Hello WBC,
I am a student studying Religious Studies at the College of Charleston in South Carolina. I am writing a paper for one of my classes about how it is that the Westboro Baptist Church gets such a negative connotation in the eye of the American public and why it is that people tend to disregard your church and message so much more than other denominations of Christianity. I have done plenty of reading on your website as well to listen to a large amount of your weekly sermons. I was hoping that if it wouldn’t be too out of your way, if you would be willing to answer some questions for my class for my paper.
1. What do you feel about your message pushes so many people away from accepting the message you present?
The answer is blessedly simple. They hate God and they hate his Word and they have no intention of obeying the commandments. It fulfills the Word of God, beginning with this prophecy of our Lord Jesus Christ in Isaiah:
Isa 53:2 For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. 3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Then these words that we love from the mouth of our dear Lord Jesus, who bore the sins of his people, his elect, his sheep, his very small remnant, when he spoke of these last days of all.
Matthew 24:9 Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake. 10 And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. 11 And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. 12 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. 13 But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. 14 And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.
We preach to the whole world now, by the Hand of God, and we are hated of all nations for that fact.
2. What is the official count of members that attend your church? The “Official Count” is called the exact right count, by the will of God.
3. Is there a specific version of the Bible that Pastor Fred Phelps or the church prefers to use? King James, 1611 Authorized Edition
4. You acknowledge that the Bible does have messages of “love” and “acceptance”, do you think that if you focused more on these messages that people would be more willing to accept or listen to your messages?
We do not care if people are willing to listen or accept our message. We focus plenty on the message of the Love of God to his elect sheep. There is absolutely NO REASON to tell rebels about the Love of God. They don’t care about it. They serve themselves and their idols and they fling about the word ‘love’ in such a perverse manner, that it ceases to have meaning.
5. When do you feel like you are most treated like “the other” in American society? What?
6. Have you had any protests where you were treated respectfully/not counter protested?
We have had upwards to 48,000 pickets, many with no counter-pickets. I don’t know what you mean by respectfully, but it is an irrelevant concept. We serve God and we aim to please Him who has entrusted this ministry to us. HIS respect is all we want in this life. If God has respect for our sacrifices, every picket is a parade and a beautiful feast.
I’m afraid I don’t have the proper vocabulary in this flesh to express the exultation I feel to answer you.
7. How often do you find that people are willing to stop and open-mindedly listen to your beliefs and not argue with you?
I can count on two hands the number of people that fit your description here. They each have made their way to Westboro Baptist Church and they dwell with us here. If I use a broader interpretation of your question; I would say there are a few times when people ask a question and listen to the answer and go their way. Not very many, and less today than when we first began.
In addition:
Please accept this supplemental answer to question number 2 below (or not) and I hope you think me not too harsh to mock you a tad.
These people and their numbers obsession both appall and amuse me simultaneously. Like the Lord Jesus Christ, the Captain of our Salvation, is relying on puny human numbers in bringing many sons to glory. Like there is any restraint on the Lord to save by many or by few. Like gain is godliness instead of godliness with contentment is great gain. Like the glory of the Lord would not fill the temple unless they had sufficient numbers to satisfy the lust-o-meters of the simple-minded. Like there is a plebiscite in hell on the all important question on who goes and who stays. And, really, and most relevantly, like Gage is going to instruct our Lord Jesus Christ in the proper definition of a church (an ekklesia; a called-out assembly of believers), instead of the one Christ Jesus established in Matthew 18:20 “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” Get real, dude.
Really, “What is the official count of members that attend” the church of the Lord Jesus Christ? Like there is an official for that? And there are members of the Lord’s church who do not attend? What planet do you live on? Never mind, I know.
How about this number factoid? The number of those sons of men who have been predestinated to salvation by a sovereign God cannot be increased or diminished by one. And, the number of those sons of men who have been predestinated to perdition by that same sovereign God cannot be increased or diminished by one. And all of this was established by that same sovereign God who gives you breath of life (apparently a substantial portion of it expended on blasphemy and vain froth) before the foundation of the earth. And, there is exactly zip that you can do about it.
These inventions that depraved man have come up to substitute for the true worship of God break my WTH meter every day.
Your friends at Westboro Baptist Church