The Westboro Baptist Church of Troy, New York

[47of74]

Saw this on Buzzfeed about a Troy, New York IFB church that BLM took issue with led by one John Koletas and had a protest at the church, which of course every reich wing cannon of douche picked up on right away.

Quote

But like any piece of local media that goes viral on a national level, the video is missing years — in truth, decades — of context. “It’s wild that the national story is that there’s a bunch of Marxists attacking Christians in the street,” one local, who asked not to use her name because of her employment affiliation, told me. “Everyone here knows that this is our Westboro Baptist." (Grace Baptist Church and its pastor declined multiple requests for an interview).

“I think a lot of people on the outside look at an IFB pastor and think, Oh, he’s just like the Methodists, or the Presbyterians,” Bruce Gerencser, a former IFB pastor, told me. “But they’re really not. And they’re not countercultural, either. They’re anti-cultural. Standing apart from culture is their main objective. They’re belligerent and arrogant — and they don’t care if you think that they’re in bad taste. That’s the point.”

“I knew it was a trap,” Lukee Forbes, one of the leaders of the local Black Lives Matter movement, told me. They knew the church had orchestrated an event that would incite a protest — and that it’s easy for a video of a protest at a church to get distorted and go viral.

“What people need to know is we’re not protesting churches,” Forbes said. “We’re protesting this church. I’m a Christian. I’ve been saved. And it hurts to see people come out and drag us for fighting for our community. And now we’re the bad guys. But how do we feel safe in our own community when this church is in the middle of it?”

I think BLM shouldn't have given Koletas or aforementioned reich wing douche cannons any sort of opening but that's what they did.   And yeah, looks like Koletas is a real prize of a preacher too.

Edited August 15, 2020 by 47of74

[Howl]

Koletas is a scumbag.  Also of note: one can become an IFB pastor by...setting  up shop.  There are no qualifications, one need not have attended seminary.  

[47of74]

8 hours ago, Howl said:

Koletas is a scumbag.  Also of note: one can become an IFB pastor by...setting  up shop.  There are no qualifications, one need not have attended seminary.  

That's a problem with a lot of religions organizations.  I say organizations in general instead of churches because it's not just Christianity that has this issue.  Some religious organizations that aren't part of a larger religious governing body just about anyone can set themselves up as a religious leader with little or no training at all.  They can't be held accountable by anyone outside the organization.  

Priest at my current parish (Episcopal Church) has his doctorate.  The minimum is usually a Masters in Divinity at the least.  Other religious organizations all you need is to have a pulse.  No minimum educational requirements.  I used to work with an older guy who got into preaching with the James MacDonald Harvest Bible Chapel church.  I think the extent of his education was a series of weekend seminars.

Something that attracted me to the Episcopal church was that it had a hierarchical structure so you didn't have individual parishes going too far off the rails, but a lot more independence than the Roman church.

[Mrs Ms]

On 8/16/2020 at 1:52 PM, 47of74 said:

 

Priest at my current parish (Episcopal Church) has his doctorate.  The minimum is usually a Masters in Divinity at the least.  Other religious organizations all you need is to have a pulse.  

And a penis, preferably white 

[47of74]

13 hours ago, Mrs Ms said:

And a penis, preferably white 

Back in 2014 1/3 of all priests in the Episcopal church were women.  I think I saw somewhere now where it's closer to 1/2 but maybe that was the Church of England.