[JimRed]

Every “Baptist” I know, and I am Baptist, is frothing mad at Phelps and his church and wish they would shut up and go away.

IIUC, the Baptists don't have a central authority which could eject Westboro and strip it of use of the name?

[Graybeard58]

IIUC, the Baptists don't have a central authority which could eject Westboro and strip it of use of the name?

I don't know what "IIUC" means but the answer to your question is no.

[Mrite]

Every “Baptist” I know, and I am Baptist, is frothing mad at Phelps and his church and wish they would shut up and go away.

IIUC, the Baptists don’t have a central authority which could eject Westboro and strip it of use of the name?
****

If Phelps’ crowd were a member of a particular sect of the Baptist church (like the SBC), then they (the SBC) could have WBBC removed from fellowship within the SBC, but they couldn’t have them remove Baptist from their name. The Baptist church was originally formed as a bunch of like-minded believers, in churches/groups that were independent of one another.

Referenced from: Lecture 1 (Some Unerring, Infallible Marks)- Point 3 - The Trail of Blood by J.M. Carroll:

“3. The churches in their government and discipline to be entirely separate and independent of each other, Jerusalem to have no authority over Antioch — nor Antioch over Ephesus; nor Ephesus over
Corinth, and so forth. And their government to be congregational, democratic. A government of the
people, by the people, and for the people.”

http://www.baptistpillar.com/bd0178.htm

I myself cringe whenever I hear the WBBC referred to as “Baptist.”

[Yet_Again]

IIUC, the Baptists don't have a central authority which could eject Westboro and strip it of use of the name?

They don't. The bad side to that is that stuff like this can happen. The good side to it is it keeps 99.9% of Baptist churches from going Episcopalian on their members.