Westboro Is Not “Baptist” Or “Fundamentalist”

From the Associated Press via (fittingly enough) Pravda:

Grieving father gets nearly 11 million dollars in verdict against military funeral protesters

01.11.2007

Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder was killed in Iraq. His grieving father won a nearly $11 million verdict against a fundamentalist church. The members of the church picketed military funerals out of a belief that the war in Iraq is a punishment for America’s tolerance of homosexuality.

Albert Snyder sued the Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church for unspecified damages after members demonstrated at the March 2006 funeral of his son…

The church members testified they are following their religious beliefs by spreading the message that soldiers are dying because America is too tolerant of homosexuality…

Defense lawyer Jonathan Katz said the church has about 75 members and is funded by tithing…

This AP story, like every report you will see about the Westboro “Baptist Church,” parrots the claims that they are Baptists and moreover fundamentalists or evangelicals.

Indeed, a search of Google News reveals that they are called “fundamentalist” or “evangelical” in 884 of the articles posted in the last few days — which is to say practically all of the articles on the subject from the mainstream media:

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But as anyone who has even a passing acquaintance with this miserable operation is well aware, the Westboro Baptist Church is not a Baptist church, evangelical or otherwise.

A detail that even Wikipedia has cottoned on to:

Westboro Baptist Church

While its members identify themselves as Baptists, the church is an independent church not affiliated with any known Baptist conventions or associations, nor does any Baptist institution recognize the church as a Bible believing fellowship. The church describes itself as following Primitive Baptist and Calvinist principles.

Of course people are free to claim whatever they want for themselves. I could claim to be the US Ambassador to the Holy See. But that does not make it so.

In its entry for Fred Phelps, Sr., Wikipedia also notes:

During 1993–94 interviews with the Topeka Capital-Journal, the four Phelps children (out of thirteen, Mark, Nate, Katherine and Dotty) who had left the church asserted that their father’s religious beliefs were either nonexistent to begin with or have dwindled down to nearly nothing. They insist that Westboro actually serves to enable a paraphilia of Phelps, wherein he is literally addicted to hatred.

So why does our watchdog media insist on describing this group as a fundamentalist Baptist church?

When was the last time the Peoples Temple of Jim Jones and the Kool-aid suicide cult was described as part of the Disciples of Christ? (When, in fact, they were affiliated with the DoC.)

Perhaps it is because the Westboro clan actually seek to discredit Baptists and evangelical Christian by taking every stereotypical accusation to an absurdity.

The WBC not only claims to hate homosexuals, but they are also anti-Catholic, anti-Semitic and racist — just for starters.

And as for the implicit but unmistakable implication throughout all the media stories that the Phelps cult is somehow conservative, their only political history seems to be quite in the other direction:

Again, from Wikipedia:

Phelps has run in various Kansas Democratic Party primaries five times, but has never won. These included races for governor in 1990, 1994, and 1998, receiving about 15% of the vote in 1998.[35] In the 1992 Democratic Party primary for U.S. Senate, Phelps received 31% of the vote Phelps ran for mayor of Topeka in 1993 and 1997.

Moreover, Mr. Phelps has often supported that Democrat standard bearer and Nobel Laureate, Al Gore.

Still more from Wikipedia:

Left to right: Fred Phelps, Tipper Gore, Betty Phelps, Al Gore in 1988.

Al Gore with Fred and Timothy Phelps.

Fred Phelps (left) and Al Gore (center) at a fundraiser held at the Phelps home in Topeka, Kansas in 1989.

Phelps supported Al Gore in the 1988 Democratic Party primary election. In his 1984 Senate race, Gore opposed a “gay bill of rights” and stated that homosexuality was not something that “society should affirm”. Phelps has stated that he supported Gore because of these earlier comments.

According to Phelps, members of the Westboro Baptist Church helped run Gore’s 1988 campaign in Kansas. Phelps’ son, Fred Phelps Jr., hosted a Gore fundraiser, which Al and Tipper Gore attended, at his home in Topeka.

Fred Phelps, Jr. served as a Gore delegate to the 1988 Democratic National Convention.

Indeed, according to Wikipedia, Mr. Phelps is even a champion of Fidel Castro.

Of course it is no surprise that our mainstream media are so eager to perpetuate the myth that his cult is made up of evangelical Christian conservatives.

After all, the media will lie about anything and anyone to advance their agenda.

It’s their job.

Related Articles:

• ACLU Fights For Fred Phelps Funeral "Protests"