The Salty Peanut Gallery

In the ancient Greek culture heresy referred to any particular party, school or sect. For the Greek in his quest for knowledge this wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. But for the early church Christian, when someone decided to set up his own personal opinions over sound Bible teaching, this became problematic. From a biblical perspective a heretic is someone who has made his own ideas the standard for truth. Put simply a heretic is a man who has decided that he is right and everyone else is wrong.

Now fast forward to 2007. Recently a jury ruled against the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas, ordering them to pay $10.9 million dollars in damages to Albert Snyder, the father of fallen Marine Lance Corporal Matt Snyder. Mr. Snyder had filed a law suit against the church for picketing his son’s 2006 funeral. Apparently these church members routinely jet across the country picketing the funerals of fallen soldiers. They believe the deaths in the war in Iraq are punishment for “doomed” America’s tolerance of homosexuality. The congregation along with their pastor, Fred Phelps, and his two daughters, attorney Margie J. Phelps, and church spokesperson, Shirley L. Phelps-Roper, were found liable for invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Can I get a booyah?!

I once had the joy of corresponding with the Phelps girls after viewing a Westboro music video on their website GodHatesFags.com entitled “God Hates the World” (to the tune of “We Are the World”). I have to admit that it was probably a rather foolish thing for me to do, but I just couldn’t help myself. I sent the good folks at Westboro a message explaining to them just why I believe their video amounts to religious extremism in the hopes that God would be merciful and give them wisdom to be able to see things more clearly. Within a matter of hours I got a response from both Phelps daughters. Shirley was of course the most verbose beginning with “Dear lying false prophet” and ending with “keep you[r] vast, rotting pizza chute SHUT!” Thank you very much.

On the day of the jury verdict, Canadian news report, Mary Vallis, of the National Post interviewed Shirley Phelps-Roper about her controversial church. The entire National Post interview is available on Podcast. During the interview Shirley had a number of fairly outrages things to say that demonstrate the extent of their twisted theology.

Commenting on the vast attention this story has gotten “on Google around the world,” Shirley attributes their publicity to the Lord God opening up what she calls “doors of utterance.” This phrase is taken from Colossians 4:3-4 where the Apostle Paul requests prayer that God would open “a door of utterance, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds: That I may make it manifest, as I ought to speak.” The “door of utterance” to which Paul was referring, however, was for opportunities to spread the message of the salvation, not the message of hate.

Shirley continues, “I used to read in the book of Acts where…Paul would say, ‘Our faith is spoken of throughout the whole earth.’ …And now I understand it perfectly, because like them our faith is spoken of throughout the whole earth.”

Okay, first of all, Paul didn’t say it in the Book of Acts. Paul said it in the book of Romans. And he wasn’t referring to himself. He was referring to the faith of the believers in Rome. Be that as it may, do the folks at Westboro really believe that people all over the world are talking about their faith? I don’t think so. Hate, religious extremism, complete and utter lunacy maybe, but definitely no faith.

Shirley also claims that her group, like the early church Christians, has “turned the world upside.” “We’ve been sent, the scripture says, to fray them. We bind them with…chains and fetters of iron.” In Acts 17 Paul and Silas were accused of turning the world upside because of the transforming power of the gospel. And in Psalm 149 the psalmist describes the authority granted by God to the nation of Israel to “execute vengeance” on her enemies, “To bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron;” Again, neither of these references have anything to do with what this church is doing.

But their most egregious assertions have to do with why it is they are emboldened to demonstrate at military funerals. Shirley explains, “Don’t teach your children lies. Don’t teach them that God is a liar. And don’t teach them rebellion against their God, because the promise from your faithful God is that when you do that you can bring those children up and I will bereave you of them. I will dash your children to pieces before your eyes. Now do you know what an IED does?”

Again more scripture taken out of context. References to bereaving them of children and dashing their children to pieces before their eyes come from Old Testament prophecies of God’s judgment on Israel (Jeremiah 15:7; 18:21) and Babylon (Isaiah 15:16). Both sets of prophecies deal with specific events in Israel’s history and have zero application to today. The implication that IEDs killing America’s children is somehow a fulfillment of these prophesies in my mind is beyond the pale.

Shirley claims there are seventy-two people that attend this tiny church located in the middle of America’s heartland. If it weren’t for the publicity that this little group has generated they would hardly be worth the acknowledgment. However, in Titus 3:10 Paul gives a stern warning against heretics, advising that these contentious, divisive individuals should be avoided. Without question Paul is saying that we should avoid personal association. But I would argue the importance of avoiding positional association as well. I am a follower of Jesus Christ, but I in no way want to be associated with this group of people that persists in giving Christians a bad name. Fred Phelps and his congregation are heretics and according to God’s Word they are to be avoided both personally, and I believe positionally.