westboro founder died

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http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/03/16/article-2582100-1C57403900000578-950_634x423.jpg

Founder of Westboro Baptist Church Fred Phelps dies aged 84

Fred Phelps passed away Wednesday just before midnight, his son said
A spokesperson for the Westboro Baptist Church had only previously revealed Phelps was suffering from health problems related to old age
Phelps, a former attorney, set up the Westboro Baptist Church in 1955
It is known for its anti-gay sentiments and claims that 9/11 and soldiers' deaths were punishment for American immorality


Fred Phelps, who founded the Westboro Baptist Church known for its anti-gay sentiments and protests at soldiers' funerals, has died, his son said on Thursday.

Timothy Phelps told WIBW that his 84-year-old father died just before midnight in Kansas.

A spokesman for Westboro Baptist Church would only previously say that Phelps was suffering from 'health problems' related to his old age and was being cared for in a Shawnee County facility.

His passing comes just days after another son, Nate Phelps, took to his own Facebook page to announce that his father was 'on the edge of death' at Midland Hospice house in Topeka.


Nate Phelps, who left the extreme Christian sect 37 years ago added: '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.

'I feel sad for all the hurt he's caused so many. I feel sad for those who will lose the grandfather and father they loved. And I'm bitterly angry that my family is blocking the family members who left from seeing him, and saying their good-byes.'

On Sunday, Westboro Baptist Church spokesman Steve Drain wouldn't identify the hospital.

'I can tell you that Fred Phelps is having some health problems,' Drain said on Sunday. 'He's an old man and old people get health problems.'

Phelps Sr. started the Westboro Baptist Church in 1955, but before that was known as an award winning civil rights attorney.

However, he was disbarred from the Kansas Supreme Court in 1979 and lost his license to practice law in federal courts in 1989.

After that he became known for his crusading against gay people and his followers gained world-wide notoriety for picketing the funerals of US servicemen killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The church is widely known for its extreme positions against gay marriage and offensive demonstrations interrupting the funerals of dead servicemen.

In protests they brandish placards with phrases such as 'Thank God for IEDs, 'Fag soldier in hell' and 'Soldiers die 4 fag marriage'.

The small sect, which is believed to have just a few dozen members, was founded in Topeka, Kansas in 1955 by Fred Phelps.

The organization teaches that homosexuality is the root of all evil and that anyone who refuses to denounce it is the cause of all tragedies, including war deaths.

In 2012, half-a-million people signed petitions asking the White House to crack down on Westboro Baptist Church after the group, known for holding anti-gay demonstrations at funerals, threatened to picket in Newtown, Connecticut.

Newtown was the site of a school massacre on December 14 in which 20 young children and six adults were killed.

Five petitions posted on the White House website since the shootings have asked the government to name the church, based in Topeka, Kansas, as a hate group or end its tax-exempt status. The requests were among the most popular on the White House site on Thursday.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights organization, has called the church 'arguably the most obnoxious and rabid hate group in America' because of the anti-gay signs its members have carried at hundreds of military funerals.

The protests reflect their view that God is punishing America for tolerance of gays and lesbians.

The church has successfully defended its right to free speech in court.

In the past Pastor Fred Phelps and other church members have protested at hundreds of funerals of military members killed in Iraq and Afghanistan as part of their religious view that God is punishing America for tolerance of gays and lesbians.

The church has gone to court to defend its right to protest and courts have wrestled with how to balance the group's right to free-speech against individuals' rights to privacy.

In March 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the group's funeral protests were protected speech under the First Amendment in a suit brought by Albert Snyder, the father of a Marine who had died in Iraq.

The protesters had carried signs that stated, 'God Hates You,' 'You Are Going To Hell' and 'Thank God for Dead Soldiers' at his son's funeral.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2585397/Founder-Westboro-Baptist-Church-Fred-Phelps-dies.html

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in honor aff diss great man fiyah ann more fiyah pon homosexuals ann homosexualitee

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I think people should picket at his funeral

[Peasie]

The world is a little better because he left.

And that's all the attention I'm giving this bastard

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I think people should picket at his funeral

dem sed no funeral butt y shood dem picket imm fe avinn da strenght, courage ann conviction to tand upp fe wat imm beeleeve inn

[blugiant]

The world is a little better because he left.

And that's all the attention I'm giving this bastard

y wood yuh sey sinting like dat bout a great man woo cantreebuted a latt to blakk upliftment

[kia027]

dem sed no funeral butt y shood dem picket imm fe avinn da strenght, courage ann conviction to tand upp fe wat imm beeleeve inn

so his family can see how it feels to be picketed. or maybe his family have more sense dan im

[RichD]

y wood yuh sey sinting like dat bout a great man woo cantreebuted a latt to blakk upliftment

what you really know bout him odda dan dat him bun fiyah pan gays?

[CeaBee]

so his family can see how it feels to be picketed. or maybe his family have more sense dan im

i did read his son say that people might want to picket him funeral but he wish that they wouldn't

and mi blood did start boil (because why not?) ..then i see is his estranged son and mi blood simmer down a bit, cause i guess in the end even tho him nuh gree wid him father, is still him father and him dont want the day fi turn into a big circus

seems like the whole family bruck up and estranged and what not, and them did run him (the father) outta the church before he died. but me nuh know the whole story pertaining to why dem run him.

[Gen]

if him did see yuh in the woods him would string yuh up pan a tree branch and seh is the bible tell him fi dweet

a dat kinda upliftment yuh talking ??

y wood yuh sey sinting like dat bout a great man woo cantreebuted a latt to blakk upliftment

[RichD]

if him did see yuh in the woods him would string yuh up pan a tree branch and seh is the bible tell him fi dweet

a dat kinda upliftment yuh talking ??

blu willing to forgive dat since him bun out the batty man dem

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if him did see yuh in the woods him would string yuh up pan a tree branch and seh is the bible tell him fi dweet

a dat kinda upliftment yuh talking ??

no gen dat natt troo imm add a lang histaree aff defendinn blakk peeps civil rights ann dat was probably da reason dem dissbar imm

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what you really know bout him odda dan dat him bun fiyah pan gays?

Fred Phelps -- the founding pastor of a Kansas church known for its virulently anti-gay protests at public events, including military funerals -- has died, the church said Thursday.

The 84-year-old died of natural causes at 11:15 p.m. Wednesday, according to church spokesman Steve Drain.

Phelps founded Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas, in 1955 and molded it in his fire-and-brimstone image. Many members of the small congregation are related to Phelps through blood or marriage.

In a statement Thursday, the church chided the "world-wide media" for "gleefully anticipating the death."

"God forbid, if every little soul at the Westboro Baptist Church were to die at this instant, or to turn from serving the true and living God, it would not change one thing about the judgments of God that await this deeply corrupted nation and world."

According to Westboro, the church has picketed more than 53,000 events, ranging from Lady Gaga concerts to funerals for slain U.S. soldiers. Typically, a dozen or so church members -- including small children -- will brandish signs that say "God Hates Fags" and "Thank God for Dead Soldiers."

Phelps was often called "the most hated man in America," a label he seemed to relish.

"If I had nobody mad at me," he told the Wichita Eagle in 2006, "what right would I have to claim 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, Connecticut, is God's punishment for the country's acceptance of homosexuality. Phelps had advocated for gays and lesbians to be put to death.

"Fred Phelps will not be missed by the LGBT community, people with HIV/AIDS and the millions of decent people across the world who found what he and his followers do deeply hurtful and offensive," the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force said in a statement.

Phelps began his anti-gay protests in Wichita in 1991 after complaining that the city refused to stop gay activities in a public park. He rose to national notoriety in 1998, when Westboro members picketed at the funeral of Matthew Shepard, a Wyoming man who was tortured and murdered because he was gay. Phelps and his church carried signs that said Shepard was rotting in hell.

The Southern Poverty Law Center calls Westboro Baptist Church "arguably the most obnoxious and rabid hate group in America."

In 2011, the Supreme Court upheld Westboro's right to picket military funerals on free speech grounds. Congress and several states, though, have passed laws aimed at keeping church members at a distance from funerals.

In 2013, more than 367,000 petitioners called on the White House to legally recognize Westboro Baptist Church as a hate group. The White House called Westboro's protests "reprehensible" but said that "as a matter of practice, the federal government doesn't maintain a list of hate groups."

Anti-gay preacher once fought for civil rights

Born in Meridian, Mississippi, on November 29, 1929, Phelps had his sights set on West Point before he attended a Methodist revival. He said the sermon inspired him to enter the ministry.

"I felt the call, as they say, and it was powerful," Phelps told the Topeka Capital-Journal in 1994. "The God of glory appeared." Later, Phelps was ordained by a Southern Baptist church in Utah.

He bounced around several Christian colleges as his preaching and his theology took a hard right turn.

A Time magazine article from 1951 describes Phelps as a "craggy-faced engineering student" who harangued fellow students about the dangers of promiscuity and profanity.

Tim Miller, a professor of religious history at the University of Kansas who has studied Westboro Baptist Church, said Phelps liked to consider himself a "primitive Baptist preacher who held to the old ways."

Despite its "Baptist" name, Westboro is not affiliated with any larger church denomination. Most Christians criticize the congregation's harsh anti-gay rhetoric and penchant for pursuing the limelight at inappropriate moments.

Phelps married his wife, Marge, who survives him, in 1952. The couple moved to Topeka on May 4, 1954, the day the Supreme Court handed down its landmark decision Brown v. Board of Education, which desegregated public schools.

Phelps interpreted that as a sign and soon began a law career that centered on civil rights, winning awards for his work and praise from local leaders.

"Most blacks -- that's who they went to," the Rev. Ben Scott, president of the NAACP's Topeka branch, told CNN in 2010. "I don't know if he was cheaper or if he had that stick-to-it-ness, but Fred didn't lose many back then."

Phelps was disbarred from practicing law in state courts, however, after being accused of badgering a witness and making false claims in court affidavits. The Kansas Supreme Court said that Phelps "has little regard for the ethics of his profession."

Phelps surrendered his license to practice law in federal courts in 1989, according to the Topeka Capital-Journal, after nine U.S. District Court judges filed disciplinary complaints against him.

Most of the members of Phelps' Westboro Baptist Church are members of his large family. Phelps has 13 children; 11 are attorneys. One son, Nathan, is estranged from his father and from organized religion. He is an atheist.

Nathan Phelps posted a Facebook message March 15 saying that his father had been excommunicated from the church. Later, though, Nathan Phelps said it was "unclear" whether his father had been expelled from Westboro.

Video: Phelps' daughter takes part in WBC protest same day he died

A church statement issued on March 16 said that "membership issues are private" and that eight unnamed elders lead the congregation.

On Thursday, the church added, "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."

For years, Phelps joked about the possibility that his own funeral would draw protests. During a sermon in 2006, he said a CNN reporter once asked how he would feel if that occurred.

"I'd love it. I'd invite them," Phelps told the reporter, according to the Wichita Eagle. "I said: 'I'll put in my will to pay your way. But not first class.' "

But Shirley Phelps-Roper, Phelps' daughter, said Westboro will not hold a funeral for its patriarch.

"We do not worship the dead," Phelps-Roper told CNN.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/20/us/westboro-church-founder-dead/

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so his family can see how it feels to be picketed. or maybe his family have more sense dan im

yuh eva picketed beefore well i ave ann mii didd itt fe good reason

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In the 1950s and 1960s, however, at the height of the Civil Rights Movement, his advocacy for anti-discrimination cases as a defense lawyer earned him awards from civil rights groups and retribution from anti-civil rights forces.

Phelps arrived in Topeka, Kan., in 1954, the same year that the United States Supreme Court handed down its groundbreaking civil right decision, Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, Kan. That decision led to the desegregation of schools and opened up opportunities for other anti-discrimination cases.

To win discrimination cases, though, blacks needed a lawyer to represent them. Phelps was the only lawyer in Topeka, white or black, willing to take those cases, Jack Alexander told CNN in May, 2010. Alexander was a civil rights activist who knew Phelps well in those days and later became the first black elected official in Topeka.

"Back in that era, most black attorneys were busy trying to make a living," he said. "They couldn't take those cases on the chance they wouldn't get paid. But Fred was taking those cases."

Not only did he take those cases, but he was a good lawyer and won many of them, Joe Taschler and Steve Fry wrote for The Topeka Capital-Journal in 1994.

http://cjonline.com/indepth/phelps/stories/080394_phelps17.shtml