So the WBC is a hate group that is a church, and pretty much overlaps with the Phelps clan. They’re intolerance, homophobic and psycho.
My question, however, involves the church component of their organization. Is there any membership requirement? Could ‘new members’ flood the congregation every week, and [del] disrupt everything[/del] ask religious questions? Could they put washers and IOUs in the collection plate? Could they show up at protests and do a damn poor job?
Or would they bar new members? Can you bar new members of a religious organization?
WBC’s “church” is Fred Phelps’ house, IIRC. It’s basically a cult, it’s not recognized as a church by whoever recognizes Baptist churches, and it’s mostly his family, along with whoever they’ve managed to brainwash.
I doubt they’d allow new members in off the street, unless you dated or hung out with some of the members for a LONG time. I think that’s how the new members who are not family were recruited.
Yes, a religious organization can bar anyone they want. Excommunication, shunning, call it what you like. Phelps could require that new members get a recommendation from existing members before they could join.
It seems like more trouble than they are worth. Phlelps et al. are trolls, looking for attention. As long as they don’t break the law, and generally they are careful to stay just on this side of the line, I prefer to ignore them.
They make good copy, which is why they get press attention.
I am a member of a church (certainly not WBC, though).
Basically, the requirements for membership basically include acceptance of the creed and a determination that you are joining in good faith. In reality, nobody has ever been rejected from my church (e.g. “you’ve sinned too much to join!” or, “sorry, we already have enough unmarried men 18-30”) as far as I am aware as long as they stick it through the discernment process. The church does, in theory, have power to excommunicate me if it is determined that I am attempting to undermine the church’s mission or have abandoned the faith or something.
Ya know, it would be kinda fun to show up for services in drag, or accidentally bring a god hats fred sign to a protest. Couldn’t last though, we’d need a rotating group of prilgrims to fuck their shit up.
Want to know why their services are at 12:00 noon on Sundays? It’s so they have time to go and fuck with other people going into their church services at 10:00 or 10:30. How do I know?
Because I was walking into Grace Episcopal Cathedral for Christmas morning services 2 years ago and they were all across the street with their signs, shouting and cursing.
It’s more than upsetting, it’s disrespectful. What they do at military funerals is right out there on the hairy edge of inhuman, IMHO. But you know what? Sticks and stones can break my bones but words can never hurt me. The words and intentions are cruel and hurtful, but this Sunday is September the 11th. Local news here says there’s a plan afoot to drive car and truck bombs into NYC to attack once again.
You don’t like what I believe and want to say cruel things about it? Fine. Sad, tiring and painful as it is to hear what these loons have to say, they have a right to say it every bit as much as I have a right to stand across the street and yell back. God Bless America.
If Westboro was in the bombing business, this would be another kind of thread. There has never been even a whisper that they are. So, I have to say, let em be sick and do what they do. The alternatives to using voices to explain one’s position is real and frightening and crosses all lines.
It’s what happens all over our planet daily. It’s what happened 10 years ago in NYC and DC and Pennsylvania. It’s what may happen again this weekend in NYC.
If there is one thing good about the WBC, it’s that right wing politicians and religious leaders are distancing themselves from that level of homophobia. WBC might be giving a huge push towards legalized SSM at the federal level. One can only hope, anyway.
