Religious Extremists Are Correct

Why do moderate/liberal theists view the extremists in their religion as not being representative of the "true" essence of their brand of theism?  For example, the Westboro Baptist Church, Ultra-Orthodox Jews, ISIS and Young-Earth Creationists are accepted as extremists by most members of the same failth.  In my opinion, it is because the moderate/liberal theists believe that these groups are acting on the literal interpretation of their scriptures and that the "true" understanding of these writing should be metaphorical or figurative.  Is this really valid?


This link presents how the early Christian Fathers interpreted their scriptures.  There is no reason to expect the earliest followers of the other Abrahamic faiths viewed their scriptures any differently.  It is clear to me that the "inspired" writers of these documents, in a pre-scientific age, meant them to be taken literally, thus, in my opinion, the literalists are correct in their interpretation of their scriptures.

http://debunkingchristianity.blogspot.com/2014/10/fundamentalist-readings-of-genesis-is.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogspot%2FypxUn+%28Debunking+Christianity%29