I spent the past four-or-so years of my life around sailors and sea-going types, so I happened to pick up all manner of interesting ways to describe people, their genetic lineage, their behaviors with each other and other species, and all the rest of that fun stuff.
Sadly, none of that acquired vocabulary, even collectively, would come anywhere near expressing my distaste for this moronic group of imbeciles. Having little experience with Baptists, I cannot really address that point terribly well, however, I can say this much: that organization is not Christian, does not reflect Jesus Christ’s teachings, is inherently and thoroughly disgusting, and should be held in the highest disdain possible.
However, I would offer the following words of advice for those considering giving this organization a warm, Tennessee/Scott County “welcome” – the Westboro Baptist Cult-Family is comprised of an amazingly high percentage of lawyers, lawyers who are very knowledgeable in what they can get away with, and in what you cannot get away with. Most of the cult’s income comes from suits they levy against people “infringing their rights”, and considering that the cult now owes $10.9 million to Albert Snyder (father of Lance Corporal Matthew Snyder, who was killed in Iraq), they now have a lot of bills to pay. In fact, that settlement is larger than their little cult is worth, so it may be financially destroyed in the very near future (I have to admit to a great deal of sadistic glee at hearing that, though I will probably have to settle that account with God later).
Simply put, the cult could be looking to make some money off this planned protest… so if you decide to do something rash, be aware of the probable repercussions.
Unfortunately the word “Baptist” is mostly a descriptive term that applies to the practice of baptism for believers into Teh Faith – a term used by probably the largest sub-denomination of disagreeable free-thinking Protestants who ever argued over anything and everything else and so are basically an umbrella name for tax-purposes and uncharacterizable.
It all originated around 1609 with one “John Smyth and the Separatists” who disagreed with Anabaptists of the Continental Reformation, and led his merry band of ideologically argumentative separatists to the Netherlands to start the General Baptist Church with an Arminian theology. WTF?
Anyhow like some avian flue strain they came to America in 1639 when one Roger Williams founded a church on Baptist principles in Providence, Rhode Island which became the epicenter of the “American Baptists” – NOT to be confused with Southern Baptists, Seventh Day Baptists, Continental Baptist Churches, Black Primitive Baptists, the Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists, the Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship, Two-Seed-in-the-Spirit Predestinarian Baptists, Landmark Baptists, Old Regular Baptist… and
the listgoes on…
My parents were with American Baptist Foreign Missionary Society – a fairly Leftward tilted group nowadays inclined to minister to Sandinistas in Nicaragua, and agree with Obama and his Reverend Wright.
Oy. Something tells me I am just as happy not being familiar with Baptists in all their respective glory.
Either way, it is a fair guess that the Westboro “Baptist” Cult-Family does not represent the beliefs of the majority of the current “Baptist” denominations…
They just represent (and benefit) themselves, they’re not more a church than Scientobogosity is a religion.
Oh, there is no doubt about that, it is just a shame to see the misusing the concept of a “church”, much less the name of Christianity.