Sue says...

I find the blatant hostility shown towards God and Jesus Christ defies belief when all either of them (God and Jesus) want is for mankind to have peace on Earth.

Sue has never read the bible. First, God sets up men to fail through his little "gotcha" game in the Garden of Eden. From there it goes down hill for mankind quite rapidly. Even ignoring the phony apocalyptic mass-murder of Noah's Ark story, it's still pretty darn gruesome:

For example, God kills 70,000 innocent people because David ordered a census of the people (1 Chronicles 21). God also orders the destruction of 60 cities so that the Israelites can live there. He orders the killing of all the men, women, and children of each city, and the looting of all of value (Deuteronomy 3).

He orders another attack and the killing of “all the living creatures of the city: men and women, young, and old, as well as oxen sheep, and asses” (Joshua 6).

In Judges 21, He orders the murder of all the people of Jabesh-gilead, except for the virgin girls who were taken to be forcibly raped and married. When they wanted more virgins, God told them to hide alongside the road and when they saw a girl they liked, kidnap her and forcibly rape her and make her your wife!

Just about every other page in the Old Testament has God killing somebody!

In 2 Kings 10:18-27, God orders the murder of all the worshipers of a different god in their very own church! In total God kills 371,186 people directly and orders another 1,862,265 people murdered.

The God of the Bible also allows slavery, including selling your own daughter as a sex slave (Exodus 21:1-11), child abuse (Judges 11:29-40 and Isaiah 13:16), and bashing babies against rocks (Hosea 13:16 & Psalms 137:9).

And this was in the bronze and iron ages... Imagine if God had advanced technology. Like tanks, guns, bombs, poison gas, effective transportation and food storage (logistics) and a manufacturing base... Imagine the carange then...

A second issue is the splitting off of this gruesome conduct. Sorry Christians, you MUST RESPECT THE OLD TESTAMENT and OBEY ITS LAWS. JESUS HIMSELF SAID SO:

“For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass the law until all is accomplished. Whoever then relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but he who does them and teaches them shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:18-19 RSV)

This passage, btw, also makes Paul a liar. Paul said that the dietary laws were null and void. But Jesus says NO RELAXING OF THE LAW. One of hundreds of scriptural conflicts Christians ignore.

But wait, there's more:

"It is easier for Heaven and Earth to pass away than for the smallest part of the letter of the law to become invalid." (Luke 16:17 NAB)

"Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest part or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law, until all things have taken place." (Matthew 5:17 NAB)

"Know this first of all, that there is no prophecy of scripture that is a matter of personal interpretation, for no prophecy ever came through human will; but rather human beings moved by the holy Spirit spoke under the influence of God." (2 Peter 20-21 NAB)

“Did not Moses give you the law, and yet none of you keepeth the law" (John7:19...)

and “For the law was given by Moses,..." (John 1:17)...

“...the scripture cannot be broken.” --Jesus Christ, John 10:35

Then we have all the "sword" stuff:

"Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s enemies will be the members of his household. He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it." (Matthew 10:34-39 NASB)

" 49 I have come to cast fire upon the earth; and how I wish it were already kindled! 50 But I have a baptism* to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is accomplished! 51 Do you suppose that I came to grant peace on earth? I tell you, no, but rather division; 52 for from now on five members in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three. 53 They will be divided, father* against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law. (Luke 12:49-53)

"If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple." (Luke 14:26)

"But now, whoever has a money belt is to take it along, likewise also a bag, and whoever has no sword is to sell his coat and buy one." (Luke 22:36 NASB)

Seriously, does this look like a couple of peaceniks? I ask you, does this look like Jesus and God are a couple nice guys you'd like to have a beer with? Who are all "lovey and peace?"

No. Which is why what Jesus and God really said isn't taught in Church. Which gets me to the irony of Fred Phelps and his flock of hate.

Fred Phelps, misanthropic and disgusting as he his, isn't an aberration from the standpoint of obeying the Bible. Rather he's a purist who, as he claims, is one of the few in America to actually follow the bible while the rest are heretics doomed to burn in hell.

The true aberrations, and I have to agree with Phelps from a fundamentalist interpretation of the Holy Bible, are the cafeteria Christians who've thrown out virtually all of the bible and take what they want to reinforce their preconceived beliefs and prejudices. That is, their God has evolved to keep up with a more modern set of cultural norm. Whereas Phelps... He's a rock-hard purist.