How come? :hmmm:

I grew up in a Ind. Fund. Bapt. Ch. in the south, left when I was about 20. I bet it took 10 years to rid myself of indoctrinated racism, sexism, general hate, etc... Not to mention the fear of God striking me dead for each lil sexual thought I had due to puberty....:D

Don't worry, there's only one passage in the Bible that could be interpreted as referencing...that, and if you do interpret it as such, its pretty much saying "Play with yourself!"

It's just the way they look down their noses at you if you deviate from their opinions even slightly.

They throw their weight around in these parts. It's like a mafia

I haven't worried about that in 30 years.....

Anyway, that wasn't what I was talking about, in our church then just thinking about a girl was adultery, but of course that led to the other....Course as a normal young man I did both, just with a lot of guilt.
Why I would never allow my son to go to any fundy church as I raised him.

^^^^^

Baptist Churches just sound...nasty!

Most religious fundamentalists are nasty. WBC is a hate group but they also prey (and pray) on being in the media to further their crappy messages and to help bring in funds from like minded twats. The best way of dealing with them is ignoring them. They may not go away but they will be starved of funds if the media didn't follow their every move.

Careful what you say. Making broad and unfounded statements about any one group of people is the first step toward the same mistake these people make.

These people were all Baptists.

Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Abraham Lincoln, Harry Truman, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to name a few.

I'd be surprised if WBC actually and personally believe 1/10th of what their signs say. They're trolls who say things to get people riled up, that's all.

Is Westboro Baptist Church a hate group?

If you give the Wiki article on them a quick read, it appears that they hate almost everything and everybody. If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck......

Agreed. Just another way to be famous. And make money.

The WBC is so extreme in their ways that even Ku Klux Klan doesn`t want anyhing to do with these guys.

I agree. Most religious people I know, Baptists included, are not all that different than non-religious people in their manner of expressing their opinions and beliefs. I know that probably disappoints any Baptist, they want to be different (in a good way). I would not say they are bad, they have their opinions like everyone else. And yeah, like you said, bashing Baptists or Christians is probably not a tolerant POV.

For me, when Pat Robertson makes some hateful remark, and it gets picked up by the news cycle, it's not in the same league as when the WBC makes an disruptive, innappropriate appearance in force at a funeral.

I always try to separate uneducated ignorance from intentional malice. They're both bad, but one can be excused, the other can't be. One can also be corrected if people are willing to listen. I don't see much hope for the other.

And that for me is one of the defining reasons I consider them (WBC) to be a hate group :yep:

I think it's high time the tax exempt status is removed for all churches etc.