You make a valid point about “loving thy neighbour,” however, we must also admit that the Bible is literally bursting with instances of contradiction. This is mainly due to the fact that it was written by more than one person. For those who think it was written by God, I pity you. There are many simple contradictions as well, even within what is considered to be the word of Jesus himself. Especially confusing is the concept of the trinity.

John 10:30 I and my Father are one.

John 14:28 Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I.

Or especially interesting, the story of creation.

Genesis 1:25 And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
Genesis 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
–as compared with–
Genesis 2:18 And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.
Genesis 2:19 And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.

It is a known fact that the Bible is a skewed book of mythology and that following it is potentially hazardous to the mental health of oneself and those surrounding oneself.

Why couldn’t we all have just been OK with mysticism?

I have no doubt you know a lot about them, and you are entitled to your opinion.

But they conveniently choose to ignore what Jesus said was the second greatest commandment after loving god – to love one’s neighbour – and when asked to explain what he meant by “neighbour” he made it pretty clear (by the parable of the Good Samaritan) that he meant everyone including our enemies.

I have no doubt these people are following what they feel is some kind of old testament hard line, but they disobey the most important rule in dealing with others, and they ignore the most important message Jesus taught about seeing beyond the law.

And FYI, I am not a christian.

I’m not tarring anything. I was simply saying that Christianity, in it’s most basic form, if followed completely off the Bible, is a very violent and frightening religion, as most old school religions are. Read the Bible completely through. Yes, there are morals and proverbs about love and forgiveness – but there are FAR more passages about things like death, murder, rape, violent sexuality, the death penalty, stoning to death, slavery, etc.. The Bible condones slavery. It condones rape if the rapist pays the father for the woman raped. It condones killing people if they don’t follow God’s rules.

I totally agree – there are numerous Christian sects, many of whom even embrace gays and pro-choice, who take a more peaceful outlook on God and Jesus. There’s tons of ways to interpret the Bible. But those who say they “follow the Bible entirely” tend to cherry pick to sugarcoat the hatred, fear, death and destruction the judeo-christian God of olden days evokes.

I don’t agree with WBC’s position at all. I’ve spoken to Shirley, the “ring leader” and daughter of Fred twice. I’ve interviewed her and did an article on her. I am friends with her excommunicated son on Facebook. I know a LOT about her church and her beliefs. And yes, it’s all batshit crazy, in my opinion (though all religion is batshit crazy in my opinion, so take it with a grain of salt). And so much of it comes from a hatred that has been bred within her and her family members by a literal interpretation of the Bible.

My point was simply that these people aren’t “warping” Christianity. Christianity is not really a peaceful religion at it’s very core. The crusades and numerous wars were fought in the name of Jesus. The Catholic Church has the blood of the inquisition and the puritan witch hunts on its hands. And, as I said, there are more instantaces of an “angry, hateful, jealous” God in the Bible than of the fluffy, kind, loving, all forgiving, wish granting, soul saving hippie with Tivas that a lot of Christian simplests paint. They have warped nothing. They have simply read the Bible and acknowledge and worship the more frightening God that most people pretend isn’t in there.

These people didn’t warp the Bible or Christianity. They are simply following it literally and focusing on the parts of “God” most Christians choose to forget, ignore, or disregard – the scary parts. I don’t blame them, per se. I wouldn’t want to worship a guy who says it’s okay to own slaves, that bad children should be stoned to death, and that rape is okay as long as you cough up the dough and marry the girl. But, on the same token, I also refuse to worship ANY God that hates gays, hates babies born out of wedlock, and thinks sex is a dirty, sinful thing that should be saved for marriage. In short, I find religion a bunch of BS, regardless of whether it’s the scary WBC kind, the fluffy, hippie Jesus loves everyone kind, or the hypocritical “hate the sin, love the sinner, gays are bad but I can get divorced three times” kind.

If I want to hear fundamentalism I’d prefer to get it from the fundamentalists.

There is no such thing as one christian religion just as there is no one interpretation of the bible. If you don’t like christianity, fine, but please don’t try to pretend these wackos are the “real thing” and tar reformed and progressive sects as an aberration.

Believe me, the Westboro cult do their fair share of picking and choosing too. How about “let he who is without sin cast the first stone”?

On the contrary, these people haven’t warped anything. I give them credit because they are one of the only “churches” in this country that actually follows the Bible.

God of the Bible is not a loving, just, fair, kind, forgiving hippie with burkenstocks and a blunt. Christianity is a bloody, murderous religion, if the BIble is interpreted literally.

The “Christians” who use terms like “hate the sin, love the sinner”, who speak about God’s love and forgiveness while trying to encourage gay teens to go to ex-gay therapy, the Christians who quote Leviticus but don’t know any other part of the Bible, those are the Christians that have warped religion and Christianity into their own form of retardation. They cherry pick the parts of the Bible that suit them best, and use them to get what they want out of life.

Do you know why no Christians groups are pushing to repeal legislation that allows divorces? Because one day, they might NEED A DIVORCE. So they overlook the bit in the Bible that says “no divorce”. However, if you’re not gay, you can keep the rules about gay being an abomination because it won’t effect yoru daily life (until you find out you have a gay son or daughter).

Because almost all religions were born thousands of years ago, the cultures surrounding said religions are usually violent, bloody, and extreme. I hate WBC’s messages, and how they hurt families of fallen soldiers etc., but I respect them because they aren’t like Maggie or Pat Robertson, sugar coating their ideas of hatred and presenting them to the world as something they aren’t.

Hahahaha.

… look at it this way. If, as part of your job, you are sent to interview them, can you think of anything better to talk to them about? It sure beats trying to talk to them about theology.

Ezekiel 23:20
There she lusted after her lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of horses.