Thursday, July 26, 2007

Open Letter To The Westboro Baptist Church

First, I loved your open letter to the UK. (if that link doesn't work try this backup [pdf]) Any letter which starts "Dear British Bastards & U.K. Insurgents" gets my vote. Brilliant.

I watched both the Louis Theroux program (which you mentioned in your missive) and "Keith Allen will burn in hell". Frankly, you came out of both much more impressively than I anticipated. You won hands down on the Keith Allen encounter. He broke before you did and you maintained your dignity and poise extremely impressively when he struck his deliberate and unjustifiable blow below the belt. And you came out even, in my opinion, in your bout with Louie. You didn't master the subtlety of his approach, but you did much better than most of his other victims. I still think you're a bunch of harmless religious obsessives but I have to respect your determination and sheer commitment as well as your articulate defence of your position.

You, of course, will see me as a tool or disciple of Satan because I'm responsible for stuff like this:

Nevertheless, I'd like to put a hypothetical question to you. You might wish to answer individually or collectively.

You've very kindly warned us that
"Very shortly Christ is going to come through the clouds, in power and glory, with his holy angels, taking vengeance on them who knew not God and obeyed not the gospel"
It's the "very shortly" that grabbed my attention.

Clearly if it doesn't happen by this time tomorrow, it wouldn't prove you wrong. Even this time next year doesn't discredit your prediction. But suppose your descendants are still making this prediction, to our descendants, in, say, a hundred years time, does that still fit with "very shortly"? I suppose, in historical terms, one could make the case that a century isn't that long. But suppose he still hasn't arrived in another thousand years, or a million? We'd have to start talking about stretches of time which, though still geologically brief, are way beyond what your own paradigm believes to have been possible so far and thus cannot be what you meant by "very shortly".

So I'd like you to define or put a limit on what constitutes "very shortly". I'd suggest, for example, that a reasonable limit would be the next fifty years or so. I'm not going to quibble if you say twice as long, but more than that and it gets a bit too woolly. And one thing no one can accuse you of is being woolly!

Whatever that limit is, what I then want to know is what your contingency plans are for a no-show.

I've always been fascinated by doom-mongers. The rabid batch we had in the run up to the Millennium were absolutely fascinating. What really irked me, however, was that while the media spent months showing us all the weird beliefs, predictions and preparations these people made to meet the end of the world in their own special ways, the bastards didn't follow any of the stories up after the non-event! I want to know what happened to that guy who booked himself into a bed and breakfast in Brighton on New Years Eve 1999 expecting not to wake up in 2000. Did he? What did he have to say about it? I want to know how all those end of the world mountain-top vigils reconciled themselves to their continued existence.

So, with you guys, I want to know how you're going to deal with it IF you turn out to be wrong. I can answer that question for myself. If I turned out to be wrong and there was a God and he or it was even remotely like you imagine him to be, I know exactly what I would think, do and say (if he gave me the chance). I have actually considered the possibility of my paradigm being wrong. I consider it a very low probability, so it doesn't keep me awake at nights, but I have at least considered it.

Yet unlike many prominent religious leaders who have admitted various levels of doubt, I don't get the impression that any of you have ever allowed yourselves to peer into the abyss of uncertainty. I recommend it. It's the most liberating and enlightening thing you can do for your mind.

Regards

Harry Stottle

1 comment:

Harry Stottle said...

(I received the following reply from Zach Phelps-Roper on behalf of the WBC)
**********
Hello, you scoffer! Shut your pizza chute for a few minutes and read these good words from the Westboro Oven!

Thanks for watching those documentaries. You have now shown that you have received the Word of God and have rejected it.

Why do you strain at the Lord Jesus Christ coming “very shortly" and not take into consideration you never-dying soul which is headed for Hell? What you need to know is that we are living in the LAST of the LAST DAYS. We are living in Doomed America, which is the picture of Ezekiel 16, Luke 17, and Revelation 14, and so is the rest of the world. This whole world is doomed:

Luke 6:15 And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men,and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains;
16 And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:

17 For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?

Luke 17:26 And as it was in the days of Noe (Noah), so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.

27 They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came,and destroyed them all.

28 Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded;

29 But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all.

30 Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed (The Return of the Lord Jesus Christ through the Clouds, to execute Judgment upon the ungodly and the Reprobate for persecuting and harming the Apple of His Eye, His People!)

Revelation 14:6 ¶ And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people,

7 Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.

We know we are not being tricked. The Bible is clear, the Lord Jesus Christ made it clear (Luke 17), and God is confirming our words with signs following. We put the words in the air—you hate the words—your conscience is seared with a hot iron—you persecute the Servants of God.

2nd Chronicles 16 But they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the LORD arose against his people, till there was no remedy.

Psalm 58:10 The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance: he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked.

11 So that a man shall say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous: verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth.

Luke 18:1 ¶ And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;

2 Saying, There was in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man:

3 And there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary.

4 And he would not for a while: but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man;

5 Yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her
continual coming she weary me.

6 And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith.

7 And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them?

8 I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?

Jude 14 And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints,

15 ¶ To execute judgment upon all, and to convince (i.e. convict and punish by sending to Hell) all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.

We know the Promises, and they are better than gold. Fear God and Keep His Commandments (Ecclesiastes 12:13), or you’re going to Hell (Luke 16), where the worm that eats on you, that guilty conscience of your sins, will never die, and the fire will never be quenched, for all of eternity. Hell is too long and too Hot! That is the Conclusion of the Matter. Repent, or Perish.

Thanks for e-mailing!

Zach Phelps-Roper
of the Westboro Baptist Church

Romans 13:
11 And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.

12 The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.

13 Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying.

14 But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.