Wikipedia article - Official Website
- Creed / Doctrine / Statement of Faith:
- The Bible is the Word of God and to be taken literally.
- The scriptures are to be preached in the bluntest and plainest manner possible, without regard to their ability to influence people, nor with any consideration to the personal gain of the preacher.
- Believing the Five-Points of Calvinism is essential for salvation.
- Homosexuality is the worst of all sins and indicative of the final reprobation of an individual, and its acceptance by society prompts divine judgement. The homosexual is a reprobate given up by God and hence cannot be a member of God's elect, and cannot repent or be saved. (Note: Elsewhere on the website in the FAQ section, Westboro indicates that homosexuals can repent; possibly this relates to individuals who have "dabbled" in homosexual relationships but are not committed to such a lifestyle.)
- God has absolute omnipotence to cause or prevent tragedy. As such, when disasters occur, such as the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster or the September 11, 2001 attacks, it is God's intentional punishment of the wicked.
- There is absolutely no salvation outside of Westboro Baptist Church. Therefore, it is a sin to offer any type of aid or support to anybody or any human institution in the world except for WBC.
- The proclamation of the gospel involves condemning sin as strongly as the Bible does and this will result in persecution and rejection of the gospel by the unelect.
- Hellfire is to be taken literally and God's Elect will rejoice in being Christ's agents in executing the righteous judgement of hell on the wicked, which will comprise all of humanity with the exception of their church.
- The elect, being the chosen agents of God, answer only to God and are above the laws of man which do not have basis in God's law.
- Christmas, Easter and all other theologically based holidays have [a] basis in Paganism, and are therefore not to be celebrated by the elect.
- It is a sin not to rejoice when other people are victims of tragedy, violence or #WBC has repeatedly prayed for sin, evil, murder, violence, death, disease, natural disasters, war, terrorism and total destruction for every individual not in their church. In addition, they hope and pray that everybody - save themselves - will burn in hell for all eternity.
- Membership: 100-200, mostly composed of Fred Phelps' extended family
- Churches: 1 in Topeka, Kansas
- Domionist ties:
- Other links or affiliations: Organizations/ChristianIdentity, Organizations/BobJonesUniversity (Phelps attended, but later dropped out)
Founded in 1955 by DominionistPlayers/FredPhelps after being kicked out of Eastside Baptist Church, a conservative church in Topeka. A number of members followed Phelps to Westboro, but the majority of his supporters left him after an incident in which he shot and killed a neighbour's dog while under the influence of drugs and alcohol. Westboro gained national attention in 1998 following the murder of Matthew Shepard. Members picketed his funeral. Recently the church has taken to picketing the funerals of soldiers killed in Iraq.