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My God Is More Compassionate Than Theirs

The mere mention of the Westboro Baptist Church in any form of the media is a victory for the gay-bashing anti-Semite demented hate mongers. I’m sorry but I will risk being struck by a bolt of lightning by saying the group will be protesting at a number of San Diego area churches Saturday night.

Here’s a blurb from their website:

Since 1955, Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) has taken forth the precious from the vile, and so is as the mouth of God (Jer. 15:19). In 1991, WBC took her ministry to the streets, conducting 41,226 peaceful demonstrations (to date) opposing the fag lifestyle of soul-damning, nation-destroying filth. In response, america bombed WBC; & burned WBC on 8-2-2008. God is america’s enemy: 5,200 dead soldiers; $11 trillion+ in national debt.

America crossed the line on June 26, 2003, when the Supreme Court (the conscience of the nation) ruled in Lawrence v. Texas that we must respect sodomy. WBC believes her gospel message to be this world’s last hope.

Nothing ignites my outrage button more than any proclaimed religious or political group claiming God is on their side. I really go ballistic when they say God hates America. Or anyone, for that matter. The God I believe in is more compassionate than theirs. Na Na NaNa Na.

Before I continue, it must be clear that Westboro Baptist Church is in no way, no how, officially recognized by the nation’s Baptist Church organizations.

In an advance story today about the announced protests, The San Diego Union-Tribune glossed over WBC’s nasty record and chronicled how local churches are arming themselves for protests as well as a wave of criminal acts against what once was a private, sacred sanctuary.

It tells how the Rock Church in the Point Loma suburb, one of the group’s focus, every several months trains 100 security volunteers to prepare for a gunman attack, kidnapping at its nursery or disorderly outsiders.

Here’s a snippet from the story:

“You’d think it’s the most safe place in the world, and yet priests have been shot at the altar,” said the Rev. Wayne Sanders of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Fallbrook.

Sanders was one of about 50 people to attend an interfaith security conference in August at St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church in Poway hosted by the Anti-Defamation League.

Leaders from Christian churches, synagogues, Buddhist temples and the Church of Scientology learned about the importance of reporting suspicious behavior and forging relationships with local law enforcement.

Mary Ferro, the faith center liaison for North County-based Interfaith Community Services, helped organize the event.

“One faith center had people stealing out of purses while people were at Communion,” Ferro said. “One had break-ins in automobiles during a series of services. Another one had vandalism and teenagers using drugs or alcohol on the grounds.”

St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church in Rancho Peñasquitos has been burglarized twice in the past five months. Just two weeks ago, gardening equipment was stolen from an outdoor shed. Before that, a 45-pound bell made of copper and silver was stolen.

“We’re vulnerable,” said Rector Wilfredo Crespo, who is buying security cameras for the property. “I think it’s the worst thing you can do to a church community. We’re here to help those who don’t have work and try to support them.”

San Rafael Parish, a 3,000-family Catholic congregation in Rancho Bernardo, invested in a camera system a year ago after teenagers defaced the property with graffiti. Security guards now roam the grounds at night, paid for by the church and neighboring businesses.

One of the vocal critics of WBC is the Jewish Anti-Defamation League. On its website:

The Topeka, Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church is a small virulently homophobic, anti-Semitic hate group that regularly stages protests around the country, often several times a week. The group pickets institutions and individuals they think support homosexuality or otherwise subvert what they believe is God’s law.

The group caught my attention earlier this year when it protested a funeral of a soldier killed in Iraq because God is punishing America for allowing homosexuality.

In fact, WBC members say that “God’s hatred is one of His holy attributes” and that their picketing is a form of preaching to a “doomed” country unable to hear their message in any other way, according to the JDL’s website. It continues:

The primary goal of the Westboro Baptist Church, led by Fred Phelps, appears to be garnering publicity for itself and its message. For this reason, the group directs its efforts at events that have attracted heavy news coverage, like the deaths of soldiers killed in wars or the victims of well-publicized accidents, or at venues, such as high schools, which are likely to generate large counter-protests and community outrage. Many of its protests are held in response to events that have generated at least local media coverage, as in an April 2009 protest of the staging of the musical “Rent” at a high school in Newport Beach, California, which had been the subject of local controversy. ..

To create further attention, the group produces music videos with titles like “God hates the world” or “Santa Claus Will Take You to Hell” and maintains Web sites with names like GodHatesAmerica and GodHatesFags, all designed to inflame the passions of viewers. One of these Web sites includes a “media room,” with links to “broadcast quality resolution video files of our picketing ministry.”

In America freedom of speech and assembly is constitutionally protected. These fanatics are pushing the legal envelope. They must be exposed for what they are. I’m sorry. I’m not an ostrich. I can’t stick my head in the ground and make believe they don’t exist even though the mere mention of them furthers their cause.

Thing is, I’m not gay, Jewish nor all that religious. When I see evil perpetuated, I will call it out. Period. End of post.

  • JeffersonDavis
    God is compassionate, but he is also just.

    People make the mistake of saying that God cannot destroy because He is love.
    If God said consequences will happen if you don't do ______. Then they will happen.

    As far as WBC goes..... They have perverted the Word of God. But they are not the first to do so.
    That's been going on since 0001 AD. The WBC spreads hatred. And that, I agree, is not of God.
  • JSpencer
    From what I've seen people tend to believe whatever they like when it comes to religion - independent of verification, logic, etc, Heck, I don't really care if people want to believe elaborate myths - just as long as they strive to treat each other decently, that's good enough for me. But why is it so hard for people to just say they don't really know? It must be against our nature to admit it when we're lacking in knowledge... so we make stuff up to explain the unexplainable. At any rate, these WBC types sound like a bunch of black-hearted whackos... to be generous.
  • Father_Time
    There is no "god" JD, there is only reality.
  • JSpencer
    "God is compassionate, but he is also just." ~ JD

    Sure would be nice if this was true. Believing it requires far too much suspension of disbelief though (for me)... as well as compromise (or perhaps elaborate rationalization - call it what you will) when it comes to personal honesty. I appreciate the good intentions that can come with religion - as well as the need and tradition, but the raw elements don't hold up will under scrutiny. Again, it would be nice if they did. I have faith the sun will rise tomorrow, that trees will grow, that I will get out of bed and go about my business, that I have a degree of free will to make choices, etc. I don't have faith that fairy tales will come true however. This, btw, isn't the same thing as saying I don't believe in the importance of myths, stories, or speculation about the big questions... afterall, they can be instrumental in informing and motivating our quest for knowledge and meaning… and can help us learn to become better people. Needless to say it didn't work for those WBC folks.
  • JeffersonDavis
    Once again, there's a big difference between religion and faith in God. I'm not a fan of religion, but I am a devout man of God. Religion takes faith and institutionalizes it. Each adds a pinch of human rationalization and a cup of opinion. Man will always screw up what God puts out there.

    I've taken the philosophy classes in college. I'm aware of the arguments against God - comparing it with mythology. But I've searched and researched the history of my God; human history, anthropology, and theocracy. I've come to the rightful and honest conclusion that my God has done everything he has said; that every command makes my life better, even before I understand why.

    I know of no instance where God is not just to His children. Not one.
    As with our own children, God loves us - but will punish us as stated if we do not obey. Like God, we too, do not like to punish our children - but we must.
  • JeffersonDavis
    "There is no "god" JD, there is only reality."


    "God is dead." - Neitzche
    "Neitzche is dead." - God

    Only one, there, is correct.
  • Father_Time
    Niether is correct.

    There never was a "god".

    Please produce a god. You cannot, never could and never will.
  • JSpencer
    As more of an agnostic, I'm afraid I can't side with either of you guys 100%, but I believe that any objective examination of the facts has to favor FT. As someone once said, "I'm willing to keep an open mind - just not so open my brains fall out". To the extent that a belief in god (regardless of the reality) can help make someone a better person, then fine, I'm all for anything that accomplishes that challenge, even if it's a mental/emotional/spiritual device. And if the same devcice can help give lonely and/or anxious people comfort in this often thoughtless and frighening world, then I'm fine with that too.

    Honesty, however, requires anyone who sees credibility as an important quality, to examine carefully those experiences and beliefs that are strictly in the realm of the subjective. Sweeping statements about god that aren't willing to be tested should be viewed with skepticism. How could it be otherwise?

    In another vein, I think we would all take more seriously our responsibilities for taking care of our planet, it's ecosystems, and by extension our own species if we didn't use the crutch of assuming some kind of celestial bailout if we fail to get our act together. If we create some monumentally dumbass destiny for ourselves after having had the great fortune to evolve on such an incredibly neat planet (and we're already doing just that) it won't be because this was pre-ordained or because god planned it that way, etc., it will be because we were too incompetent to get our collective act together. If that happens, let's at least man-up (or woman-up) enough to admit it was our own damned fault.

    Better yet, let's all start growing up and taking this gift seriously enough to show we are worthy of it. Remember the dinosaurs. ;-)
  • JeffersonDavis
    Please produce time.

    You cannot.

    But to answer you question......

    Science cannot answer (yet) the questions of the human soul or any other paranormal accurances. But science does give us a peak at Creation.

    Law of biogenesis. The law which states that life arises from existing life.
    http://www.biology-online.org/dictionary/Law_of...

    Prior to your "theory" of life just "appearing" at the beginning of the Earth from nothing; that law cannot be.
    Therefore, SOMETHING produced that life. And it was a big bang. God said "bang" and it happened.

    (Hoped you'd get a kick out of that last sentence)
  • JeffersonDavis
    As always, I appreciate your opinion; J.

    Don't agree, of course - but I appreciate it nonetheless.

    I personally see no issue with a being taking an interest in humanity the way Jehovah has. It makes sense, with all empirical and non-empirical evidence. There is just no way that Abraham, Moses, Noah, the Prophets, and Christ were all part of some sort of scam. It covers a period of 5000 years or more. The instances in the Bible contain pschological, physiological, socialogical, and political guidance for humans - long long long before any of those disciplines existed. I call it the User's Guide to the Human Soul. You get a user'g guide for a toaster - why wouldn't the Manufacturer give one for the most amazing product in history?
  • JSpencer
    I agree that the bible contains much in the way of useful information, and that Jesus was a transformative figure worthy in many ways of emulation. The bible also contains bogus information and stories of cruelty by the very god people are called to worship. I don't think there was any intentional "scam", but things need to be looked at critically and honestly if they are to be taken seriously in this day and age. Needless to say, you will believe whatever you like, but the fact that you are convinced of something you can't prove to anyone else makes for a not very compelling case - except of course to other "believers". All that matters to me is that people strive to live in a moral, responsible and intelligent way. If a belief in the world being carried through space on the back of a turtle (for example) helps people reach that point, then I say go for it!
  • JeffersonDavis
    Fair enough, J.

    We both have apparently done the research and arrived at different conclusions.
    And that's the beauty of America.

    Shalom
  • Father_Time
    Time is a measurement.

    Hand me one inch.

    You cannot.

    It does not exist except within your mind….or not. It is your choice.
  • JeffersonDavis
    Thank you for just proving my point.

    According to Steven Hawkins, time is NOT measurable - yet it still exists.

    Time is only in our mind? Ok. Whatever you say.


    And you've already got an inch - about half a foot below your belly button.
    (Just kiddin' - trying to keep it lighthearted - tee hee)
  • Father_Time
    Science does not argue with theologians, theologians argue with science.

    Science is the seeking of truth. Religion is the imagination of it.
  • Father_Time
    Steven Hawking‘s theory is irrelevant. We have advanced beyond quantum physics.

    All matter and anti-matter in the universe is finite.

    Your sexual innuendos are not appreciated. You are morally corrupt.
  • JeffersonDavis
    First, I'm not a theologian.
    Secondly, science gels perfectly with the Bible - in every way.
    Haven't you even found it ironically coincidental that the order of creation in Gensis parallels the modern theories of how life evolved?

    The laws of science were created by God as well.

    There are many biased scientists out there - both pro theologian and atheist - that skew science toward whichever slant they chose. (Sounds like the American media a bit). This is evident in the "global warming" issue. The trick is to find true scientists, without an agenda; and follow the research.

    What you fail to understand is that faith in God is the acceptance of truth and true science.
    They are not diametrically opposed. You seem to think you can have one OR the other. Not the case.

    I believe it was Franklin that said "the ultimate goal of science is to come face to face with God".
    It's my goal as well.











  • JeffersonDavis
    "Your sexual innuendos are not appreciated. You are morally corrupt."

    You are right. I'm sincerely sorry to have offended you. It wasn't my intent.
    But thank you for judging my entire character based upon one comment.
    I was truly just trying to keep it lighthearted. You really should lighten up a bit.
    You don't have to be angry all the time.
  • Father_Time
    Science can prove everything that known truth. Religion can prove nothing that it asserts is truth.

    Man created time, god, and, science.

    I could care less what franklin "said'. His opinions are subjective



  • Father_Time
    You bring to light the morality of your god by making stupid penis jokes. Oh yes, we will rush out and become whatever it is that you claim that you are and worship your penis god because you are so joyously light hearted.
  • Peking_Duck_sd
    Westboro Baptist Church protesting at the Rock Church equals crazies picketing crazies.

    They are both cults and both draconian in their viewpoints, both are political more than spiritual, and both are media hungry.

    What is the protest about? Who is MORE bigoted and hateful?

    Hopefully they will just annihilate each other.
  • JeffersonDavis
    Wasn't that joke told YESTERDAY?

    It took you a whole day to come up with that one?
    Whitty.

    Either you are legitimately angry or you just like to argue.
    Sounds like you're getting angry. I'm not. Wonder why?
    Could it be that your humanist intellect is fearful of your lost soul?
    Probably not. One could hope.

    You will meet God. On your terms or His.
    Be sure to stand straight, be as stubborn as possible, and maintain your opinion when you do.

    The ironic thing is, that you are better in God's eyes than one who knows God and turns his back on Him.


    As far as rushing out and joining something:

    Lighthearted and happy Christian
    VERSUS
    Hateful and unhappy atheist.

    Who is the better advertisement?
  • Father_Time
    LOL
  • JeffersonDavis
    Oh great.
    NOW you laugh!

    Where was that a few comments ago?

    :)
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