Friday, March 21, 2014
Westboro church founder Fred Phelps dies
Fred Phelps -- the founding pastor of a Kansas church recognized for its virulently anti-gay protests at public occasions, including military funerals -- has died, the church stated Thursday.
Phelps founded Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas, in 1955 and molded it in his fire and brimstone picture. Many members of the tiny congregation are related to Phelps through blood or marriage.
In a statement Thursday, the church chided the "world-wide media" for "gleefully anticipating the departure."
"God forbid, if every small soul in the Westboro Baptist Church should happen to perish only at that instant, or to turn from serving the authentic and living God, it would not alter one thing regarding the judgments of God that await this greatly corrupted nation and globe."
According to Westboro, the church has picketed over 53,000 occasions, including Lady Ga Ga concerts to funerals for slain U.S. soldiers. Normally, a dozen or so churchgoers -- including little children -- will brandish signs that say "God Hates Fags" and "Thank God for Dead Soldiers."
Phelps was regularly called "the most hated man in The Us," a label he appeared to relish.
"Basically had no body mad at me," he advised the Wichita Eagle in 2006, "what correct would I have to assert that I was preaching the Gospel?"
Under Phelps' leadership, Westboro members have preached that every calamity, from natural disasters to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Ct, is God's punishment for the nation's acceptance of homosexuality. Phelps had urged for homosexuals and lesbians to be put to death.
"Fred Phelps won't be missed by the LGBT neighborhood, individuals with HIV/AIDS/AIDS and also the numerous decent folks around the world who found what he and his followers do greatly hurtful and offensive," the Nationwide Gay and Lesbian Task-Force said in a statement.
"While it is hard to locate anything good to mention about his viewpoints or activities, we do give our condolences to his family members at what should be a painful time in their opinion."
Phelps began his anti-homosexual demonstrations in Wichita in 1991 after whining the city refused to discontinue homosexual actions in a public park. He climbed to nationwide notoriety in 1998, when Westboro members picketed in the funeral of Matthew Shepard, a Wyoming guy who was tortured and killed because he was gay. Phelps and his church carried signs that said Shepard was rotting in hell.
In 2011, the Highest Court upheld Westboro's correct to picket military funerals on free-speech reasons. Congress and many states, however, have passed laws aimed at keeping church members at a distance from funerals.
In 2013, over 367,000 petitioners called on the White House to legally acknowledge Westboro Baptist Church as a dislike group. The White House called Westboro's demonstrations "reprehensible" but stated that "as a matter of practice, the federal government does not maintain a listing of hate groups."
Anti-homosexual preacher once fought for civil rights
Produced in Meridian, Mississippi, on November 29, 1929, Phelps had his sights set on West Stage before he attended a Methodist resurrection.
Produced in Meridian, Mississippi, on November 29, 1929, Phelps had his sights set on West Stage before he attended a Methodist resurrection.
"I believed the call, as the saying goes, and it had been strong," Phelps advised the Topeka Capital-Journal in 1994. "The God of glory appeared."
He bounced around several Christian faculties as his theology and his sermon took a difficult right flip.
A Time journal article from 1951 describes Phelps as a "craggy-confronted engineering pupil" who harangued fellow students concerning the dangers of promiscuity and profanity.
Tim Miller, a professor of religious history at the University of Kansas who has analyzed Westboro Baptist Church, stated Phelps liked to consider himself a "primitive Baptist preacher who held to the outdated manners."
Phelps married his wife, Marge, who survives him, in 1952. The couple moved to Topeka on May 4, 1954, the day the High Court handed down its landmark decision Brown v. Board of Education, which desegregated community schools.
Phelps shortly started a law career that dedicated to civil rights, winning honours for his function and praise from neighborhood leaders and interpreted that as a sign.
"Most blacks -- that's who they went to," the Rev. Ben Scott, president of the NAACP's Topeka division, told CNN in 2010. "I don't know if he was cheaper or if he had that stick-to-it-ness, but Fred did not drop many back then."
The Kansas Supreme Court stated that Phelps "has little regard for the moral principles of his career."
Phelps surrendered his license to practice law in federal courts in 1989, as stated by the Topeka Capital-Journal, after nine U.S. District Court judges filed disciplinary complaints against him.
All the members of Phelps' Westboro Baptist Church are members of his large household. Phelps has 1-3 children; 11 are attorneys. One son, Nathan, is estranged from his dad and from organized religion. He's an atheist.
Nathan Phelps posted a Facebook message March 15 saying that his dad was excommunicated from your church. After, though, Nathan Phelps mentioned it was "uncertain" whether his dad were expelled from Westboro.
Westboro declined to say whether Phelps has been excommunicated. A church statement said March 1-6 that "membership dilemmas are personal" and that eight unnamed elders lead the congregation.
On Thursday, the church included, "Listen carefully; there are no power challenges in the Westboro Baptist Church, and there is no human intercessor -- we serve no guy, with no hierarchy, only the Lord Jesus Christ."
For decades, Phelps joked regarding the possibility that protests would be drawn by his own funeral. Throughout a sermon in 2006, he mentioned a CNN reporter once asked how he'd feel if that happened.
"I Would like it. I Had encourage them," Phelps advised the newsman, based on the Wichita Eagle. "I said: 'I'll put in my will to pay your method. But not first class.' "
But Shirley Phelps-Roper, Phelps' daughter, said Westboro won't hold a funeral.
"We do not worship the dead," Phelps-Roper told CNN.com
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Author: Daniel Burke, CNN
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