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ERE ID
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10715
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URL of title group
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https://www.fwbcla.org/
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Stated purpose
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New Independent Fundamental Baptist church in California. They're a King James Bible only church. Furthermore, they firmly are against the LGBTQ+ community, which they believe is a sin, an abomination, and punishable by God with the death penalty. The group opposes wordliness, modernism, formalism, and liberalism. (Liberalism is refering to political affiliation, not "classical liberalism", which is a form of governance)
-https://www.fwbcla.org/our-beliefs
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Parent organization URL
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New Indepedent Fundamental Baptists
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Social Media Accounts
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-Pastor's Twitter (unactive since 2020): https://twitter.com/olivetree1569
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-Pastor's Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bruce.mejia.1
-Church's Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FWBCLA
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-YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpF2XF5sJC4Wf_VloQ85s9w
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Membership
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somewhat of a small base with about 50 regular regular attendees, but roughly 1000 followers on facebook
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-YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpF2XF5sJC4Wf_VloQ85s9w
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Larger Twitter prescence in 2021, back when the Church was bombed. Around that time, there was also a fair amount of opposition to the Church while it was in the spotlight due to the bombing. (Not clear if much ongoing attention)
-url: https://twitter.com/search?q=first%20works%20baptist%20church&src=typed_query
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Research note
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Very transparent, several pages on social media with detailed and structured information regarding their beliefs. Also have a contact us page on their website. Website is organized very well, confident they'd be open to contact/interviews with outsiders. They have a Facebook, Instagram, email, and a phone number.
-Email: fwbcla1@gmail.com
-Phone number: (626) 361-7233
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Found via the SPLC's (Southern Poverty Law Center) hate map under "anti-LGBTQ"
-https://www.splcenter.org/hate-map?state=CA&ideology=anti-lgbt
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Location
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Congregation in Anaheim, CA.
Address is: 223 E Orangethorpe Ave, Anaheim, CA 92807
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Publications about the group
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unable to find any academic artciels on both Google Scholar and JSTOR
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Not specifically on the First Works Baptist Church, but found information retaining them on the New Independent Baptist Church Wikipedia page. Made small edits to include information regarding the First Works Baptist Church, such as their beliefs, the church bombing, and what they oppose. The Wikipedia entry is somewhat small, but nonetheless seems to be a quality entry.
-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Independent_Fundamentalist_Baptist
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Perceived enemies
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Their "enemies" are the LGBTQ+ community (sodomites), modernists, liberals, secularists, in their words "christians who live by the world rather than the bible", and "a friend of the world is an enemy of god"
-https://www.fwbcla.org/our-beliefs
-https://www.fwbcla.org/banned-preaching (sermons titled "The Sodomite Deception" and "The Worst Sin")
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Key URLs about the group -- not by the group
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https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpF2XF5sJC4Wf_VloQ85s9w https://twitter.com/search?q=first%20works%20baptist%20church&src=typed_query https://www.fwbcla.org/banned-preaching https://twitter.com/olivetree1569 https://www.facebook.com/FWBCLA https://www.facebook.com/FWBCLA https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpF2XF5sJC4Wf_VloQ85s9w https://www.splcenter.org/hate-map?state=CA&ideology=anti-lgbt https://www.fwbcla.org/our-beliefs https://www.fwbcla.org/banned-preaching
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Independent_Fundamentalist_Baptist
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Primary source
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-https://www.fwbcla.org/banned-preaching
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Outsider views of the group
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The church itself is site to several counterprotests, in which they see themselves as "being silenced". Furthermore, the church was the victim of a bomb attack in January 2021. My source is the church's own documents. (Sermon titled "Preparations for Warfare")
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Dehumanizing speech by group
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Known to refer to LGBTQ+ community as "sodomites"
-https://www.fwbcla.org/banned-preaching (sermon titled "The Sodomite Deception")