Fred Phelps
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[edit] Definition
[edit] Theology
Fred Phelps' theology is simple --- even logical, once one accepts the main premises.
[edit] From "fags" to funeral protests
- God hates "fags".
- I mean, he really, really hates fags, no kidding.
- God hates fags so much that he hates, as a whole, any country which doesn't make being gay a capital crime.
- When God gets mad, he kills people and then sends them to hell.
- God punishes nations collectively, by the sword.
- Therefore, American deaths, especially of soldiers serving in the Middle East, are God's righteous punishment of America.
- Therefore, these deaths are a good thing.
- Therefore, it is the duty of every good Christian to turn up at funerals, especially military funerals, and gloat over the death and presumed damnation of the deceased. In Phelps' words:
- It is a sin NOT to rejoice when God executes His wrath and vengeance. (capitals in the original). [1]
- Therefore, this is the mark of the true Christian who will be saved; not to rejoice at military funerals is the mark of a sinner.
- It is a sin to lament for those whom God has slaughtered in His wrath in punishment for a nation's sodomite sins. [2]
[edit] Predestination and America
Fred Phelps is a firm believer in the doctrine of predestination: humans have no free will, and God makes people wicked so that he can righteously punish them; God, he explains, doesn't hate "fags" because they're "fags", rather, they are "fags" because God hates them. It's not just "fags" that are in this unhappy state; Phelps devotes 94 pages to "proving God's hate and wrath for most of mankind" [3], and attributes this hatred to mankind's wickedness, and mankind's wickedness to God:
- Scores of verses bespeak God's power and plan to blind the eyes, harden the hearts, stop up the ears, and preserve in iniquity, those whom he does not love. [4]
The reader may be surprised to learn that for some Protestant sects, this bizarre doctrine is more or less orthodox. Phelps, however, adds to this the belief that America as a whole has been chosen for perdition by God. Quite how he found this out, he doesn't say.
- That's right, America!! It is too late to pray for the good of the USA!! The Westboro Baptist Church used to pray for the good of America, knowing that God's blessings are mighty and His hand could be stayed from punishing this wicked nation, just as He stayed His hand from punishing Nineveh. America chose to spit in the face of their Creator, instead of heeding WBC's warnings, and now it is too late to pray for this nation. ... You let it happen, America, and now you can't fix it. The bell has been rung. Deal with it. [5]
This leads one to the conclusion that Phelps' protests are utterly futile. This has also occurred to Phelps.
- We don't strive to change your hearts or minds. For God alone controls the hearts of man. Even if we wanted to, we couldn't make you believe the truth. In fact, the scriptures are full of verses telling us you will not believe our report. God has reserved to himself only a remnant. [6]
Since God has decided against America, it is therefore a sin to pray for America.
- Gov. Perry says, "Say a prayer for Texas." Bush says, "May God bless America." Listen up, you blaspheming atheists, God Almighty does not hear prayers for this evil, feces-eating faggot nation. And it is a sin to pray for America. [7]
On the other hand, praying against America is just fine: since God intends to smite America, it's OK to ask him to do so. At length.[8]
The fact that God hates America explains why God hates American soldiers so much:
- Therefore, with full knowledge of what they were doing, they voluntarily joined a fag-infested army to fight for a fag-run country now utterly and finally forsaken by God who Himself is fighting against that country. [9]
[edit] Is he a Baptist?
There is nothing particularly Baptist about Phelps' theology, nor is he affiliated with any group of Baptist churches. He pickets and protests at the funerals of Baptist soldiers, and described Sago Baptist Church, where people met to pray for trapped Pennsylvania miners, as "a sodomite whorehouse masquerading as Sago Baptist Church." [10]
Phelps has, in turn, been roundly denounced by Baptists. [11]
[edit] The Westboro Baptist Church
The Westboro Baptist Church is located in Topeka, Kansas. It is very much a family affair, with most of its 80-odd members being related to Phelps by blood or marriage. On Phelps' websites, Shirley and Marge Phelps respond to letters and emails from the public, spreading the Word of God with such subtle theological arguments as:
- You got it - SHUT YOUR STINKING, feces-eating/inhaling hole, and for heaven's sake clean the feces off the corners of your mouth and use some Listerine and wash your shirt and in the future use a napkin at snack time ... Thanks so much for writing![12]
Four of his thirteen children (Mark, Nate, Katherine and Dorotha [13]) have left the sect. Mark and Nate Phelps have denounced him publicly for a long history of violent abuse against his children and his wife [14] [15]. Mark Phelps, his son, wrote to the Topeka Capital-Journal of his father in the following terms:
- He mis-states the truth about his own behavior, about others, about the Bible, with apparent ease and regularity. He behaves with a viciousness the likes of which I have never seen. He accepts no genuine accountability in his life and is subject to no one.
- I also realize that my father is a very unstable person who is determined to hurt people ... He simply wants to hate and to have a forum for his hate ... He experiences no moral dilemma when it comes to doing what he wants to do. [16]
It is difficult to say exactly where the line between a religion and a cult lies; but the Westboro Baptist Church has clearly crossed this line. More, perhaps, than any other sect, it has achieved the sharpest possible dividing line, in its theology and its practices, between "Us" and "Them". It is hard to think of many peaceful actions which would draw the contempt and revulsion of every segment of American society, but by protesting in favor of executing gay people by disrupting religious ceremonies to lay to rest soldiers fallen in the war in Iraq, Mr. Phelps seems to have all his bases covered. For members of the Westboro Baptist Church, participation in funeral protests is obligatory. This is doubtless a hard line to cross; but once over, the cognitive dissonance involved in thoughts of turning back must be huge.
In one respect, the cult seems doomed to failure. Phelps' message started off as the traditional fire-and-brimstone message of "repent and be saved!", but this has now been replaced with the rather less appealing message (to those outside the cult) of "there's no point in repenting because you are already damned." On this basis, it is hard to see why anyone short of a spiritual masochist, if there is such a thing, would want to believe Phelps' message; or how Phelps could admit such a person into his church even if he wanted to join.
[edit] Biography
Phelps was born in 1927 ; had a regular childhood, and was noted at school for his academic and athletic achievements. In 1946, shortly after graduating from high school, he "got religion" at a Methodist revival meeting. In 1947, at the age of seventeen, he was ordained as a Baptist minister (having switched denominations in the meantime). It is interesting to note that before he got religion, he was destined for West Point and a high-flying career in the army that he would later come to despise so much; armchair psychologists may make of that what they will.
He then studied for three semesters at Bob Jones University before leaving without graduating; studied two semesters in the Prairie Bible Institute, Alberta; and finally earned a two-year degree in 1951 from John Muir College, Pasadena. [17]
In 1954, Phelps was hired as an associated pastor by the East Side Baptist Church, Topeka. When the church leadership decided to set up a church on the west side of town, Phelps was chosen as pastor. Westboro Baptist Church held its first church service on Nov. 27, 1955. During this period Phelps also supported himself by selling baby strollers, insurance, and vacuum cleaners. [18]
Combining college hours from the schools he previously attended, Phelps received an undergraduate degree in history from Topeka's Washburn University in 1962, then earned a law degree from Washburn in 1964, and was admitted to the Bar, where he specialized in, of all things, civil rights cases. [19]
In 1969 he was suspended from practicing law in Kansas. [20] After his suspension, Phelps survived financially by getting his children to sell candy from door to door. [21] In 1977 the state filed a complaint for Phelps to be disbarred. The complaint centered on a case brought by Phelps against a court reporter named Carolene Brady who had failed to have a court transcript ready when he wanted it; Phelps sought damages of $22,000. In the course of the case, Phelps cross-examined her for three or four days straight in a manner which the Kansas Supreme Court would describe as: "abusive, repetitive, irrelevant and ... a classic case of 'badgering' a witness." [22]
Phelps moved for a new trial and claimed that specific witnesses would testify about the conduct and reputation of Brady. Brady obtained affidavits from eight of those witnesses showing they wouldn't testify as Phelps said they would. With superb understatement, the Kansas Supreme Court wrote that "The seriousness of the present case coupled with his previous record leads this court to the conclusion that respondent has little regard for the ethics of his profession." Phelps was disbarred from practicing law in Kansas. [23]
In 1989, Phelps surrendered his license to practice law at a federal level after he was found to have spread false accusations about judges. [24]
In 1991, he turned his attention to "sodomites", publicly picketing a gay "cruising area" in a local park; then turning his attention to the funerals of gay men. We cannot say exactly at what point Phelps decided that America was beyond redemption, but the first protests at military funerals began in June 2005. [25] At the same time, the former civil rights lawyer has sunk into anti-semitism and racism. [26]
[edit] People God Hates
God also, for some reason, hates Sweden[30]. The great Asian tsunami of 2004 was, according to Fred Phelps, God's way of punishing Sweden[31]. Yes, that's Sweden in Europe. We have provided a map for the benefit of idiots and vengeful gods. Sweden, Phelps says, is a "land of sodomy, bestiality, and incest". He is particularly cross with the Swedish royal family, all of whom, he says, "look gay"[32]. The Swedish people as a whole he describes as "drippings from the Devil's own penis".
When London was hit by the tube bombings, Phelps was quick to denounce England as the "Island of the Sodomite Damned", and proclaimed Tony Blair to be the Antichrist. Who knew?[33]
Recently, God has started hating Ireland[34]; by a wild coincidence, so has Fred Phelps.
It seems likely that God will come down hard on Jews in the near future:
- Fag Jew Nazis are worse than ordinary Nazis. They've had more experience. Jews stirred up the Romans to butcher 6 million Christians in the catacombs in the 1st century. The First Holocaust was a Jewish Holocaust against Christians. The latest Holocaust is by Topeka Jews against WBC... [35]
God also, and this is worrying, hates people who make fun of Fred Phelps. When a gunman shot a class of Amish schoolgirls, Fred Phelps gloatingly reported that this was God's vengeance on the Governor of Pennsylvania for "mocking" the Westboro Baptist Church. [36]
[edit] Fighting back
Then there are people who take the law into their own hands; Phelps' website contains some video footage of WBC members being physically attacked. Gratifying though this spectacle may be, we do not recommend such a course of action; it is rumored that Phelps funds his operation largely through litigation against people whom he can persuade to take a swing at him.
An alternative strategy is followed by the Patriot Guard Riders[37], a motorcycling fraternity founded in August 2005 [38] specifically to combat the Westboro Baptist Church. At the request of the family of a fallen soldier, they turn up in large numbers to screen the protestors from the family and to drown out their chants by singing patriotic songs or by revving their engines. Membership is free; you will need a motorbike and a really big American flag.
[edit] Links and References
[edit] Phelps' sites
[edit] Sites about Phelps
- The Fred Phelps archive of the Topeka Capital-Journal
- Patriot Guard Riders
- Archive of news stories about Phelps at the Rick Ross Institute for the study of destructive cults
- AntiDefamation League
