Westboro's Fred Phelps Near Death

Yesterday Nathan Phelps -estranged son of notorious social anarchist "Rev" Fred Phelps- reported that his 84-yr old father had been placed in a care facility [ie: hospice], after developing serious health issues.

Fred Phelps Sr. had already been voted out of the leadership of the Westboro Church by congregational elders and that vote reportedly drove Phelps to begin a suicidal hunger strike, refusing all food/water.

Leaders of area gay-related agencies appealed to Kansas homosexuals to respect Phelps' privacy and offer understanding/compassion to the Phelps family - as an expression of the tolerance that the Westboro Church steadfastly denied others in it's decades-long assault upon Gays as demanded under the senior Phelps stewardship.

The Westboro Church began their crusade initally against Gays in 1990 in Wichita KS, but a few years later expanded their public diatribes against those they felt lived in opposition to their church's teachings of strict Biblical adherance based upon absolute condemnation and invocation of their personal interpretation of "God's Law."

Protests by the Westboro Church -always spearheaded personally by Phelps and his immediate family- eventually occurred all around the globe to spread their message at the funerals of many notables. These protests resulted in the enactment of new laws in several US states limiting the proximity of their protests to funeral mourners. The Patriot Guard cadre of motocyclists became regular fixtures at these protests to diffuse and counterbalance them and shield funeral processions from the Phelps presence.