Westboro Baptist Church: Are you kidding me?

The Westboro Baptist Church, based in Topeka, Kan., focuses its hatred on gays, veterans and anyone who “goes against the will of God.” The Southern Poverty Law Center brands them as “the most obnoxious and rabid hate group in America.”

WBC is best known for their picketing, where they hold up signs saying “God Hates Fags,” “Pray for More Dead Soldiers,” “Fags Die, God Laughs,” “AIDS Cures Fags” and “Fag Troops.”

But these people don’t confine their hate to homosexuals. They state that Jews and Catholic priests will burn; soldiers deserve to die for defending a “pro fag” country, and more. They even hate Kim Davis, the county clerk in Rowan County, Ky., who refuses to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. They call her a “delusional adulterous tyrant.” (She has been divorced three times.)

The church gained national attention for picketing the funeral of Matthew Shepard, who was beaten to death by two men in an anti-gay hate crime in 1998.

In 2006, the church picketed and cheered at the funeral of Matthew Snyder, a Marine killed in Iraq. Matthew’s father later filed a lawsuit, which went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. The court handed down an 8-1 decision ruling that the church’s actions “constituted protected free speech.”

Zach Phelps, the grandson of Fred Phelps (the founder and spiritual leader of WBC), left the church in 2014. He now stands outside the church holding a sign that reads, “You are beautiful” and shouting, “Please forgive them, for they know not what they do!”

Zach’s family members, who remain in the church, have cut off all ties with him, as they do anyone who “abandons” Westboro. He and all excommunicated family members will never speak again with parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, brothers and sisters who are still in the church.

According to The Week, “Over the last decade, some 20 members have left the Westboro Baptist Church, Zach being the latest. The exodus suggests that the hate coalition created by Fred Phelps might finally, and permanently, be fracturing. There are now roughly 45 members, nearly all of them related by blood or marriage to Fred.”

Clearly, anyone who spews this much hate has issues to resolve (preferably with shock therapy, or something comparable). But the most unbelievable part of all this is how they base this hatred and discrimination on the Bible and what they believe God said.

Not only do these people not have the right to impose their hatred upon others, but also the basis for this hate has zero logical backing.

Let’s examine a few of the lines the Westboro Baptist Church utilizes to justify their hatred. For example, on their website, under the banner “God Hates Fags,” this quote is displayed: “…therefore I abhorred them. Lev. 20:23.”

But here’s what the Book of Leviticus, chapter 20, verse 23, actually says, according to the New International Version: “You must not live according to the customs of the nations I am going to drive out before you. Because they did all these things, I abhorred them.”

But WBC’s most used “quote” is Leviticus 18:22: “Thou shall not lie with mankind as womankind; it is an abomination.” There are so many versions of the Bible, but this particular verse has come to be understood that homosexuality is a sin. (In the New International Version, the quote is, “Do not have sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman; that is detestable.”)

This is a perfect example of how groups like WBC cherry-pick the Bible and twist and edit its words to fit their own beliefs. If people choose to be this fundamentalist about something like homosexuality, then they had better follow all the things the Bible commands, right?

Take Corinthians 11:5, for example: “But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoureth her head….” The women of WBC do not cover their heads when they pray.

Another example is Leviticus 26:27-30: “If in spite of this you still do not listen to me but continue to be hostile toward me, then in my anger I will be hostile toward you, and I myself will punish you for your sins seven times over. You will eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters.” So… people should technically eat their babies when they disobey God.

Then there’s Leviticus 20:9: “For every one that curseth his father or his mother shall be surely put to death….” According to this, everyone who disobeys their parents should die.

There are verses that say a person who is deformed — even with “a blemish” — should not enter a church; verses against eating shellfish; verses about owning slaves, and so on.

The point is, a person cannot reasonably base so much hate on one quote from the Bible, but then completely ignore the rest of what it says. If a person doesn’t agree with the rule that the disobedience of God should result in the consumption of his or her children, then how is it logical to base hate off the same book?

People think WBC views homosexuality as the worst sin, but in fact they view murder as just as bad — the difference is that murder is illegal and homosexuality is allowed, and even encouraged, in their view.

This is why WBC uses hateful propaganda against the United States, the people who defend the United States, and the politicians who run the United States, because they consider it a “fag nation.”

These people have no logical, or even religious, justification for their actions. No reasonable religion condones and encourages this kind of hatred. And no “all loving God” says it hates certain groups of people.

I believe the people who use their religion as justification for hating and killing, such as this “church,” al-Qaeda, ISIS, etc., are really just looking for an excuse to perpetuate their own terrible agenda.

But in the same way these groups generalize entire groups of people, we tend to do the same. Because of groups like WBC, some people believe that all Christians hate gays. And because of groups like al-Qaeda and ISIS, some believe that all Muslims are terrorists.

But we cannot stoop to these extremists’ levels and generalize a group simply because of a few crazies. Whether these haters do this for the media attention, to be relevant, to be recognized, or because they actually believe what they are saying, the result is the same.

And that result is pure, unadulterated hatred. And this hatred has an effect on all people. Whether that hate is shown through applause at a soldier’s funeral, by condemning homosexuals to hell, or just a hardening of hearts, it is purely wrong.