RIP Fred Phelps (1929-2014)

[Biafra Republic]

Source: WIBW Topeka, Topeka Capital-Journal

 

 

Fred Phelps Sr., the former head of the Westboro Baptist Church, died late Wednesday night, according to a family member.

 

Phelps' son, Timothy told 13 News that his father died just before midnight. Timothy Phelps works at the Shawnee Co. Jail.

 

Ironically, another son who is a member of the church, attorney Jonathan Phelps told us Thursday morning, "Pastor Phelps is doing just fine." That, of course, could have been a spiritual reference.

 

Over the weekend, we learned that Phelps was reportedly "on the edge of death."

 

In a statement on his Facebook page, Nathan Phelps, who has been estranged from his father for 30 years, said the senior Phelps was dying in hospice care in Topeka, Kan., and that he had been ex-communicated from his own church in August of 2013.

 

Fred Phelps was a man bent on delivering a message. He did it by becoming a lawyer and by becoming a minister.

 

Despite being disbarred in 1979, Fred Phelps pushed his name into the public eye, through the political arena in campaigns to vie for Senator and Governor. Phelps scored 30-percent of the vote in his 1992 senate bid.

 

In the early 90s, wearing sunglasses and a windbreaker, Fred Phelps was making a name for the family church by holding one of a barrage of picket signs, with the stark messages decrying homosexuality.

 

The Westboro notoriety spread quickly beyond Kansas. Topekans were targeted in hundreds upon hundreds of faxes sent from the Westboro Baptist Church

 

Phelps zeroed in on Topeka’s Gage Park with his decency drive. Some would try to stop him, including the CCT, (Concerned Citizens of Topeka). The City of Topeka tried ordinances restricting picketing outside homes and churches, but Phelps was a master litigator, filing lawsuits demanding millions and in some cases winning judgments of tens of thousands of dollars.

 

How two Topeka Police Chiefs, Gerald Beavers and Dean Forster would have TPD deal with WBC, led to major policy battles inside City Hall. Beavers resigned, ending his strategy of placating the Phelps with no-arrest orders.

 

By the close of the 1990s the Westboro message took another turn, opening with its protests at the funeral of slain Wyoming college student Matthew Shepherd. The protest gained Westboro, and Phelps, global notoriety.

 

As time marched through to the mid 2000s, the patriarch had faded from public view, but the world would take note of the Phelps children and grandchildren, and their protests of military funerals.

 

Missouri's anti-picketing law upheld by a federal judge earlier this year.

 

In the end, Fred Phelps was ex-communicated from his own church by three of his children.

 

His descendants continue the protests, but who will lead the church after Phelps death is the question many in Topeka are asking now that Fred Phelps is gone.

 

Earlier this week, a current church elder told WIBW that they need no leader, their head is Jesus Christ.

 

 

Pastor Fred Waldron Phelps Sr., founder of the Westboro Baptist Church, died late Wednesday, a daughter of Phelps confirmed Thursday morning.

 

Reached by phone in Topeka, Shirley Phelps-Roper confirmed her father had died at Midland Care Hospice.

 

Phelps-Roper politely said it was "none of your business" to a reporter's questions of whether members of Phelps' family had been present when he died and whether a funeral service would be conducted for her father.

 

Phelps had been in hospice care with an unknown illness. Church spokesman Steve Drain said Feb. 14 to a Topeka Capital-Journal reporter that Phelps was “healthy" but wouldn't put Phelps on the phone as a church spokeswoman had done in the past.

 

"He has a couple things going on," Drain said Sunday but he declined to elaborate on what his illness was.

 

"The source that says he's near death is not well informed," Drain said Sunday, which was three days before Phelps died. On Wednesday, phone lines at the church normally staffed to handle news media queries had messages to email questions to the church. When called, the phones of several other church members immediately rolled into message mode.

 

Another member of the family hung up when The Topeka Capital-Journal reporter identified himself.

 

According to son Nate Phelps, who was ousted from the group 37 years ago, Fred Phelps Sr. was excommunicated in August 2013 from the church he founded for advocating more kindness toward its members.

 

The WBC is best known for anti-gay protests and picketing soldiers’ funerals.

 

On Sunday, Drain refused to discuss whether Phelps had been excommunicated from the church he founded.

 

"We don't discuss our internal church dealings with anybody," Drain said. "It's only because of his notoriety that you are asking."

 

Drain said the church doesn't have a specific leader other than Jesus Christ. The church has an eight-member board of elders, all male, who make church decisions.

 

All I can say about this ludicrous figure is this quote Richard M. Stallman said about Steve Jobs (and originally attributed to some wag about the death of former Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley):

 

"I'm not glad he's dead, but I'm glad he's gone."

 

Comments, etc. go below per usual.

 

(P.S. While it's true he did picket gays, he also picketed the funerals of soldiers, natural disaster victims, school shooting victims, etc., in addition to being barred from entering the UK. All worthy of a corpse being in a topic of its own)

[Johnny Boy]

Good riddance Mr. Phelps. Good freaking riddance.

[Dr. Mechano]

I take absolutely no joy in bigots dying; I only celebrate bigots changing, which sadly did not happen before Phelps's death. To those still at Westboro and those who bravely left that hateful place, I wish them the best in this time of grief. 

 

What Fred Phelps stood for was beyond contemptible. But he was still a fellow human being, and I can't help but feel some degree of pity for his wasted life of bitterness and intolerance. As one of many people that he preached hatred against myself, I hold no ill will against Phelps or his family, and see them as tragically misguided more than anything. I can only hope that some of Westboro's current members come to the same epiphany that others in their family already have, choosing love instead of hate.

[Milo]

I'm no expert, but when taken into consideration the beliefs, actions, and overall lifestyle this man promoted throughout his life and his ability to successfully rope others into doing likewise with his church, I think I can safely say that a lot of people aren't interested in harboring little if any sympathy for this man's passing.

 

Though I do think it's a shame that his death won't really create any changes to WBC's presence/existence/modus operandi, I mean they ex-communicated Phelps in the church's later years.

[Indigo Rush]

The only thing I can say with sincerity is that I give my condolences to the Westboro family. 

 

My hope is that this will be the point in where their cycle of hate ends. I have my doubts, but a man can hope.

[Blue Wisp]

I'm... Conflicted about what to feel. I mean, the guy was honestly quite a jerk, but on the other hand, a man died. 

 

Sigh, rest in peace I guess.

[Brad]

Good riddance. 

[Indigo Rush]

Wait a tick

 

http://cjonline.com/news/2014-03-17/elders-excommunicate-phelps-after-power-struggle-call-kindness-within-church

 

They excommunicated Fred Phelps for telling them to be kinder to each other?

[nintega137]

Wait a tick

 

http://cjonline.com/news/2014-03-17/elders-excommunicate-phelps-after-power-struggle-call-kindness-within-church

 

They excommunicated Fred Phelps for telling them to be kinder to each other?

Wait what?????????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Indigo Rush]

It's... it's kind of a bitter, but nonetheless fitting end when you think about it.

 

After years of turning his back to those who needed love and forgiveness the most, now they turned their back on him. 

 

He was betrayed and shunned by the very monster he created.

[nintega137]

What cruel irony fate tends to be............

[Biafra Republic]

Wait a tick

 

http://cjonline.com/news/2014-03-17/elders-excommunicate-phelps-after-power-struggle-call-kindness-within-church

 

They excommunicated Fred Phelps for telling them to be kinder to each other?

 

If it's true, I'm not surprised. Especially with the way he went after Jerry Falwell. Unfortunately, the current higher-ups at WBC aren't talking, claiming that 'membership issues are private'.

[DocAzure]

Taking joy in man's death just lowers you to the level of Westboro, and their picketing. The guy is dead, I'm not gonna take pleasure or solace in that fact. I mean, this disgusting church is still a thing, regardless of this guy dying (and if what indigo said is true, irony is one cruel mistress).

 

Rest in peace, even though you were determined to prevent this peace from existing between people.

[Willsy]

I'm glad that he won't be leading a discrimination against LGBT anymore, but at the same time I kind of feel sorry that he died on this note. It would have been nice if he changed his ways at the last minute, but I guess sometimes there's not really a happy ending.

The Westboro Baptist Church will fall apart without him though. Without the dedication and...passion....that Phelps put into it, I don't think it can really stand strong. It will probably become a much weaker offensive against LGBT people at least.

[Tani Coyote]

It is often only when you're out of time that you start to realize how much of a fool you've been in your life, sadly.

As a homosexual and someone with numerous veterans in my family, I naturally cringe at all the things the WBC has done. Even if I was neither, I'd still cringe at just how horrible the organization's behavior is.

But despite that, I am still nonetheless saddened another human life has ended. I hope he at least went peacefully, and offer any relatives condolences.

Vengeance and hatred are very tempting, but they're also petty. All the horrible things he's done aside, he was just a weak old man curled up in a bed at this point. I consider one of the greatest tests of our lives to be to try and forgive and show compassion, even to those who pretty much done nothing to deserve either.

I don't know if there's an afterlife, or how exactly it works, but I'm hopeful his soul would be able to find itself into Heaven at some point. God does not punish; He forgives. I think all He asks is that you admit how wrong you were.

[Stacy]

Sorry no sympathy from me, that is all I am going to say on this matter.

[PaddyFancy]

So he became the victim of his own success when he was excommunicated.

 

OK so people can find it in their heart to forgive humans who committed reprehensible acts such as murder, would there be those affected by the attacks of 9/11 and 7/7 forgive Osama Bin Laden, because like Phelps he was another human being?

[Blitz 'n Burst]

Given how many people are going to piss on his grave his headstone should be a urinal.

[Tani Coyote]

OK so people can find it in their heart to forgive humans who committed reprehensible acts such as murder, would there be those affected by the attacks of 9/11 and 7/7 forgive Osama Bin Laden, because like Phelps he was another human being?

I'm probably in the minority, but...

If he felt remorseful for what he did, yes, I would. I'd forgive Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, and every single other person who's committed an atrocity in their lives.

On the condition that they felt remorseful about what they did. I don't think forgiveness is in the fashion where a mobster can shoot someone, go to a priest and confess, and be automatically forgiven, only to go murder more people. No. He has to swear off his vile ways entirely, and then be forgiven. Forgiveness for forgiveness' sake just asks for a revolving door morality. 

 

Though, even if there's not outright forgiveness, I still think we can hold ourselves to a higher standard. I would have preferred Bin Laden be captured and tried instead of killed, for example. I'm anti-death penalty, even when it's pretty obvious the person's guilty.

 

It doesn't look like Phelps was entirely pennant during his late stage, but since I don't believe in the idea of Hell, I presume there'd still be a way for him to find his way into Heaven. Whether it's being reincarnated so he can try again, or being left in the spiritual equivalent of solitary confinement until he feels remorse, or something else, I've no clue.

For perspective, a close friend of our family was almost killed in the 9/11 attacks. She worked in the Trade Towers but her ferry was delayed the morning of.

[Solkia]

About fucking time.

 

So long Phelps. You don't have to put up with these fags any longer, and we don't have to put up with you.

[Sami]

He was a dick anyway, so whatever. It's not my place to say whether or not someone deserves to live, but that doesn't mean I have to feel bad about everyone who dies.

[Dizcrybe]

Honestly, I don't care if he "wasted his life". He consciously chose to do what he did and was completely responsible for his actions. I'm not gonna feel sorry for him. I won't do anything celebratory, but like I said in the WBC thread, I've been waiting for this day, and I'm honestly kinda glad its here. I don't feel like I'm "stooping down to their level" because of it; I'm not picketing his funeral or calling him slurs or anything. I also realize that there are more people like him all around the world; I'm just glad there's one less of them walking this earth.

[Old dead account]

 

It's such a shame. I wish he would have at least held out until the day he could have seen gay marriage become nationally legal just to see him cringe at how fruitless his goals have been. Good fucking riddance. Now if we could just rid the world of that obnoxious loud-mouth cunt Shirley Phelps, that'd be great.

[Mr Useful]

Relevant?

[Stacy]

I wonder if his own family will picket his own funeral out of "respect"?