by zeb 8 Replies latest jw friends
I like to watch TED talks.
A recent one I watched was "Why I left the Westboro Baptist church" x Megan Phelps-Roper. I have never heard of this church ever before after all I am in Australia. The talk and all the young woman stated as beliefs and dogma sounded just like the jw minus the noisy demos.
Louis Theroux did some great shows on this church...
Check them out.
She also did Sam Harris' podcast, which I found to be a very good listen. It was startling how much of what she said was so relatable - even the scriptures that got emphasized were the same.
With my knowledge of the Bible I would have to be a Westbro Baptist if I ever returned to Christianity; anything less would be intellectually dishonest. They are one of the few Bible believing churches left in the world.
I found that Ted Talk very good and inspiring. Her insights are very good.
With my knowledge of the Bible I would have to be a Westbro Baptist if I ever returned to Christianity; anything less would be intellectually dishonest. They are one of the few Bible believing churches left in the world.
How so? I wonder because "knowledge of the Bible" is quite a simple statement. Pretty much every person alive in this planet has "knowledge of the Bible".
And what does "intellectually dishonest" mean?
The Westbro Baptists not only read the Bible (unlike the vast majority of those who consider themselves Christians), but they have the integrity to follow the principle of sola scriptura to its logical conclusion. It's an ugly conclusion, I will concede you that, but for that very reason I favor it. These people have done more to discredit Christianity than Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens and Robert G. Ingersoll combined! Those men could always be accused of being prejudiced against the Bible - of deliberately twisting the scriptures to fit their anti-theist agenda - but you can't accuse Rev. Phelps of that. He's a Christian who 'gets it'. He sees the Christian God for the psychopathic monster that he is and embraces Him!
And what does "intellectually dishonest" mean?
An intellectually dishonest person is someone who consciously refuses to take responsibility for the contents of their mind and thus fails to arrive at an internally consistent worldview. Like insisting that blood transfusions are the same as drinking blood and thus unkosher, while scarfing down bacon and clam chowder.
I had heard a couple of years ago, that Anonymous digitally "erased" many of the members of the Westboro Baptist Church after they had one of their demonstrations at the grade school where a shooter killed a bunch of kids. They attributed the killings to the wicked, evil parents' lifestyles and tolerance of homosexuality.
Despicable bunch of people.
I have worked with people who are homosexual. They to a person are as appalled at child abuse as any of us. The wt of course doesn't know the difference between 'gay' and paedophile.
