The newest religion on the block

Just like Steven and Alicia I hold no truck with the Calvinist Synod of Dort’s TULIP doctrines (Total Depravity of Man; Unconditional Election; Limited Atonement; Irresistible Grace; and Perseverance of the Saints.) – although the first of them doesn’t seem nearly as far afield as the rest of them do.

I’ve seen someone lately, though, that runs with these doctrines almost exclusively: Fred Phelps. Seriously.

Via Dappled Things I found this interesting little synopsis of the Phelps Weltanschauung (also excerpted by Kathy Shaidle).

Turns out the Phelpsies don’t even refer to themselves as Christian anymore – and that’s fitting as the Christian God would not create people for the express purpose of despising them. The Phelpsies now self-identify as “Tachmonites” – an epithet found twice in the OT referring to a particularly mighty and fierce warrior in the army of King David (2 Sam 23: 8; 1 Chr 11:11). Like fellow Kansan John Brown, the Tachmonites see themselves as holy warriors. Unlike Brown, they claim to be the only elect. They even go so far as to claim impeccability for themselves Also unlike Brown, they appear to have repelled vastly more people from their cause than they’ve drawn to it.

It is worth remembering that every vice is either a deficiency of or an excess of some virtue. It’s easy to attribute Phelps’ vitriol to a lack of charity and humility. Still, no one does well to counter Phelps’ excessive zeal for chastity with apologies for license.