Westboro Baptist Church leader Fred Phelps has died

fake Christian, Jesus said to love your enemy

Amen

The Westboro bunch showed up here in town last year. Our local paper ran a story encouraging everyone to ignore them. They showed up, no one else did, and they left.

That's the way to do it.

May god have mercy on his soul. I wouldn't wish hell even on my worst enemy. Pray for him, and the misguided members of his cult.

Didn't he die earlier this week? Everyone has been posting jokes about his funeral all week in my timeline...

Wonder if he's related to Eric John Phelps since there both baptist church leaders, and both extremely controversial

Fred Phelps Sr. was the world's most profound closet homosexual.
RIP You funny old gay.

His lesbian daughter Shirley Phelps will keep the famous closet-gay church going!

To those of you who think you know all about Fred Phelps, I had the displeasure to meet him and his family and parishioners back in May,1990 here in Wichita KS at only his 2nd anti-Gay protest [the first was a week earlier at the WICHITA EAGLE newspaper -because they published a mildly pro-Gay article]:

I was a leading Gay-community activist at the time and was filming a feature documentary about the planning for Wichita's first Gay Pride parade.

I knew Phelps wouldn't talk to me at all if I looked too queer, so I dressed "straight" complete with a gold wedding ring. The hateful old Bastard was running for Governor of the state of Kansas which is why he was such a media-whore... well, he was ALWAYS a media-whore... stick a microphone in his face and he'd spew scripture until his voice would crack.

Anyway, I strolled up to his protest, filming as I went, recording every detail of our encounter. I eventually shot exclusive footage of their protest march, tracking them with my camera as they trudged along [NOTE: many of those "GOD HATES FAGS" signs you saw years later were the originals from 1990!].

Phelps himself was the coldest man I've ever seen. His eyes were a piercing icy blue and he'd get this raptured look on his face as he rambled on an on. To soften him up I quizzed him on his candidacy and his stand on taxes. His big campaign promise was to abolish all state property taxes. That was his entire platform. That and suppression of homosexuality.

Phelps was a tall man [about 6'2"] and skinny as a rail. Skinny and mean-spirited to the core. In all, I spent about an hour with Phelps and his rabid tribe that Sunday morning taping the entire time. I talked to his son, his daughter Shirley [who became the visible spokesperson for the WBC later on] and several churchmembers. His son was a big Dufus wearing a WBC ballcap who was obvisouly flattered to have a camera pointed his way for a change. [ The following year I sent my edited protest footage to the producers of ABC's 20/20 show. Two months later they sent John Stoessel to Topeka to interview Fred and expose the church himself. ]

Fast forward seven weeks to Wichita's first Gay Pride parade. I was still shooting and of course Fred was there. So were alot of cops [who were very Gay-friendly and disliked Phelps' type of protests]. I caught up with the miserable creature as he was donning his garish nylon running jacket with the PHELPS FOR GOVERNOR sticker on the back. The cop just stood by an watched as I launched into my ambush. BTW: at the parade I was not wearing the same "straight" garb from our previous meeting. Let's just say I was out, but tasteful! Phelps immediately recognized me, flashed back about a month and knew he had been had. I asked him non-inflammatory questions and got terse replies. But I eventually backed him into a corner by addressing the weather.

It had been rainy in Wichita for several days and suddenly -on the Sunday of our parade- it was beautiful. Sunny, just warm enough and a light breeze. When I remarked that it seemed that God was smiling down on us with his 'blessed weather his ambiguous reply was "...it's a nice day to make a statement..." referring to his own presence. I then pressed, "well, wouldn't you agree that God had a hand in it..?" He stopped, glared at me and muttered "...sure." Then a local radio reporter approached with his mic outstretched and Fred said: "...I think he wants to talk to me..." I lingered and got one last closeup of Fred's cold, emotionless eyes as they pierced the distance. He was off and running again.

Well...bye

Or retired and went on another op.

Rest in peace. Motherfucker.

^^this^^

Freddy in Hell > :smileyrape:

Hell no it isn't. The tables have turned. I hope tons of people, gay or straight, turn up at his funeral.

Whoop de doo - one attention whore gone, another zillion still with us. I wonder who the media's going to whore out next. Probably that Duck Dynasty guy again.

So the family don't want picketers showing up. *lmao* I hope Families of the fallen show up with Patriot Guard in tow. Love the irony.

I wonder which loop he will be stuck in for eternity. It appears that there are so many loops he installed into his space-time envelope.

:satan:
(not mine. random dial for satan.)

There was no plane, boss.

Fred was right about Obama

Jesus did state to love and pray for your enemies.

Although you may not like him, we can still pray for him.

excellent

No, we should all show him how it's done, and ask God to heal his mind and spirit, according to God's will alone.

Good, now let's hope the church members die too. All of them.

The use of children by this "church" is disgusting. Cowards.

Actually, the general public knows very little about old Fred. Here in Kansas we know him quite well. Here's something you've never heard...

Back in '90, the TOPEKA CAPITAL-JOURNAL assigned an investigative reporter to dig into the backgrounds of Governatorial candidates, Fred's included. That reporter soon asked to be excused from the overall story so he could focus solely on Phelps. What he found was shocking.

He dug into Fred's past going back to seminary college where he was arrested in SoCal for... protesting. His divinity title was essentially a purchased version - he was a mail-order preacher.

His legal education an graduation from Washburn University was covered as were his most notalbe cases and courtroom presence. He was described as "dynamic" and "overwhelming" in his prfesentaitons. Apparently, he WAS a damned-good lawyer in his prime [and before his later disbarrment]. He actually won several equal-rights cases for black factory workers and won them a huge award... but was criticised by them for the big-assed chunk he kept for his services.

He beat his wife, Margie. And his kids. With what was called a "mattox." That's an ax-handle, folks. He slipped into a major depression at one point, refusing to work and being generally repugnant to everyone around him [ BTW: all this testimony came from his estranged kids ]. The kids had to sell candy door-to-door to make ends meet.

SO: the reporter crafts his detailed investigative story. The newspaper prepares to go to press... and BAM! Phelps' sons and daughters [ FOUR are attorney's they took Fred's place ] file a ceast-and-desist to block publication. The court rules in their favor and the report never sees the light of day.

Except for a copy that was Xeroxed before the court judgement could kick in. Of course: it was copied and furnished to us here in Wichita. I read it. And it would've ruined the man.

I wish now that court had not been so zealous in their quest for justice because if they had exposed Phelps for the vile human being he was... ALOT of people could've been spared untold anguish in the ensuing years.


P.S.: after I read that report I contacted the Wichita Police Department and under my creds as a filmmaker requested access to Phelp's local records. They were surprisingly cooperative and it was clear they had no use for him [Guess they read that report, too!]. While they wouldn't let me see their active file on him, they DID show me his mugshot and confirmed some of the info in the report.

Nope, the gubmint will keep the stupid thing going for another generation.

This family and church are all gubmint-paid agitators, designed to discredit Christianity.

That would be the right thing.....make his funeral a non-event.

But his VILE WORK in picketing and saying and doing such evil things while others are mourning makes one want to have HIS family see what that feels like.

Hoping that maybe then they'll see the error of the way they've chosen to make their opinions known, and they'll choose another path.

A pipe-dream, I know.