Fred Phelps Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
Fred Phelps is the leader of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas, United States, which is best known for its web sites godhatesfags.com and godhatesamerica.com. Gay rights activists have denounced him as a producer of anti-gay propaganda.
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2 Picketing 3 September 11 and the Shuttle Columbia 4 godhatescanada.com 5 External links |
Fred Phelps was born in November 13, 1929, in Meridian, Mississippi. Phelps founded Westboro Baptist Church in 1955. While running the church, Phelps also worked as an attorney defending the civil rights of African-Americans being discriminated against in Kansas. Rev. Phelps alleges that his success resulted in animosity among the white legal establishment and eventual disbarred by the Kansas Supreme Court for alleged ethical violations.
http://www.godhatesfags.com/fliers/feb2004/Monograph_2-14-2004.pdf
One unauthorized biography alleges that the year after being disbarred, he continued to practice law in Federal Court before he was finally disbarred from that in 1989 as well, also for ethical violations. His final disbarrment resulted from a plea deal through which the Federal Court would stop their disbarrment hearings against the rest of his family.
In 1994, a reporter working for Stauffer Communications, Inc, filed a lawsuit about ownership of a book he had been researching for them, which details the life and activities of Fred Phelps. Because the text of the book was entered as Exhibit A, the text became a public document, free to be spread. An anti-Phelps group in Topeka acquired the text, and began distributing it (it was later digitized). A link to one source of the text of this book is included below.
The distributed text describes Phelps as a ferocious child-beater and wife-beater. Some of these claims are endorsed by two of Phelps' sons, but are denied by their other siblings, who are not estranged from Phelps and, though acknowledging that they were beaten, say that they were not beaten excessively.
Rev Phelps's theology is distinctive for the following attributes:
1. The Bible is the Word of God and to be taken literally (2 Peter 1:21).
2. Believing the Five-Points of Calvinism (TULIP) is essential for salvation.
3. Homosexuality is one of the worst sins and indicative of the final reprobation of an individual, and its acceptance by society prompts divine judgement (Leviticus 18:22-24; Romans 1). The Homosexual is a reprobate given up by God and hence cannot be a member of God's elect, and cannot repent nor be saved (Romans 1:28; 2 Corinthians 4:3-4; Hebrews 12:16-17).
4. The proclamation of the gospel involves condemning sin as strongly as the Bible does (1 Peter 4:11) and this will result in persecution and rejection of the gospel by the unelect (Luke 6:22; Luke 10:21).
5. Hell-fire is to be taken literally (2 Corinthians 5:11), and God's Elect will rejoice in being Christ's agents in executing the righteous judgement of hell on wicked (Psalm 149:6-9), which will comprise most of humanity that rejects Jesus Christ (Luke 13:23-24).
The group carries out daily picketing in Topeka, and travels nationally to picket the funerals of homosexual victims of murder, gay-bashing or death related to AIDS, as well as other events related or supposedly related to gay people.
Phelps, his supporters and members of his church (1) attend said gatherings, as well as other gay-related events, with signs bearing anti-homosexual hate speech. Reverend Phelps has characterized the Names Project Quilt as "100,000 living fags slobberin' around 45,000 dead fags", and declared Elizabeth Taylor, tireless fundraiser for AIDS research, to be a "world-famous Jew whore". Other favorite anti-gay slogans of the Reverend Phelps include "God Hates Fags," "Matthew Shepard Rots In Hell," "AIDS: Kills Fags Dead", and "Ellen DeGeneres Is a Lesbian Slut". (The latter was carried at an "Equality Rocks" rock concert and fundraiser. At the event DeGeneres commented that she wasn't so offended by the slogan as the fact that they had drawn pock marks all over her face on the poster.)
On his web site, Phelps maintains a "Perpetual Gospel Memorial" to gay murder victim Matthew Shepard. There is a similar memorial to lesbian dog-attack victim Diane Whipple. Some direct quotes/images from the Shepard page:
In 2004, Phelps and his church began picketing all things Swedish in response to the prosecution of Swedish pastor Ake Green on hate-speech charges for comments Green made about homosexuals, comments not nearly as provocative as typical Phelps' typical rhetoric. Among the targets picketed by the Phelps family were the town of Lindborg, Kansas (which promotes itself as "Little Sweden, USA"), and Swedish-based companies such as IKEA, Electrolux, and Absolut Vodka. A monument to Green was installed on the WBC website and Phelps announced plans to picket in Sweden in 2005. While the Phelps family never shows up for many of the pickets it announces on its website, it would be the family's first picket in Europe.
After September 11, Phelps' group went to New York City to protest the rescue efforts going on there. They even brought signs which read "FDNY SIN." Those signs depicted a couple engaged in sodomy. Phelps has repeatedly stated that God hates America as a result of its tolerance of homosexuality, and that the September 11 attacks were an act of divine retribution.
Phelps's group also planned a protest at the funeral of David Charlebois, gay copilot of the plane that was crashed into The Pentagon as part of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack.
Fred Phelps's church, the Westboro Baptist Church, has also produced flyers asserting that the seven astronauts who died in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster were in hell.
www.godhatescanada.com is a new website launched by Phelps in response to Canada's passage of the controversial Bill C-250, which adds penalties to the Criminal Code of Canada for inciting the hatred of or encouraging the killing of people on the basis of sexual orientation (amongst other things).
Bill C-250, authored by New Democratic Party Member of Parliament Svend Robinson, has come under fire from Focus on the Family and other conservative religious groups based on the argument that it prohibits the preaching of various Scripture condemning homosexuality. Supporters of the bill consider this argument groundless due to provisions that protect religious groups from prosecution should they criticise homosexual behaviour in a way that does not promote hatred.
(1) According to various sources that are critical of Rev. Phelps and his activities, his congregation is made up largely of his extended family. For one such source see Fred Phelps Exposé. This is an Article on Fred Phelps. Page Contains Information, Facts Details or Explanation Guide About Fred Phelps Biography
Theology
Picketing
His followers have gone across the country protesting the play The Laramie Project. This play documents the reaction of the people of Laramie, Wyoming after the death of Matthew Shepard. A possible reason for his protests may be due to the fact that he is a character in the play, and is portrayed negatively.September 11 and the Shuttle Columbia
godhatescanada.com
External links
Phelps's sites
Critics of Phelps
Relatively neutral