Talk Elections

At the risk of committing a logical fallacy, I'm voting no.

Does he believe that Jesus Christ was the Son of God and died for mankind's sins? Does he believe that only through accepting Christ as one's Lord and Savior can one gain eternal salvation?

If so, then I would argue yes.

If BRTD is, then Phelps is as well.

Is he a member of the Christian religion?  Sure.  He's a Baptist.

Does he follow the example and teachings of Jesus?  Not even close.

I guess yes?
Since I'm not a christian, I can say that it doesn't really piss me off that Fred Phelps calls himself one. I can understand why it would piss off christians (or more specifically those who actually follow the biblical reading of "love one another") and folks like Fred Phelps are definitely not doing you guys any favors by calling himself a "baptist". I know lots of christians, a lot of them are nowhere near the level of hate and vileness in Fred Phelps. I've listened to a ton of Phelp's speeches/rants and that of his crazy followers and I have never heard one mention of "love" in any one of those, just flat out hate. And it's more than just gays they hate, it's Jews, it's blacks, it's people who accept the Holocaust happened. Sometimes I wonder if the actual god they worship is not above, but down below. These people are a huge waste of sperm, nothing more, likely even less than that.

I know true christians, true christians condemn outrageous hate as that exhibited by Phelps. Guys like JSojourner, BushOklahoma, and alot of the people I go to college with are more real to Christianity than Fred Phelps and his gang of haters will ever be.

Of course he is. He's also far more of a Christian than someone like you. You should ask what this says about Christianity, but, of course, you're not going to.

The first time I heard of Fred Phelps was in the play The Laramie Project.   I thought that he was a fictional character.

After loosely following his career for the past five years I sometimes still wonder if he is.  The man's a living, breathing strawman.

Of course he is. You can't disavow him from his faith because you think he sucks.


I think he sucks, too, but that's immaterial.

^^^^

By an affilation? Yes, he is

By his behavior he's not very christian :P

All I know about this dude is that he swims, smokes pot and dated that dumb chick who hates the gays...

No. Not because he is hateful, per se, but rather because he seems to be too greedy for power. I don't think those people who build themselves careers out of instigating people like that really can have a religious faith or believe in a higher being.

In terms of believing in Jesus, yes.  In terms of following Jesus' teachings, no.  Wackos like him are probably more like fundamentalist Jews - they pay nearly no attention to Jesus or most of the New Testament (except the hateful stuff they like), and focus more on the Old Testament.

Of course, Phelps doesn't believe in the whole salvation thing.  He believes in an "elect" of God for salvation, which just so happens to include him and his followers, and nobody else.