New to FriendlyChristian.com? Check out the FAQ page to learn about the site. Wondering who the heck I am? The My Story page is a great place to start. Thanks for stopping by!
Click here to subscribe via RSS.
Click here to have posts delivered by email.
This message will automatically disappear after your 3rd visit.
As I’ve already blogged, my friends at FloatingAxhead.com recently posted a video featuring Fred Phelps, pastor of Westboro Baptist Church, condemning Tim Russert to Hell. For those of you who might not now, Pastor Fred is the man in charge of all the God Hates Fags, Priests Rape Boys, AIDS Kills Fags, Thank God For 9/11, picket Heath Ledger’s funeral, etc nonsense.
Worst of all, he does it all in the name of Jesus Christ.
If you haven’t already seen it, check out this vid real quick. It needs no introduction.
Crazy, huh?
Two days ago I jokingly made a comment on FloatingAxhead questioning the availability of the GodHatesFredPhelps.com domain. We laughed. Then I got to thinkin…
Is Phelps no different than you and I: a sinner in need of a savior?
I can’t help but want to judge and criticize this dude, though. I believe that he is severely misrepresenting Christ, misleading the church, dividing the church, and pushing non-believers away.
This dude is a Christian. To some people, Fred Phelps is the only taste of Christianity they’ll ever experience. He will speak on behalf of every Christian. He will be the only bible that some people ever read. That scares me.
Even scarier, as a pastor, one would think that he seeks God in prayer and fasting, receives a “word” from God, and creates his sermons based on his communication with the Lord. So…um…this is what God is telling him? “Hate homosexuals! Picket funerals! Condemn people to hell! Judge people based on the sins that you feel are more extreme than yours!”
Sigh…moving on….
One pastor that I’m really starting to enjoy listening to is Francis Chan. Pastor Francis leads Cornerstone Church in California and recently published a book titled Crazy Love (Tiffany just started reading it). Listen to what he has to say (it’s short).
Quick recap:
Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for that is how their fathers treated the false prophets.
Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man.
I love how encouraging this passage is…BUT:
It’s freakin’ fuel on the fire of people like Phelps. I can’t help but think that based on passages like this that Phelps is really truly convinced that he’s preaching the right message; the message that God has called him to preach.
And that breaks my heart.
Popularity: 4% [?]
Loading ...
Exactly.
Hey now you changed themes can you try adding back the comment quicktags buttons? Maybe they’ll work now?
Oooh, good idea.
Go on. I don’t want to be alone in my criticism of this hate monger. I shouldn’t do it. I’ve never met the man. He may well have plenty of redeeming features. He’s probably got a great singing voice or something.
In all honesty though, tolerance and understanding are fine attributes that should be promoted and fostered in ourselves and in others but (there’s always a but) sometimes it is right to say no more. Enough is enough. This far and no further. Phelps crossed that line long ago in my opinion.
You are right when you say that he represents Christianity. Every Christian does to some extent but the more vocal your message, the more radical your idea, the more people will talk about it. The only way that I know to combat that is to make a bigger noise back, to say “No, you do not represent me. I disagree in the strongest terms”. I’m afraid that until mainstream Christianity takes a stand like that then people like me, and I don’t just mean atheists, will be revolted by this aspect of your faith.
[...] The Friendly Christian takes a look at Fred Phelps:  Is Phelps no different than you and I: a sinner in need of a savior? I can’t help but want to judge and criticize this dude, though. I believe that he is severely misrepresenting Christ, misleading the church, dividing the church, and pushing non-believers away. [...]
Dude I feel you on this one. This guy makes me vomit and frustrates me to no end. He makes our job even harder by setting us back
But at the same time, I hope that non-believers can look past people like Phelps and take him with a grain of salt, realizing that he doesn’t represented Christianity in its entirety.
Actually one of the guys at my link group had to patrol on of their “events” and he said that he couldn’t really get angry. He just felt really sorry for them. Another girl in my group (someone whose WAY BEYOND godlier than I am) talked about how they were controlled like a disease. Maybe that’s what it is.