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Then again there are people who say you are not a TRUE Christian if 24/7 your life does not revolve around the Church and worship, so it also depends on how zealotic they are.
I will assume what you speak of is the latter. I have been called Unchristian because I read the works of Tolkien (ironically Tolkien is the man that turned C.S. Lewis on to Christianity) ,J.K. Rowling, Stephen King, Dean Koontz and Lovecraft. I personally love Heavy Metal music and Role Playing Games (D&D, Final Fantasy you name it), and according to those types I am not Christian for enjoying such things.
And if someone is trying to insult you by calling you an "untrue christian", isn't it one of the commandments "love thy neighbor" no "insult thy neighbor"? Eh, I can't really say much though, I'm not religious. Although my family is Christian, we don't go to church. We celebrate the fun parts, like Christmas and Easter. ^.^
I question their faith highly in those regards, if they pray for the death of innocent people I think they are praying to the wrong entity if you know what I mean (read: Satan).
People from Westboro came to my small town last year to protest at the funeral of one of our soldiers and I cannot in any way see that as righteous or Chrisitan, I am just glad that our people did not dirty their hands on those heathens and chose to turn the other cheek in this case.
However in light of their other actions I will disagree.
P.S. and what am I doing wrong to make my quotes look funky?
The thing is, the main binding part that unifies Christians is there believe in Jesus Christ, and accept him as who he is and what he did, and you accept that, then you are a Christian. Period.
Everyone screws up though, including Christians (I know, big surprise). People aren't always going to agree. It's a very personal thing; you've got common sense. Use it.
*snip*
According to the Army officer who directed the first official inquiry, the Army might have more of a clue about the shooter's identity than it has let on. Asked whether ballistics work was done to identify who fired the fatal shots, Lt. Col. Ralph Kauzlarich told ESPN.com, "I think, yeah, they did. And I think they know [who fired]. But I never found out."
Mansfield and other Rangers who attended the post-incident meeting said — both in interviews with ESPN.com and in documents from the Army investigations — they were advised by debriefers that night that the unit as a whole bore the responsibility for Tillman's death and they should avoid placing blame on any one person.
In his interview with ESPN.com, Kauzlarich also said he was not driven to identify Tillman's killer.
"You know what? I don't think it really matters," Kauzlarich said. "And the reason I say that — you got to look at the overall situation here that these guys were fighting in. And somebody hit him. So would you hold that guy [who] hit him responsible for hitting him, when everybody was shooting in that direction, given the situation? We'll see how the [Defense Department Inspector General's] investigation comes out. But I had no issue on not finding a specific person responsible for doing it."
Kauzlarich said he is confident the current probe will not result in criminal charges against the shooter or shooters. He said investigators would not still be examining the incident at all if it were not for Tillman's NFL celebrity — he walked away from a multimillion-dollar contract with the Arizona Cardinals when he enlisted — and the pressure brought to bear by Tillman's family on a number of Washington politicos.
"His parents continue to ask for it to be looked at," Kauzlarich said. "And that is really their prerogative. And if they have the right backing, the right powerful people in our government to continue to let it happen, then that is the case.
"But there [have] been numerous unfortunate cases of fratricide, and the parents have basically said, 'OK, it was an unfortunate accident.' And they let it go. So this is — I don't know, these people have a hard time letting it go. It may be because of their religious beliefs."
In a transcript of his interview with Brig. Gen. Gary Jones during a November 2004 investigation, Kauzlarich said he'd learned Kevin Tillman, Pat's brother and fellow Army Ranger who was a part of the battle the night Pat Tillman died, objected to the presence of a chaplain and the saying of prayers during a repatriation ceremony in Germany before his brother's body was returned to the United States.
Kauzlarich, now a battalion commanding officer at Fort Riley in Kansas, further suggested the Tillman family's unhappiness with the findings of past investigations might be because of the absence of a Christian faith in their lives.
In an interview with ESPN.com, Kauzlarich said: "When you die, I mean, there is supposedly a better life, right? Well, if you are an atheist and you don't believe in anything, if you die, what is there to go to? Nothing. You are worm dirt. So for their son to die for nothing, and now he is no more — that is pretty hard to get your head around that. So I don't know how an atheist thinks. I can only imagine that that would be pretty tough."
Asked by ESPN.com whether the Tillmans' religious beliefs are a factor in the ongoing investigation, Kauzlarich said, "I think so. There is not a whole lot of trust in the system or faith in the system [by the Tillmans]. So that is my personal opinion, knowing what I know."
Asked what might finally placate the family, Kauzlarich said, "You know what? I don't think anything will make them happy, quite honestly. I don't know. Maybe they want to see somebody's head on a platter. But will that really make them happy? No, because they can't bring their son back."
Kauzlarich, now 40, was the Ranger regiment executive officer in Afghanistan, who played a role in writing the recommendation for Tillman's posthumous Silver Star. And finally, with his fingerprints already all over many of the hot-button issues, including the question of who ordered the platoon to be split as it dragged a disabled Humvee through the mountains, Kauzlarich conducted the first official Army investigation into Tillman's death.
That investigation is among the inquiries that didn't satisfy the Tillman family.
"Well, this guy makes disparaging remarks about the fact that we're not Christians, and the reason that we can't put Pat to rest is because we're not Christians," Mary Tillman, Pat's mother, said in an interview with ESPN.com. Mary Tillman casts the family as spiritual, though she said it does not believe in many of the fundamental aspects of organized religion.
"Oh, it has nothing to do with the fact that this whole thing is shady," she said sarcastically, "But it is because we are not Christians."
After a pause, her voice full with emotion, she added, "Pat may not have been what you call a Christian. He was about the best person I ever knew. I mean, he was just a good guy. He didn't lie. He was very honest. He was very generous. He was very humble. I mean, he had an ego, but it was a healthy ego. It is like, everything those [people] are, he wasn't."
*snip* (Emphasis mine) Source
I think it's impossible to interpret that quote in any respect that would condone divorce, yet many so-called Christians get divorced and marry those that had been previously divorced. I don't think it's a question of having trouble interpreting as not wanting to abide by a strict set of rules when it becomes inconvenient. You would be hard pressed to find any Christian that can follow the rules set out by Jesus in the sermon on the mount.
Jesus's response to people who claim to be his followers and don't follow his rules? "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'" --Matthew 7:21-23
The original meaning describes a quality that is indeterminable, and the word has picked up so much baggage over the millenia that two randomly-selected individuals will probably have differing definitions for it. If the purpose of a word is to convey meaning between two people, then the word "Christian" is obsolete. There's never a guarantee that the meaning recieved is anything close the meaning intended. The worst part is that this word is used to group billions of vastly disparate people together. And of course, as with any other blanket generalisation applied to a group of people, prejudices and faulty assumptions abound.
Describing specific qualities is infinitely more useful than calling someone "Christian" or "not Christian". The Westboro-ites preach a message of hate and malice. They take joy in the suffering of others. They claim to speak for God. These things fly in the face of everything Jesus taught. Their actions don't look like "loving your neighbor" to me. The Bible may say that God considers homosexuality a sin, but it also says He considers prostitution and theivery sinful, too. But who was Jesus nice to? Prostitutes and theives. Who did he get mad at? People who defiled the temple with their selfishness and false righteousness. Those two qualities seem to describe the Westboro-ians pretty well to me.
So, OP, saying that the Westboro folks aren't true Christians is wrong in the same way that saying they aren't true terrorists is wrong. What's a terrorist? They certainly revel in catastrophy. They're trying to use horrible events to sway public opinion toward their religious fundimentalist ideals. They preach hate toward a group of people. Do you actually have to blow something up or kill people with your own hands to be considered a terrorist? Do you have to subscribe to certain jihadist dogmas or hate America?
Christian or not, these guys are assholes. Of course people who identify themselves as Christian wouldn't want to be lumped in with them. Even by most modern-usage definitions of "Christian," they don't seem to make the cut. But if you take the word to mean anyone who claims to be Christian and believes in Jesus, then I guess one can't say they're not Christian. And if you take it to mean "belonging to Jesus," you'll have to ask the Big Guy. If we're taking bets, however, my money's on no.
THROW 'EM INTO THE POND!!!!!