Proud to be an Okie

ransom wrote:

pstrbrc wrote: The "god" they preach is very much like the "Allah" of the Koran and nothing like the Jesus of the Bible.

Near as I can tell, all religions have the capacity to be interpreted in a completely bat-E36-M3 fashion, or to be interpreted in a more, well, neighborly way.

Please understand, I am not labeling Muslims as "Fred Phelps-ish", because I've had Muslim acquaintances, and I found them to be neighborly. But I believe that all religions deserve to have their scriptures respected, and to have theirs own "experts" tell me how to interpret them. And the "god" of Fred From Topeka is very similar to the God/Allah that the Koran and Islamic theologians describe. (shrug) Both gods are pretty unforgiving and authoritarian. Just sayin'.

I'm sure the Baptists have distanced themselves from Fred's bunch.

bravenrace wrote: In reply to Mental: I lived in Oklahoma for a year back in '82. Does that qualify me?

Weird, I lived near OKC in '82 for a year also!

pstrbrc wrote: Please understand, I am not labeling Muslims as "Fred Phelps-ish", because I've had Muslim acquaintances, and I found them to be neighborly. But I believe that all religions deserve to have their scriptures respected, and to have theirs own "experts" tell me how to interpret them. And the "god" of Fred From Topeka is very similar to the God/Allah that the Koran and Islamic theologians describe. (shrug) Both gods are pretty unforgiving and authoritarian. Just sayin'.

Fair point. You (unsurprisingly) clearly know both parts of this much, much better than I ever will. I was just taken aback by what appeared to me to be an offhand correlation of Islam and Phelps...

The Phelps Baptists are so far off their rockers, I don't think I ever expected observations on any of finer points of their take on religion.