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Tag: Fred Phelps

  • Westboro Baptist: Why They Do It. How To Stop Them. What They Don’t Want You to Know.

    Matthew Keys, an independent journalist based in California who writes for The Blot Magazine, has written a piece on Westboro Baptist Church that goes above and beyond the usual “here’s what the haters are doing this week” rubber-necking.

    Westboro is a conundrum to write about. As Keys says, “It’s hard to cover a hate group when you know their secret weapon: Attention.” Articles about Westboro have that shocker factor. They get clicks. But they make you feel like a whore for writing them.

    For a while I have wondered at how this group does what it does and why. I have always written it off to the same kind of reasoning that allows those degenerates in Iraq to behead journalists, throw acid on little girls, and stone women. I figured that my writing about these folks would serve to hasten their demise. And there may still be a school of thought for that.

    But Keys’ article for The Blot, entitled “To Defeat Westboro Baptist Church, Just Don’t Look”, made something else clear to me: there is a profit motive behind what Westboro does.

    Profit? Hey, what could be more American than that? That puts them right in the same league as Kevin Trudeau and his sham books that finally landed him in prison. It makes them more like Bernie Madoff, and less like ISIS. Right?

    Except we have to remember that these people are causing pain for mothers of dead children. They are using a time of grief as an infomercial for their business. It is bottom-feeding at its worst.

    So, how is it that Westboro profits from its picketing activities and hate speech? Keys explains that by looking back at the earliest picketing activity of Fred Phelps and his followers.

    Phelps had been an attorney, as were all his kids. But Phelps was known in Topeka to be a hate monger, preaching against gays and spewing the same kind of vile speech that his group has become famous for. So Phelps’ practice went downhill, as did that of his family members. Eventually he was disbarred, but continued to practice.

    Once, when Phelps and his crew picketed a park that he believed was frequented by gays, he found himself the center of press attention in the area.

    Keys explains further:

    “The attention started having a detrimental effect on the law firm that bore the Phelps’ surname. His children, all attorneys, began having trouble finding clients to represent. To make ends meet, members of the Phelps family started filing lawsuits as the Westboro Baptist Church against the City of Topeka for failing to provide adequate protection at rallies. In 1995, the Phelps sued the state of Kansas for passing an anti-picketing law that they claimed infringed on their First Amendment right to freedom of speech.

    “Well-versed in the area of civil law, the Phelps family represented their own church in nearly all of the suits. In a handful of cases, they were awarded thousands of dollars in judgments and settlements; the cash was funneled back into the church for picketing.”

    The Phelps family now had a cash cow in the form of a tax-free religious entity. All they needed to do was show up somewhere that their presence would make a big stink, wave their signs around a bit, and wait to have their “rights infringed upon”. Then, they’d sue.

    The Phelps clan started looking for opportunities, and they found them in the form of the funeral of Matthew Sheppard, then the performances of The Laramie Project that followed. Later, they used the occasion of the 9/11 attacks and the following wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as auspices for further protests and picketing, with the full intent of enraging people to the point of violating their rights and exposing them to lawsuit retribution.

    Of course, Westboro knows you “can’t get blood from a turnip”. Grieving families or enraged locals may not have any money to take. But cities and municipalities do. So Westboro dispatches a few members into a town and they wait to be accosted. When they are, either physically or by way of laws limiting their picketing activity, they sue the city.

    This pattern and structure explains everything that decent people hate about Westboro and its activities. This even includes their ubiquitous signs.

    Former church member Libby Phelps-Alvarez wrote:

    “The words on the signs … are not necessarily written to make people feel bad, but more for the shock factor. Short sound bites grab people’s attention and spark interest.”

    The signs, the faxes and tweets announcing Westboro’s intent to protest, the talk show vitriol, and all the other disgust-inducing tactics are all plotted with a purpose: to enrage people.

    Does that mean that every member of Westboro is an insincere profiteer and the joke is on all of us?

    Not necessarily. As Phelps-Alvarez also said, “I really believed, to my very core, that gay people were destroying not only America, but the entire world. And that it was my job to let the world know just that.”

    Apparently, Fred Phelps believed that to his very core, as well. But he also found a way to make it pay. In some senses, that parallels him with a Joel Osteen or Rick Warren. These men no doubt believe what they preach. But they also know how to get rich saying it.

    For Osteen and Warren to make their millions, they needs lots of people behind them, megachurches, books, TV shows, and radio. In Phelps’ case, this works in a Bizarro-World way that only requires the 75 people in his church, paltry social media outreach, and a fax machine.

    But the magic ingredient for Westboro is you. It is your hate, your attention, the possibility that you or someone like you will violate their rights when they get in your face at a funeral.

    So Keys reveals how to stop Westboro. His solution is to stop paying attention to them entirely. It is a novel approach, and it might work. At the very least, the world should see the group and its founder for what it is: a hum-bug wizard with a little, old man behind the curtain pulling levers and hoping for a payout.

    What if Westboro Baptist threw a picket and no one came?

  • Westboro Baptist Church (Still) Hates Everybody!

    After the death of their charismatic leader Fred Phelps a few days ago, one would think that Westboro Baptist Church might be ready to call it a day, take down the “God Hates ________” signs, and head home.

    But perhaps not.

    We reported here yesterday that the group is as defiant as ever about their being right about your sorry soul, and the rest of the world being wrong about everything. In a statement following Fred Phelps death, the group said:

    “Listen carefully; there are no power struggles in the Westboro Baptist Church, and there is no human intercessor – we serve no man, and no hierarchy, only the Lord Jesus Christ. No red shoes, no goofy hat, and no white smoke for us; thank you very much.

    And for those who are truly the enemies of God – ordained of old to such a condemnation – we pray his righteous wrath and vengeance, wherein we rejoice.”

    The “red shoes, goofy hat, white smoke” references seem to be aimed squarely at Catholics and the Pope, a group they have not been shy about taking on in the past. They have a website called Priests Rape Boys, and have called Pope Francis a “false prophet”.

    But Catholics aren’t the only target of the Westboro gang. Everybody knows about their hatred for gay and lesbian people (“God Hates Fags” is their mantra). But they are equal opportunity haters of (the links below are all set to open in new tabs, click away and try not to laugh):

    Jews

    Kathy Griffin

    Muslims

    Barack Obama

    Dead U.S. Soldiers

    Lady Antebellum

    The Golden Globes

    Kirstie Alley

    President Kennedy

    Keith Urban (?!)

    … and pretty much every other church out there.

    There were a couple that came as no surprise, particularly Lou Reed and Margaret Cho.

    It looks like the Westboro folks should have plenty to keep them busy for some time to come, what with gay marriage gaining traction in many states and all. Now, if they can just find another massively offensive leader.

    Image via Westboro Baptist Church blog

  • Fred Phelps Will Get No Funeral; So Picket Elsewhere

    In a joke that must have Lucifer chuckling, members of Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) announced today that there will be no funeral for recently-deceased Fred Phelps, who will be gay soon. So if you were planning on picketing, find someplace else to tote your signs.

    According to the Christian Science Monitor, Margie Phelps, daughter of the pastor and founder of Westboro Baptist, confirmed that no one gets the chance to respond to Phelps in kind for all his funeral picketing.

    Phelps and his Westboro minions have forged a reputation out of funeral picketing, always with vulgarly-worded signage carried by church members, even children.

    In the early days of the Westboro gay and military funeral picketing activity, they would turn out in “full force” – even though that was still only a couple dozen people – and spend the day shouting their twisted version of street preacher messages at anyone who passed by. They waved the placards that made them famous:

    God Hates Fags

    God Hates You

    Pray For More Dead Soldiers

    Thank God For 9/11

    Thank God for IEDs

    God: USA’s Terrorist

    Plane Crashes; God Laughs

    But over the years things changed. Their reputation preceded them, and always intentionally.

    Their modus operandi changed. It now was to send announcements ahead to a town, usually to local press, letting their intent to come protest be known. They maintained a blog of their upcoming stops. The local press would then run with the news, spawning lots of vitriol and discussion. On the date WBC was slated to arrive, a scant handful of members would hop out of their bus or van, march around for less than an hour, waving their signs, until the local photographers had taken all the pictures they would, then hop back on the bus and skedaddle out of town.

    The method worked over and over again. They used local press to spread their hate further than their own marching ever could have done alone. Crowds many times the size of their own cadre would turn out, making it a real media event, instead of the mumblings of a few sad haters, which was all it would have been without the press.

    The WBC denies the rumors that they had excommunicated Phelps in his final weeks. They posted a statement on their blog titled “Your Dashed Hopes”, which says, in part:

    The world-wide media has been in a frenzy during the last few days, gleefully anticipating the death of Fred Waldron Phelps Sr. It has been an unprecedented, hypocritical, vitriolic explosion of words.

    It’s like every journalist in the world simultaneously set aside what little journalistic integrity they have, so that they could wait breathlessly for a rumor to publish: in-fighting, succession plans, and power struggles, oh my! How shameful! You’re like a bunch of little girls on the playground waiting for some gossip!

    Listen carefully; there are no power struggles in the Westboro Baptist Church, and there is no human intercessor – we serve no man, and no hierarchy, only the Lord Jesus Christ. No red shoes, no goofy hat, and no white smoke for us; thank you very much.

    And for those who are truly the enemies of God – ordained of old to such a condemnation – we pray his righteous wrath and vengeance, wherein we rejoice.

    Image via Westboro Baptist Church blog

  • Fred Phelps Gay in Afterlife, Thanks to Satanists

    After earlier news that notorious Westboro Baptist founder and (former) lead pastor, Fred Phelps, had died, everybody knew that the pile-on would begin in earnest. You can’t spend your whole life bashing every group but your own, picketing funerals, and hating on everyone and not expect to have your own death celebrated like a University of Kentucky NCAA Championship win.

    Many groups have called for their members to squelch the mirth, vowing to be better than Phelps was. In fact, some LGBT groups even acknowledge that a hater like Phelps has done more to advance the cause of tolerance, by being a horrid example of what lives look like when they lack it, than they ever could have done on their own.

    But not everyone is willing to let Phelps go gracefully into that good night. The jokes write themselves, and someone has to tell them. But the biggest bum’s rush may well be coming from Phelps’ stiffest competition – the Satanist’s.

    You may recall that we told you before about a “Pink Mass” ceremony held by Satanists at the gravesite of Fred Phelps mother. The point of a Pink Mass is to initiate the departed posthumously into the Church of Satan, and specifically to “turn them gay”. Obviously, the rite does no such thing. The point of it was to bring the fight to the Westboro haters and give them a taste of their own medicine.

    The Washington Times reports that the very group that pulled that stunt is now gearing up to do it again, and this time they are aiming for the big man himself. Lucien Greaves, the man who performed the Pink Mass last year, has vowed to carry through on his earlier plans to do an even bigger event over Fred Phelps’ grave. He stated in a letter:

    “At the time [of last year’s Pink Mass ceremony at Phelp’s mother’s grave], I predicted that Fred hadn’t too much longer till he would pass, and I stated – in a direct tweet to the WBC – that I would be presiding over Fred’s own Pink Mass before too long. As I have made a promise to a dying man, I fully intend to do my very best to see it through, and the pomp and circumstance of this Pink Mass will surely far, far exceed that of the original event in Meridian, Mississippi.”

    Greaves says that he sees Phelps as a “ludicrous arch-villain” – strong words coming from a Satanist.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Fred Phelps Dies After Illness, No Cause Of Death Given

    Fred Phelps Sr., the founder of the Westboro Baptist Church group, died on March 19 at the age of 84.

    Phelps had been ill for some time and passed away at a hospice, his daughter confirmed, but no cause of death has been released. The family has been mostly uncooperative with the media regarding his health in recent weeks, with a spokesperson saying on Sunday, “He has a couple things going on. The source that says he’s near death is not well informed.”

    Phelps was an ordained Baptist minister but his Westboro group did not actually have ties to an official Baptist church, according to the Washington Post. The extended Phelps family has drawn media attention and much ire over the years for their views on everything from gay marriage to celebrity worship, and have planted themselves at funerals, concerts, and other events that they deem worthy of God’s wrath.

    The group recently picketed a concert by Vince Gill because of their views on his remarriage, saying he was an “adulterer”. Gill came out to confront them, and the entire thing was caught on video.

    “What are you doing with another man’s wife? Don’t you know that divorce plus remarriage equals adultery?” one protester asked.

    “Don’t you know you f**kers are lucky that you don’t have a sign that says something about my wife?” Gill shot back.

    Phelps reportedly chose to picket the funerals of soldiers–which were sometimes very public events–because he knew he would have a wider audience to preach to. The family patriarch has said that God chooses to kill American soldiers as a punishment for the country’s tolerance of the gay community, an idea which has garnered disbelief and hatred against the Phelps family for years.

    “If I had nobody mad at me,” he said, “what right would I have to claim that I was preaching the gospel?”

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Fred Phelps On Death Bed: Will There Be Picketing?

    There are reports that long time Westboro Baptist Church leader and controversial anti-gay figure Fred Phelps Sr. is on his death bed.

    The next question is a fairly obvious one: Will there be a huge picket at his funeral?

    After all, that’s a large part of how the WBC came to be so widely known and despised. No matter what the tragic occasion, The 84-year-old preacher and his loyal following was there to declare the matter proof that God hates gays. Fallen soldiers, murdered school children, a terrorist attack—there was no tragedy too big or too painful for the church to threaten pickets in order to garner attention.

    It didn’t matter if they actually followed through; the threat alone was enough to get people outraged and talking.

    The logic behind Phelp’s behavior has long been that anything bad that goes on in the world happens because God hates homosexuals.

    The Westboro Baptist Church preacher and those closest to him also made a point of wrapping themselves in their constitutional right to be a disrespectful presence with no consideration for the mourning family members of the deceased.

    News of Phelps Sr.’s health making a turn for the worse seems to be a sign that the shoe is on the other foot. Members of the Phelps family may find themselves subject to the very same behavior they acted out on others.

    Though the exact nature of Phelps’s health is unknown, Church spokesman Steve Drain did share with the Topeka Capital-Journal that Fred Phelps Sr. is a patient in Midland Care Hospice. Drain says he hasn’t been there for “too long”.

    This statement corroborates the Facebook update made by Phelps’s estranged son, Nate, who wrote:

    I’ve learned that my father, Fred Phelps Sr., pastor of the ‘God Hates Fags’ Westboro Baptist Church, was ex-communicated from the ‘church’ back in August of 2013. He is now on the edge of death at Midland Hospice house in Topeka, Kansas. I’m not sure how I feel about this. Terribly ironic that his devotion to his god ends this way. Destroyed by the monster he made.

    Nate Phelps also claims that his father was ex-communicated from the WBC in August 2013.

    For Phelps to die in such a way would almost seem like a twist out of the Twilight Zone, particularly if his exit is marked by picketing.

    Still, one wonders whether or not this seemingly obvious response to a man who made a name for himself based on hate would be the best possible response. The one thing that would likely hurt a man like Phelps the most would probably also be the classiest possible approach: Ignore him.

    Ignore him in death in the way Phelps should have been ignored in life.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Fred Phelps: Controversial Pastor Said ‘Near Death’

    The Rev. Fred Phelps Sr., 84, the controversial former pastor of the Westboro Baptist Church, known for his military and anti-gay sentiments, is in a care facility and near death.

    The son of the former pastor, Nathan Phelps, posted about his father on his Facebook page Saturday.

    “He is now on the edge of death at Midland Hospice in Topeka,” said Nathan Phelps, who left the church several years ago.

    “I can tell you that Fred Phelps is having some health problems,” said church spokesman Steve Drain. “He’s an old man and old people get health problems.”

    Members of the Westboro Baptist Church, based in Topeka, Kansas, are known to protest at funerals of soldiers carrying signs that say, “Thank God for dead soldiers” and “Thank God for 9/11.”

    They claim the deaths are God’s punishment for American immorality and tolerance of homosexuality and abortion.

    Westboro Baptist is a small church mostly comprised of Phelps’ extended family.

    Last summer, Phelps was voted out of Westboro Baptist Church and moved out of the church and into a house, where he was watched to ensure he wouldn’t harm himself.

    He eventually stopped eating and drinking.

    Nate Phelps’ Facebook page confirmed the excommunication and his imminent death.

    Post by Nathan Phelps.

    In 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the church and its members couldn’t be sued for inflicting pain on grieving military families under the First Amendment, protecting free speech.

    The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups in the United States, says on its website that Westboro “is arguably the most obnoxious and rabid hate group in America. The group is basically a family-based cult of personality built around its patriarch, Fred Phelps.”

    Image via Wikimedia Commons