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Originally Posted by Aussiemama
I have heard it speculated that this group just uses a church to hide under, that really, since all of them are lawyers, that they have an agenda to stop churches from being able to speak and preach on the streets, and so they behave badly so that people will hate Christians etc. I wouldn't be surprised. Also, since they are lawyers, they can also sue and make a lot of money when people try to shut them up.
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Actually, the Westboro Baptist Church is not composed of lawyers, although they undoubtedly hire quite a few of them. It's pretty much a one-family operation, and there are less than 50 active members. The "Pastor," Fred Phelps, is getting along in years, and his daughter, Shirley Phelps-Roper, is starting to take over the public relations side of the operation. I've heard them both interviewed, repeatedly, on the radio, and they're as nasty a pair as you're likely to find outside the Manson family. The church is primarily composed of Phelps' children and grandchildren; many of the people who join their "demonstrations" are not church members, but simply troublemakers, ne'er-do-wells, and bullies. They remind me of the scene in Acts 17:5:
But the Jews which believed not, moved with envy, took unto them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort, and gathered a company, and set all the city on an uproar, and assaulted the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people.
That's the Phelps operation in a nutshell.