular furniture makeover blog.
But sometimes I walk into the bathroom and I see that little soapbox - and something says
" step on me Suzan "
P.S. Does this cult have Church status?  Does anyone know?

There's a lesson in this for all of us - when you allow your heart to be filled with intolerance,
of any kind,  you end up one step closer to these animals -

I know I shouldn't be giving them any space on my blog whatsoever - and they're really an insignificant bunch of fools - but I'm kind of hoping one of them accidently comes across this post and sees how disgusting I think they are.

disclosure:
The WBC is not affiliated with any Baptist denomination, including the two largest Baptist denominations, the Baptist World Alliance or the Southern Baptist Convention, both of which have denounced the WBC over the years

That's it - soapbox officially has been stuffed back under my bathroom cabinet..............
With love,
and tolerance for all.................
Have a peaceful - love filled Sunday 

28 comments:

  1. I so agree with you.....I totally applaud your SoapBox today!!! BRAVO!!!

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    1. Thanks Deborah............fought with myself over this one.
      XOX

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  2. It is just scary what man does to man in the name of "religion", isn't it? Any church that preaches hate is not of God. I have been to churches that don't believe in homosexuality but their message was one of love. Not that they loved what the considered the "sin" but that they loved the one they considered "a sinner". I am the wife of a pastor and I love everyone just as they are. It is NOT up to us to judge anyone that God has put on this Earth. I am certainly sub-standard myself in many other's eyes-so who am I to challenge anyone else's life?
    Great "preaching", Suzan- You just keep telling it like it is-girlie! xo Diana
    ps-you might want to wipe the froth off the soap box-;>)

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  3. What a great post Suzan! There are many great groups who help thwart the ridiculous antics of the WBC in some awesome ways.

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  4. Well I laughed at the 'amscray,' but you're right, it is a hugely serious and awful thing, and maybe light should be brought to it so it doesn't flourish into something just ridiculous (which these kinds of things sometimes do)...or even more ridiculous, I should say.

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  5. Whack-jobs all of them. There are many scary people out there, and many naive ones who get influenced by them. Hopefully, the more people speak out like you, the less influence they have.

    Happy Sunday,

    Nicole xox

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  6. how sad that there are people like this out there!

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  7. It's hard to believe this exists in this day and age, but there is no understanding the minds of those who hate. I'm afraid for the poor lost sheep that follow them. Mental illness at it's worst- hiding under the cloak of freedom of religion. Really scary.

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  8. I've been watching with horror what this "church" has been doing lately - imagine that they actually said that the Newtown tragedy was pay back for Conneticut allowing same sex marriage. Unbelievable!!

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  9. God will deal with them in His time. And they will be sorry they called themselves Christians.

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    1. In the meantime people have to deal with them now - dispicable.
      XOX

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  10. Arresting and sentencing is not the answer since they do not violate any laws. The way some communities have handled them is by crowding them out with strategically parked vehicles so that funeral goers can mourn in peace.

    When you live in free country, people are free to think despicable thoughts. The First Amendment exists to protect UN-popular speech. I wouldn't have it any other way.

    But, yes, this is definitely a cult group. As long as people are free to leave, my guess is that the law can't touch them. They have unfortunately been around for years showing up at funerals and when the troops come back home. I would be curious to see if there numbers have grown any. Hopefully they will die off in one generation.

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    1. If I were at a funeral of a loved one - (these people were burying their babies) - and these animals were outside picketing - I'm not sure how I would react but I have a feeling there would be people holding me back - they are tormenting people when emotions are at their rawest.
      People are arrested for disturbing the peace, surely this falls under that category?
      And I wouldn't have free speech removed for anything in the world.............trust me on that but this seems to me to violate so much more than that!
      xxx

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    2. I know what you mean. But this group always manages to comply with the laws and keep the distance required between themselves and the funerals. They have been such a nuisance for so long that I am beginning to think that the media coverage they got only encouraged them.

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  11. Satan is hard at work using 'religion' to blind people and keep them from a true relationship with Jesus Christ.
    I so agree with you and with what Nana Diana said too.
    And I had to laugh at AMSCRAY too!!

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  12. Amen Amen and Amen, Suzan!!!! You rocked your soapbox today, my friend!!! God bless you many times over for standing up to this organization!!! Love your beautiful soul!!!

    xoxo laurie

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  13. I agree whole-heartedly! I love it when you get on your soapbox. :)

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  14. I always say to myself "What do they really gain from this." Its sad to see other people waste their life on a purposeless cause!

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  15. i agree with your views.All I can say is Karma will get them in the end.It is good foor people like you to bring storys to everyones attention so we talk about it and maybe change things.love dee x

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  16. I agree wholeheartedly! Good for you! I saw her interview on the Today show and was waiting to hear that she had given up her faith completely....but it wasn't so and I was so happy. This sick "church" is not a reflection of Christ followers and I was glad she was able to see the difference and not turn her back on Christ....just on the twisted followers she was involved with.

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  17. I have some observations: 1)It could be worse - we could BE them. It must be exhausting to be so weak to allow mental illness & warped delusion dictate one's daily life. 2)It occured to me that many people that so overzealously protest homosexuality could be feeling those tendencies within themselves and it scares them and the only way they know to squelch it is to publicly denounce it. Seriously, why else does it make such a difference to them? 3)I wouldn't refer to them as 'animals'. Animals show more respect than these imbeciles. 4)The people affected by these morons so far have shown impressive restraint. My brother is in the military and God forbid, if he were taken from us and this group showed up at his funeral I cannot say that I would be as classy as the dear souls that have been victimized to date.

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  18. Hi Suzan!!!

    That's disgusting. How horrible to think that some guy is up there 'preaching in the name of god' that this was a righteous payback.

    Sick...Simply sick!!!

    As a mother, I would not have been able to stay composed. If I lost my young child by a mentally disturbed person who was trying to outdo another killer in the world by how many he could kill, I would hope that God could forgive me for my actions. It would be verbal, quoting scriptures that they have no idea that they even exist.

    I feel so sorry for those parents.

    Pam
    xox

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  20. It's not only them that are vile, they happened to get more coverage. When I studied religion in University I was told I was going to hell because I told the class I didn't know if I had faith, but I certainly had hope. Apparently when you hope for the human race you condemn yourself, who knew? A popular argument I used to make was "If God made me, and you said He did, then he made me the way I am and you should respect that". I was once told by a friend that all sin is equal. I countered with a scenario between a consensual homosexual relationship vs a rapist/murderer: to them there was no difference and I just cannot believe in the God these people do. I cannot believe that if there is a heaven, I am not getting in because I didn't know what would happen when I die. I try to be a good person: I help the homeless with whatever I can, and I believe you can attest to the fact that I have nearly given my life to rescuing animals. I'll take a phone call at 4 in the morning to help a friend, and borrow money to lend it to someone else, I try to say sorry when I was in the wrong. I am not perfect, I make mistakes, but if the kind of mistakes I make in life keep me out of their version of heaven: THANK GOD! Why would I want to be surrounded by people who are blindly intolerant? I've never seen people picket shrimp in anti-shellfish rallies, even though it is mentioned several more times in scripture as 'bad'.

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Due to a large amount of spam ( that I'm tired of going back to posts and deleting ) I'll be using comment moderation from now on !!!
Can I beat these spammers at their own game? Probably not - but I'm going
to try my damnedest !!!
xoxo