Founder of Westboro Baptist Church, Rev. Fred Phelps Sr. Dies
Source: ksn.com
TOPEKA, Kansas The Rev. Fred Phelps Sr., who founded a Kansas church widely known for its protests at military funerals and anti-gay sentiments, has died according to his son Tim Phelps and Kansas First News.
Phelps, 84, was being cared for in a Shawnee County facility, Westboro Baptist Church spokesman Steve Drain said Sunday.
Members of the Westboro church, based in Topeka, frequently protest at funerals of soldiers with signs containing messages such as Thank God for dead soldiers, and Thank God for 9/11, claiming the deaths are Gods punishment for American immorality and tolerance of homosexuality and abortion.
Westboro Baptist, a small group made mostly of Phelps extended family, inspired a federal law and laws in numerous states limiting picketing at funerals. But in a major free-speech ruling in 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the church and its members couldnt be sued for monetary damages for inflicting pain on grieving families under the First Amendment.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil-rights nonprofit group, has called Westboro Baptist Church a hate group.
Read more: http://ksn.com/2014/03/20/founder-of-westboro-baptist-church-rev-fred-phelps-sr-dies/
meegbear
(25,438 posts)Hawaii Hiker
(3,165 posts)I don't speak negatively of the dead.
PumpkinAle
(1,210 posts)There are plenty of dead who have been truly disgusting while they lived and deserve the ill words.
As for Phelps - he had an evil heart and mind and that still stands.
LiberalFighter
(50,504 posts)He's in limbo. Discharged? Released? Deactivated?
sinkingfeeling
(51,278 posts)corkhead
(6,119 posts)Lake of fire for you my son.
Brother Buzz
(36,215 posts)The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,280 posts)irisblue
(32,829 posts)atreides1
(16,046 posts)He and Jerry Falwell are together comparing notes..and waiting for the rest of their friends to join them!
TommyCelt
(838 posts)NOT likely!
Phelps on the death of Falwell...
"On Tuesday, May 14, the old fat false prophet Jerry Falwell died and entered hell. As the old preacher used to put it, he split hell wide open... Hell from beneath was moved to meet Falwell at his coming, rousing the dead, even those that used to be bigshots on Earth now in hell greeting him with such words as these: 'Why, hello, Reverend Fraudwell, you old money-grubbing pervert!' ... As a young preacher in Springfield, Missouri, Falwell was a true Calvinistic Baptist preacher who believed and preached the truth. But he saw early on that his lust for power and lucre could never be satisfied if he was faithful to the word of God. And so the old fool like the false prophet Balaam sold his soul for a mess of free will-ism, God loves everybody-ism, Arminianism, lies sold his soul for lies."
Kurovski
(34,655 posts)as is clear by the misery of some of Phelps' still as-yet psychologically enslaved children.
May they fly free the binds!
nomorenomore08
(13,324 posts)I'm not sure what Falwell preached early on that met with Phelps's approval, but it couldn't have been too much nuttier than Falwell's later "teachings."
mountain grammy
(26,571 posts)Jamastiene
(38,187 posts)backscatter712
(26,355 posts)I am an atheist, so this is how I mark his death.
I do not believe in an afterlife. No heaven, no hell, this universe is all we've got.
That make the life we are living now that much more valuable and special.
Fred Phelps flushed his entire life down the toilet spreading hate.
Learn a lesson from this. Try not to be shitty to your neighbor. Live your life well, and help those around you do the same.
Don't be like Fred.
yurbud
(39,405 posts)JimDandy
(7,318 posts)RKP5637
(67,032 posts)is what we've got, and one gets only one chance, and then that's it for ad infinitum. He chose to make hell on earth. There ain't no second rounds!
pink-o
(4,056 posts)That is immortality: you live on in the people you love who keep you in their hearts.
So who the HELL loved Fred except a bunch of his whackadoodle family who're just as messed up as he is? No immortality for you, Phelps.
And no funeral, the hypocritical, cowardly bastards! Maybe they should scatter his ashes in Uganda.
catrose
(5,048 posts)whose philosophy was declared by Wil Wheaton: "Don't be a dick."
Ohio Joe
(21,656 posts)warrior1
(12,325 posts)Thanks Fred.
Lithos
(26,397 posts)Too bad his church and his hate will not die with him.
L-
TlalocW
(15,358 posts)Part of the story of Fred being close to death is that he was excommunicated because he wanted his family to be nicer to each other (according to one son who escaped the lifestyle). This happened during a power struggle that deposed his daughter, Shirley, who's been the face of the protests for several years, from her position so it sounds like there's a lot of bad blood and hurt feelings. Shirley seems like the workhorse of the family so without her in charge of things, things will be a mess for a while.
There have been some noticeable defections from the church in the past few years including two granddaughters who did a lot of work in the church. Now with Fred gone, I'm sure some of the others will feel safer leaving. And these desertions are of younger people in the church making the remaining family/congregation older on average. If more people leave, they're going to lack the person power to keep up their protesting schedule.
I could be wrong of course, but I hope I'm not.
TlalocW
Nay
(12,051 posts)alp227
(31,961 posts)TlalocW
(15,358 posts)He had a gay male nurse who really queened it up around him.
"Oh, Freddyyyyyy! Time for your medth thweet-cheekth! Thethe will make you feel faaaaaaaaa-bu-louthhhhhh!"
TlalocW
yurbud
(39,405 posts)and killed him with kindness.
It sucks when people you hate deprive you of your stereotypes and an enemy.
Thank you for your wise words.
derby378
(30,252 posts)Who spoke evil of everyone except God,
Giving the excuse, "I never knew Him."
I can't picket his funeral, but if you can, have fun and send pics.
mikeysnot
(4,755 posts)The ultimate insult would be that no one shows up at all.
derby378
(30,252 posts)Balancing the scales, however you want to perceive it. An ending of things that, in its own right, is a new beginning.
Jamastiene
(38,187 posts)Something about worshiping the dead or something.
KamaAina
(78,249 posts)Response to KamaAina (Reply #65)
KamaAina This message was self-deleted by its author.
derby378
(30,252 posts)They probably think it has something to do with Necco wafers...
Jamastiene
(38,187 posts)I can't figure out what goes on in their pea brains any more than the next person. I don't understand them in the least.
LanternWaste
(37,748 posts)As said Scipio, 'Non gradus anus rodentum...'
(Not worth a rat's a**)
Solly Mack
(90,740 posts)question everything
(47,265 posts)I don't believe in heavens and hell but if there is hell, I hope that you go through all the stages and never emerge.
Sarah Ibarruri
(21,043 posts)well please. If they're evil, they interpret it in an evil manner, if they're not they won't, and will stay away from religions with evil intents.
geomon666
(7,512 posts)Where does the conga line start?
radicalliberal
(907 posts)It also leaves me speechless! I don't know what to say about it. Is it a happy skeleton of one of the deceased, or is it the Grim Reaper himself playing the clown?
Thanks for providing my laugh for the day (and undoubtedly many more)!
davidpdx
(22,000 posts)As for Philips, he's gone and he wasn't a nice person. I can't be sad about that.
TheCowsCameHome
(40,163 posts)I feel like doing some grave dancing.
Nika
(546 posts)yourout
(7,521 posts)mikeysnot
(4,755 posts)there is one less asshole in the world now.
Let him finally find peace that he could not find here.
gopiscrap
(23,674 posts)perhaps with out his looming figure in the family, the rest of them will come to their senses.
Throd
(7,208 posts)Like I did when Jerry Falwell croaked.
Catherine Vincent
(34,485 posts)TygrBright
(20,733 posts)And isn't that a sad epitaph for anyone.
reflectively,
Bright
Kurovski
(34,655 posts)Reminds me of the old front page article days of DU. Take care!
TygrBright
(20,733 posts)sakabatou
(42,083 posts)trusty elf
(7,349 posts)[IMG][/IMG]
cosmicone
(11,014 posts)Turbineguy
(37,212 posts)overtime budget.
steve2470
(37,457 posts)Kindest thing I can do.
and I'd add to be sad that the hate he started lives on with his family members.
kestrel91316
(51,666 posts)Amaya
(4,560 posts)He was a misguided bigoted hateful fool and now he's dead.
Move on.
derby378
(30,252 posts)And if that means we descend on his grave and dubstep his sorry hide into the Earth's core, so be it. Karma.
jeff47
(26,549 posts)He wants hatred. He wants attention. He wants people to talk about his message. Your gravedancing would bring him joy. That makes it a terrible punishment.
The worst possible punishment for Phelps is to be forgotten.
derby378
(30,252 posts)...in due time. Be patient.
jeff47
(26,549 posts)derby378
(30,252 posts)Look at how many people are doing their damnedest to pretend that the eight-year ordeal under George W. Bush never happened. The more we forget what happened, the more likely it is that such evil will be visited upon our heads and the heads of our children - over and over and over again.
Phelps will eventually be forgotten except by historians, but his vile legacy should be used to inocculate the rest of us against such hatred and venom. Otherwise, the demons of Westboro may come back to haunt us all again, and we'll have nobody to blame but ourselves.
This legacy needs to end - and we're the ones who need to end it.
jeff47
(26,549 posts)However, his movement is already collapsing. It's been shrinking for years, and the remaining members are infighting. So much so that they excommunicated Phelps himself.
His legacy is already over. Dancing on the grave gives it a brief boost. Don't give him the joy.
derby378
(30,252 posts)If I do remain a little celebratory, however, please try to understand. Among other things, it is the first day of spring.
Warpy
(110,910 posts)This is a shining example of it.
Dark n Stormy Knight
(9,760 posts)Prophet 451
(9,796 posts)catbyte
(34,170 posts)right about now.
LongTomH
(8,636 posts)"I take no solace or joy in this man's passing. We will not dance upon his grave, nor stand vigil at his funeral holding "God Hates Freds" signs, tempting as it may be."
"He was a tormented soul, who tormented so many. Hate never wins out in the end. It instead goes always to its lonely, dusty end."
Please take note of the comments by Sue Hyde of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force:
Sue Hyde, a staff member at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, said plenty of churches and ministers preach a message that attacks gay people. But Phelps and his family had taken this out on the streets, forcing people to confront their own views and rousing a protective instinct in parents and friends of gays and lesbians.
Its actually a wonderful recruiting tool for a pro-equality, pro-social acceptance movement, she said. To the Phelps family, that is not particularly important or relevant. They are not there to save us. They are there to advise us that we are doomed.
I've seen too much hatred from rightwing acquaintances, and even family members who have been twisted by 'conservative' talk show hosts like Beck and Limbaugh. I do not wish to add to the already destructive hatred and divisiveness afflicting our society.
No, I don't claim to be blameless in this myself.
GliderGuider
(21,088 posts)"He's dead."
"Good!"
Jamastiene
(38,187 posts)It's time to send the HRC the best donation I can afford.
If anyone knows a good gay youth suicide prevention organization please let me know.
Kurovski
(34,655 posts)"This is to introduce to you treasure Uganda gay and lesbian youth association (treasure-lgbt Uganda) a non profit making organization and with offices located in Luzira 2a commercial street Portbell Road Nakawa Kyadondo Kampala. The association has over 1000 students and non lgbt adults as it current registered members
The association was founded with major objective for improving educational status and standard of living among lgbt in Uganda, vocational training, counseling, lgbt awareness and expanding lgbt horizon in Uganda , Hiv/Aids awareness to lgbt , Hiv/Aids testing, promote information technology and other services ."
http://opps.tigweb.org/8931
When one thinks about it, there are all kinds of great opportunities to donate as an override to Phelpsies goofball of a crap-sack life, with a little online research.
olddad56
(5,732 posts)followed by an agonizing reappraisal.
tsuki
(11,994 posts)his own "church"?
struggle4progress
(118,041 posts)had been excommunicated from the church. Later, though, Nathan Phelps said it was "unclear" whether his father had been expelled from Westboro. Westboro declined to say whether Phelps has been excommunicated. A church statement said March 16 that "membership issues are private" and that eight unnamed elders lead the congregation ...
Westboro church founder Fred Phelps dies
By Daniel Burke, CNN
updated 1:25 PM EDT, Thu March 20, 2014
http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/20/us/westboro-church-founder-dead/
tsuki
(11,994 posts)Dopers_Greed
(2,640 posts)magical thyme
(14,881 posts)Good riddance to bad rubbish.
Finally people will be able to say their final goodbyes in sacred peace, instead of hate spewing at them.
corksean
(475 posts)Who says God doesn't have a sense of humour
Beacool
(30,244 posts)I wonder if he'll be reminded of the Lord's prayer: Forgive our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.
He went through life causing grief to people. He might spend eternity paying for it.
struggle4progress
(118,041 posts)often no wiser than he began
be not too hard for life is short
and nothing is given to man ...
rocktivity
(44,555 posts)But then again, they always have.
May his funeral have to be held in secret out of fear of it being boycotted.
rocktivity
mitchtv
(17,718 posts)No One cares
KamaAina
(78,249 posts)Kurovski
(34,655 posts)Enjoy your next life as Richard Simmons' exercise shorts.
sofa king
(10,857 posts)... be filled instead by love and understanding for all.
I note his passing only to remind myself on some far future date that slowly but surely, things improve. There won't be another Fred Phelps in my lifetime, and that's a great thing.
valerief
(53,235 posts)Initech
(99,915 posts)I hope his new rule is something along these lines this week.
DainBramaged
(39,191 posts)Herself
(185 posts)come back as a gay black man!
sorry, but the man was evil!
James48
(4,416 posts)Kurovski
(34,655 posts)Sometimes joy has to do instead of love.
It's far more attainable, and harder to fake.
DinahMoeHum
(21,737 posts)- Matthew 24:28
RIH, Fred Phelps.
tarheelsunc
(2,117 posts)I never wished death on him or anything, but I'm not particularly sad to hear he's dead. I just hope there's a funeral so the largest funeral picketing of all-time can be organized.
onehandle
(51,122 posts)Oakenshield
(614 posts)One less asshole on this earth.
nyquil_man
(1,443 posts)I hoped he would live long enough to see marriage equality in all 50 states.
I hoped he would live long enough to realize that all of his howling hatred had been for nothing.
I hoped he would live long enough to regret not devoting his life to something that would have benefited his fellow human beings.
He got off light.
ck4829
(34,977 posts)Shows you what their family values are really like behind closed doors.
hibbing
(10,076 posts)TOPEKA, KSFred Phelps Sr., the founder of the Westboro Baptist Church and the man who is widely credited with forever ending the gay rights movement in America, died today at age 84.
http://www.theonion.com/articles/fred-phelps-man-who-forever-stopped-march-of-gay-r,35582/
DemoTex
(25,371 posts)".. cutting his hands off down in Hell."
Vachel Lindsey
Behind the Aegis
(53,833 posts)Orsino
(37,428 posts)Y'all celebrate in style.
RedstDem
(1,239 posts)over and over every day in the devils back yard.
finally, falwell can take a break!
Tx4obama
(36,974 posts)awoke_in_2003
(34,582 posts)mysuzuki2
(3,521 posts)I remember the Adam Sandler movie Little Nicky (I'm not sure I believe in Adam Sandler either BTW) where he is Satan's son. In one scene Hitler has to endure on a daily basis having a pineapple shoved up his ass. If there is any justice in the world Satan will need 2 pineapples every day from now on.
Swede Atlanta
(3,596 posts)As a Christian as well I am taught to turn the other cheek regardless of how my neighbor has harmed me. The Phelps of his later years was a hateful, bigoted, pitiful man who was enraged at the world. His hatred was targeted at homosexuals and abortion. My experience is when someone is so narrowly focused on issues is he had some "personal" concerns with these two issues whether he was a closeted homosexual, had been involved in the termination of a pregnancy at some point in his life, I don't know.
I was attending a same gender legal issues seminar in Atlanta today. One of the speakers asked if anyone in the audience was familiar with Mr. Phelps. There was some general grunting and chortle around the room until the speaker announced he had died. Then the speaker passed on some information of which I was previously unaware.
Mr. Phelps' professional career started in the mid 1960s as an attorney. He was involved in several civil rights cases and supported black liberation. He sued Reagan for having appointed an ambassador to the Vatican because that act constituted an endorsement of religion. Only in 1979 was he finally disbarred after having an altercation with a court reporter.
His hatred to gays appears to have started, according to his family, when his 5 year old grandson was allegedly lured by a male homosexual in a park near the Phelps home.
A life that started with what might be seen as promise as a civil rights attorney and someone very concerned about the 1st Amendment to have deteriorated into a hate-filled descent into what must have been personal despair is tragic, regardless of how you look at it.
Ruby the Liberal
(26,217 posts)Gothmog
(143,999 posts)YOHABLO
(7,358 posts)Sunlei
(22,651 posts)lunasun
(21,646 posts)hope the whole cult is out of commission now with papa Fred dead
Adios
Adieu
Auf Wiedersehen
to this terrible bit o' US hate history
NYtoBush-Drop Dead
(490 posts)obxhead
(8,434 posts)I think his will get a big fat turd laid across it.
The world is a better place with his passing.
Bernie2016
(28 posts)BadGimp
(4,009 posts)eom
gtar100
(4,192 posts)Just an incredibly toxic person. What a legacy.
Response to Botany (Original post)
Name removed Message auto-removed
mahatmakanejeeves
(56,897 posts)By Steven Petrow, Published: March 20
On Sunday night, the estranged son of the Rev. Fred Phelps Sr. posted on Facebook that his father, the founder of the Westboro Baptist Church, was near death. From then until his death was formally announced Thursday, the elder Phelps became a trending topic on social media, with the discussion centered on this question: Might it be a cause for celebration?
....
Instead, what if those on the receiving end of Phelpss ideology did the opposite, which is to say, let him go quietly and without protest into that good night? Imagine the karma lesson that would be to all those who have supported Westboro Baptist.
Revenge against Phelps or, frankly, any hateful or toxic person doesnt really allow for healing. Joseph Burgo, a psychoanalyst and an author, told me this week: For those of us who have felt hated and shamed by people like Phelps, the temptation is to turn tables and triumph over their demise. You might think of it as giving back the hatred and shame that was inflicted upon us, but this reaction binds us to the other person as long as we continue to feel that way. He then added that we need to break the hold of these destructive emotions and move on.
So, with Phelpss passing, I suggest we bombard Westboro Baptist with sympathy cards and prayers. Or, as a friend of mine tells me, Drive your enemies really crazy: Love them. Okay, maybe not love, but at least not hate. Never hate.
Steven Petrow is a former president of the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association and the author of five etiquette books, including Steven Petrows Complete Gay & Lesbian Manners.
Disclaimer: Jeff Bezos owns the Washington Post and Amazon.
rocktivity
(44,555 posts)Phelps' daughter told WIBW-AM that there will be no funeral for him...
Nathan Phelps, who has been estranged from his father for 30 years, said the senior Phelps (had been) in hospice care in Topeka, Kansas, and that he had been excommunicated...in August of 2013...
Excommunicated by his OWN church, and no funeral because people might boycott it with signs saying GOD HATES PHELPS or THANK IGNORANCE FOR WESTBORO BIGOT CHURCH? That is such an appropriate epitaph, the only thing I'm going to add is "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap!"
rocktivity
fujiyama
(15,185 posts)W (whatever?)
Honestly, though? Meh. What a waste. He had a chance to lead a decent life. He had the charisma and leadership skills to do something decent for this world, and instead he created a nasty and hateful club claiming to be a church.
Fuck him. I hope his followers learn soon. They are all on the losing side of history. In fact, they are way past lost.