Fred Phelps (born November 13, 1929) is the controversial leader of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas, United States, which is notorious for its web sites godhatesfags.com and godhatesamerica.com. Gay rights activists, as well both mainstream and fundamentalist Christians, have denounced him as a producer of anti-gay propaganda and violence-inspiring hate speech. The church is located in the basement of his home, which is the center of a block-wide fenced compound, the other houses in which are occupied by nine of his thirteen children.
Overview
Fred Phelps was born in Meridian, Mississippi. Phelps founded Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) 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 his eventual disbarment by the Kansas Supreme Court for alleged ethical violations. (PDF file of Phelps's point of view on his disbarment)
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 disbarment resulted from a plea deal through which the Federal Court would stop their disbarment 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 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-abuser and wife-beater. Most of these claims are endorsed by two of Phelps' sons and one of his daughters, but are denied by their other siblings, who are not estranged from Phelps.
More recently, Phelps was the subject of nationwide controversy when his family proposed, in a referendum, the removal of workplace protection for homosexuals in Topeka. The measure was defeated, 53 percent to 47 percent. Also in 2005, Phelps's granddaughter, Jael, was an unsuccessful candidate for Topeka's City Council.
Purpose
Phelps has stated numerous purposes on different occasions, few of which are consistent and many of which contradict one another.
"We don't picket to win people over, idiot. It's to harden people's hearts. Make them hate. Make them hate God even more than they already do."
"Our goal is to preach the Word of God to this crooked and perverse generation. By our words, some will repent. By our words, some will be condemned. Whether they hear, or whether they forbear, they will know a prophet has been among them... our goal is to glorify God by declaring His whole counsel to everyone... we hope that by our preaching some will be saved."
Theology
- The Bible is the Word of God and to be taken literally (2 Peter 1:21).
- Believing the Five-Points of Calvinism (TULIP) is essential for salvation.
- Homosexuality is the worst of all 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). (It should be noted that this interpretation is held by a very small minority of Christians (Romans 10:9))
- The proclamation of the gospel involves condemning sin as strongly as the Bible does (2 Peter 4:11) and this will result in persecution and rejection of the gospel by the unelect (Luke 6:22; Luke 10:21).
- Hellfire 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 the wicked (Psalms 149:6-9), which will comprise most of humanity (Luke 13:23-24).
- God has absolute omnipotence to cause or prevent tragedy. As such, when disasters occur, such as the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster or the September 11, 2001 attacks, it is God's intentional punishment of the wicked. In the aforementioned cases, Phelps believes these are God's punishment for the United States' "permissive attitudes" concerning homosexuality.
- The elect, being the chosen agents of God, answer only to God, and are above the laws of man which do not have basis in God's law (it is this belief that has led to the arrests of Phelps and several WBC members; see below)
- Christmas, Easter, and all other theologically based holidays have basis in Paganism, and are therefore not to be celebrated by the elect.
There are also some who believe Phelps no longer has/never has had any theological beliefs, and that he simply uses the Bible as part of a complex delusion that allows him to justify abusing others. A smaller group of people believe that Phelps' behaviour is simply an elaborate form of performance art.
Picketing
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 appearing to be related to gay people. One of Phelps' followers estimated that the church spends $250,000 a year travelling around the world to picket.
Phelps, his supporters and members of his church 1 attend said gatherings, as well as other gay-related events, with signs bearing anti-homosexual slogans. Reverend Phelps has characterized the Names Project Quilt as "100,000 living fags slobberin' around 45,000 dead fags," and declared Elizabeth Taylor, a fundraiser for AIDS research, to be a "world-famous Jew whore" and a "filthy Jew whore." Other favorite anti-gay slogans of the Reverend Phelps include "God Hates Fags," "Homosexuality=Death," "Fags Die, God Laughs," "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.)
Other slogans are:
- Fag Santa (carried at Christmas time)
- Thank God for 9-11
- Thank God for the Tsunami
- Menninger Therapy (complete with two stick figures mounting)
- Thank God for AIDS
- Fag Flag (with an American Flag)
- Repent of Perish
- Dyke Nuns and Fag
Priests (carried outside Catholic churches)
- Dyke Sows Wed Here (complete with pictures of pigs in wedding dresses covered with feces; carried at lesbian weddings)
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:
- A photograph of Matthew Shepard's face with animated flames dancing across it. When the cursor is moved across his face, viewers with a sound card will hear screams and a high pitched voice shrieking, "For God's sake, listen to Phelps!"
- A counter which displays how many days Matthew Shepard has "Been in Hell."
- "WBC does not support the murder of Matthew Shepard: "thou shalt not kill." Unless his killers repent, they will receive the same sentence that Matthew Shepard received - eternal fire. However, the truth about Matthew Shepard needs to be known. He lived a Satanic lifestyle. He got himself killed trolling for anonymous homosexual sex in a bar at midnight."
The Laramie Project
A large portion of Phelps' pickets revolve around the play The Laramie Project; Phelps constantly sends his followers across the country to picket every performance he finds out about. The play documents the reaction of the people of Laramie, Wyoming after the death of Matthew Shepard. One reason for these protests is that Phelps is a character in the play, and is portrayed negatively; indeed, some of his ardent supporters claim that the play constitutes libel. Phelps himself says about his portrayal in the play: "They did not interview me, and portrayed me in a false light that amounts to defamatory misrepresentation." However, all of Phelps' dialogue in the play is taken verbatim from his own sermons.
When the play was made into a movie by HBO, Phelps and his followers picketed the HBO home offices with signs reading, "United You'll Fall." Whenever Phelps sends picketers, he faxes a "review" to local newspapers for publishing; every review he sends is identical:
"The fag play 'The Laramie Project' is a tacky bit of melodrama-- unaffecting and drearily predictable-- without artistic merit or redeeming social value."
In expressing their opinions on the play, Phelps' children have each expressed nearly identical opinions:
"The fag play 'The Laramie Project' is a tacky bit of melodrama--maudlin, unaffecting, drearily predictable-- without artistic merit or redeeming social value."
Affiliations with Saddam Hussein and Fidel Castro
In 1997, before the fall of Saddam Hussein during the second Gulf War, Phelps wrote him a letter praising his regime, and received special permission from the Iraqi government to send a group of his children to Baghdad to protest against the American government. Hussein granted permission and a group of WBC congregants were welcomed upon their arrival in Iraq by radical Muslims shouting anti-American slogans and a congregation sent by Hussein to greet the WBC mission. The parishoners stood on the streets of Baghdad and in heavily patronized Baghdad establishments holding signs reading:
- GO HOME (with a cartoon of Bill Clinton)
- BABY KILLER (with a cartoon of Hillary Clinton)
- BABY KILLER (with a cartoon of Bill Clinton)
- FAG GORE
- FAG USA= SODOM
- STOP THE HOLOCAUST (in reference to Phelps' "Topeka Baptist Holocaust" campaign)
- FAG USA (with a picture of an inverted, burning American flag)
- USA SIN (with a picture of anatomically incorrect stick figures engaged in anal sex)
Phelps mourned the fall of Hussein's regime and has consistently criticized the invasion of Iraq, citing, "IRAQ=USA=SODOM" and keeping a toll on his webpage celebrating the death of every American soldier killed and pronouncing loyalty to Iraq.
Phelps has also repeatedly championed Fidel Castro for Castro's stance against homosexuality; in 1998 Harper's magazine published a letter Phelps sent to Castro in which he praised Castro and lambasted the US. In 2004, when a pro-homosexual Cuban refugee announced plans to travel to Cuba, Phelps sent another letter to Castro "warning" him of the man's plans and requesting travel visas for a group of WBC congregants so that they could follow the refugee around Havana with signs bearing anti-US and anti-homosexual slogans.
Non-homosexual prejudices
Anti-black racism
Although not as pronounced as their views on homosexuality, the Westboro Baptist Church appears to espouse a form of racism. However, their racist rhetoric is often a reaction to an opposition to their anti-homosexual speech by a racially-oriented organization. Phelps often refers to his days as a civil rights attorney as a rebuttal to claims of racism; in the 1980s he was given an award by the NAACP for successfully defending two black men who were searched without probable cause.
In response to Phelps' own defense, two of his sons, Mark and Nathan, claimed that when they were in their teens and worked in their father's law office, they heard Phelps repeatedly use racial slurs in reference to his clients. Mark went on to allege that his father liked to play a "game" wherein he would slip the letters "d.n." into legal terminology while speaking to black clients; Mark claims that his father told him this meant "dumb nigger" and the object of the game was to slip the letters in as many times as possible without alerting the client.
Further evidence to support Phelps and Westboro's racism is their repeated depiction of their black opponents as gorillas or chimps in suits or dresses, and their referral to black opponents as "apes."
Sometime in the 1990s one of Phelps' children adopted a black child named Daniel, and Phelps now cites the boy's relation to him as evidence that he is not a racist.
The Anti-Defamation League catalogs some of the statements of the Westboro Baptist Church that contain overtones of racism against Jews and blacks.
Anti-Asian racism
Following the December 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, Phelps characterized Asians and Indians as heathens, idolators, and heretics, and procurers of child sex and the leading proponents of child prostitution in the world. He released a statement reading in part:
"The lands affected by this judgment from God aren’t just full of idolatry; we’re talking about places (think Thailand) that are hot spots where American businessmen travel for the express purpose of fornicating with young Asian children. It is a thriving industry over there; many of these girls are taken into that business when they are seven years old or younger."
Anti-Mexican racism
Phelps has rarely spoken of Mexicans in his sermons, though he did take time out in a December 31, 1998 press release to state in regards to a Mexican Catholic Church in Topeka:
Mexicans worship a bloody fag rectum.
Anti-semitism/Anti-Judaism
Second only to his anti-homosexual picketing is Phelps' anti-Jew stance.
Phelps refers to the Holocaust as "minuscule" and led a protest at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. in 1996, proclaiming:
- Whatever righteous cause the Jewish victims of the 1930s-40s Nazi Holocaust had... has been drowned in sodomite semen. American taxpayers are financing this unholy monument to Jewish mendacity and greed and to filthy fag lust. Homosexuals and Jews dominated Nazi Germany...The Jews now wander the earth despised, smitten with moral and spiritual blindness by a divine judicial stroke...And god has smitten Jews with a certain unique madness...Jews, thus perverted, out of all proportion to their numbers energize the militant sodomite agenda...Jews are the real Nazis.
Also in 1996, Phelps began a campaign called "Topeka's Baptist Holocaust," whereby he attempted to draw attention to attacks perpetuated against WBC picketers, saying that they were not random but organized attacks orchestrated by Jews and homosexuals. Phelps announced, "Jews killed Christ," and:
- Fag Jew Nazis are worse than ordinary Nazis. They've had more experience. The First Holocaust was a Jewish Holocaust against Christians. The latest Holocaust is by Topeka Jews against Westboro Baptist Church.
In another statement, he said:
- Topeka Jews today stir up Kansas tyrants in persecuting Westboro Baptists. They whine about the Nazi Holocaust, while they perpetrate the Topeka Holocaust.
In 2000 a Jewish resident of Topeka named Leif Dolan e-mailed Phelps requesting that he stop picketing his synagogue. Phelps replied to Dolan: "Shut up you Christ hating Jew, I wish Hitler had finished the job. You and your children had better watch your back when you get out of temple. This is not a threat but a promise."
During the 2004 United States presidential election, Phelps campaigned against United States Senator John Kerry, claiming that his affiliation with Judaism made him unfit to run the country, and on his webpage gave a lengthy recitation of Kerry's family tree, naming all of his Jewish ancestors.
Anti-Catholicism and the death of Pope John Paul II
Fred Phelps is also anti-Catholic and claims that the Roman Catholic Church is a "fag" church and that a third of Catholic priests are active homosexuals, seducing helpless children and women. He has also reproduced an alleged "Diary of Another Fag Catholic Priest" and claims that "fag priests and dyke nuns is the order of the day for Kansas Catholics. They deserve the sick, perverted leadership that now dooms and damns them". About Catholics, he says: "They're mean. Mean as Hell. Headed for Hell. The meanest, most hateful people on Earth."
The day after the death of Pope John Paul II, Phelps held a service to "celebrate his entrance into Hell," during which he boasted, "You don't think he split Hell wide open? We're the only one's telling the truth about that son of a bitch." That evening he posted a flier on his webpage showing a doctored photo of John Paul II with horns coming out of his forehead, with the caption:
"Deal with it, you idolatrous morons! The pope is in Hell. Westboro Baptist Church members are competent expert witnesses, having picketed hundreds of Catholic churches in all fifty states over the past fourteen years. We will bear witness on Judgment Day: Catholics are the meanest, most violent people on Earth, and their churches are filled with filthy fag priests. On John Paul II's watch, the Catholic Church became the CHURCH OF THE HOLY PEDOPHILES and sodomite feces and semen replaced bread and wine."
Drug and alcohol dependency
Following his graduation from Washburn University in 1962, Phelps became addicted to amphetamines and barbiturates, which he often combined with large quantities of alcohol. One of his sons claims that his first memory in life is a drunk Phelps shotgunning to death their neighbor's German Shepherd in front of the owner's child as a punishment for the dog defecating on Phelps' lawn.
Phelps continued to take drugs, consume alcohol, and binge eat for six years, and would often go for days or weeks without leaving his bedroom. Because of his habits Phelps stopped earning money for the family, and because he refused to allow his wife to get a job, the family's financial resources quickly dried up.
In the mid-1960s Marge Phelps loaded her ten children into the family car and attemped to flee Fred, but found that none of her relatives or friends had the resources to accommodate eleven extra people. The family was forced to return to Fred, who promptly brutalized his wife.
In 1968, following a botched suicide attempt, Phelps overdosed on a cocktail of alcohol and amphetamines. He slipped into a coma and was rushed to the hospital, where he remained comatose for a week. Upon his return home he put himself on a detoxification diet, drinking only water and eating no solid food for several weeks. There is no evidence that Phelps has since relapsed.
Spousal and child abuse
Though the children that remain loyal to him claim that they were only spanked as children, there is an abundance of evidence to support the claims of two of his daughters and two of his sons that Phelps was physically abusive to his children and wife. Phelps has quoted Proverbs, 13:24, as justification for endorsing child abuse: "He that spareth his rod, hateth his son. But he that loveth him, chasteneth him betimes." In the 1960s, Phelps instructed a parishoner to punch his wife to settle arguments with her; the parishoner was arrested and Phelps was forced to put up bail. The following Sunday, Fred's sermon focused on the righteousness of spousal abuse: "A good left hook makes for a right fine wife. Brethren, they can lock us up, but we'll still do what the Bible tells us to do. Either our wives are going to obey, or we're going to beat them!"
Phelps' sons Nate and Mark, who claim that they were among the most abused, each suffer permanent debilitating injuries consistent with their stories of Phelps beating them with a mattock handle. According to the boys, he woke them one Christmas Eve in the 1970s while under the influence, bent them over a bathtub, and struck them nearly 300 times with the mattock handle.
In 1972 the boys showed up to school covered in welts, bruises, and bleeding wounds; the school nurse determined that Nate exhibited signs of shock. The family was investigated by social services, but Nate and Mark claim that their father threatened them with death if they spoke about their beatings. Phelps likewise issued threats against individual police officers and school staff, and filed a lawsuit against the school claiming they beat his children; the charges against Phelps, and Phelps' lawsuit, were dropped, but the affidavit that the school principal issued to social services remained on file as concrete evidence to support the stories of child abuse.
In the early 1990s Nate Phelps was diagnosed as suffering post traumatic stress syndrome. He and his brother have each been diagnosed as having suffered damage to the muscle tissue and tendons in their buttocks and legs, and both have scarring on their backsides, which they claim is the result of Phelps beating them with a custom made four-inch-wide strop. Around 1994 Nate was diagnosed as suffering bone chips and severe damage to the muscle tissue in his knees.
Marge Phelps, the boys' mother, suffers from bone chips and severe cartilage damage in her right shoulder, consistent with a story three of the Phelps children tell about Fred throwing her down a flight of stairs.
Many of the Phelps children who remain at Westboro openly admit to using physical violence against their children; Phelps' son, Jonathan, boasted to the Topeka Capital Journal in 1994 that he regularly beat his wife, Betty, and his children. On occasion members of the church have dared police and government officials to try and take legal action against them.
Criminal record
United States
Phelps was first arrested in 1951 and found guilty of misdemeanor battery after attacking a Pasadena police officer. He has since been arrested for assault, battery, threats, trespassing, disorderly conduct, contempt of court, and several other charges; each time, he has sued the city and arresting agency. Though he has been able to avoid prison time—often on technicalities (he escaped prison time on an assault and battery charge because an appellate court ruled he didn't receive a speedy trial)—he has been convicted numerous times:
In December 1996 two Topeka police officers came forward claiming that then-police chief Beavers had, in 1993, enacted a "no-arrest" policy that actively ignored complaints against Phelps and WBC members. Beavers was quoted as saying:
- The Phelpses are not going to live in my house. Don't these officers know the Phelpses can sue us and take our houses? Commander, do you understand my order?
An investigation was launched by the City of Topeka and the Topeka Sheriff's department in 1996. It was determined that Chief Beavers had been allowing Phelps and WBC protestors to commit crimes without arrest, and that Phelps and WBC members had taken advantage of their knowledge of the policy by becoming more abusive towards Topeka citizens. Following the findings of the city and Sheriff's office, Beavers was asked to resign, and his successor immediately repealed the "no arrest" policy.
Canada
Phelps and congregants have been arrested on numerous occasions in Canada for violation of that country's hate crime laws. On one occasion, the congregation had their signs confiscated by customs, and responded by going to the province capital and burning and spitting on the Canadian flag, and threatening to urinate and defecate on it. Should Phelps ever try to enter Canada again, he would be arrested and tried for violation of hate crimes laws.
Notable activities
September 11 and the Shuttle Columbia
After the September 11, 2001 attacks, Phelps' group went to New York City to protest the rescue efforts going on there, mocking victims as they were taken from the rubble, shouting obscenities at rescue workers, and demanding that those still alive be left to die. Phelps reasoned that God had caused the terrorist attacks as a punishment for tolerance of homosexuality, and that it was God's will that those who suffered in the attacks should die. Signs carried at the Ground Zero site included, "THANK GOD FOR SEPT. 11," "FDNY SIN (with a picture of stick-figures engaged in anal sex)," NYPD FAGS (with a picture of stick-figures engaged in anal sex)," "YOUR PENTAGON IS SQUARE," and "TOWERS CRASH, GOD LAUGHS."
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 attacks.
Phelps's church has also produced flyers asserting that the seven astronauts who died in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster are in Hell, and that they were killed first and foremost as a punishment for not using their position of astronauts to speak out against homosexuality. He also claimed that they had been killed to punish NASA and America for not speaking out against gays, God having chosen to destroy the shuttle because it was a symbol of America's technological advancement. The final reason, Phelps claimed, was because one of the astronauts was from Israel, that astronaut was killed as a sign to Israel to outlaw homosexuality and break ties with America.
"God Hates Canada" and "God Hates Sweden"
"God Hates Canada" was 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. Phelps had previously targeted Canada, coming to Ottawa in 1999 to protest the Supreme Court of Canada's ruling in M v. H , which gave same-sex couples the same rights as opposite-sex common-law couples.
In 2004, Phelps and his church began picketing all things Swedish in response to the prosecution of Swedish pastor Åke Green on hate-speech charges for comments Green made about homosexuals, comments not nearly as provocative as Phelps' typical rhetoric. Phelps nearly broke down during a sermon praising Green, and declaring that he was going to go to Sweden and force every citizen to look at a picture of "that poor gospel preacher." He declared Green a "martyr" and designed a granite monument to Green, announcing plans to erect copies of it throughtout America. In response, Green called Phelps "appalling" and "extremely unpleasant," stressing that while Phelps proclaims hatred for homosexuals and condemns them to hell, Green wishes for homosexuals to one day renounce their homosexuality and hopes for them to enter Heaven. Infuriated, Phelps declared that Green was a traitor.
On godhatesfags he also has a special page claiming that the Swedish king Carl XVI Gustaf "looks like a sodomite" and accuses him and his children of practicing incest.
Phelps announced plans to picket in Sweden in 2005. It would be the family's first picket in Europe.
Fred Phelps' confrontations with Scandinavian leaders date back to an unfulfilled 2000 promise to picket the inauguration of the first Finnish female president Tarja Halonen and burn the Finnish flag on the steps of the parliament building.
Indian Ocean earthquake
On December 29, 2004, shortly after the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, Phelps's church published a flyer [1] headlined "Thank God for Tsunami and 20,000 dead Swedes!!!", calling Sweden the "land of the sodomite damned" and saying "woe to faggot Sweden." More fliers were produced shortly after, welcoming reports of 5,000 Swedes (later reduced to 2,000) and 3,000 Americans killed in the tsunami. Another of the group's fliers expressed hope "that God will send a massive tsunami to totally devastate the North American continent". The group had also threatened to picket Swedish survivors at various locations on the island of Phuket.
Phelps responded gleefully to reports of orphaned children being kidnapped following the disaster, saying: "Better for them to be sold into lives of sex than to be taught that it's OK to be gay."
John Couey
On April 9th, 2005, Phelps preached about convicted child molester and alleged murderer John Couey in his weekly sermon, using Couey as a counterpoint to gay and lesbian adoption:
"I'd sooner let John Couey, C-O-U-E-Y, who raped and buried alive little Jessica, I'd sooner let him adopt kids, than turn them over to the fags and dykes! That clear enough for ya?"
Health
In Topeka, Kansas, there is much speculation regarding Phelps's health. He is reported to be suffering from an advanced form of cancer or Parkinson's Disease and has made few recent appearances. Recent photographs showing apparent partial facial paralysis suggest that he may have suffered a very mild stroke for which he was never hospitalized. Also, the length and incoherence of many of his recent sermons, as well as a large number of bizarre claims (including "George Bush worships Mr. Peanut, whose name is the great God Goober"), suggest to many that he is suffering from Alzheimer's disease, senility, or has suffered brain damage due to his amphetamine and barbiturate addiction in the 1960s.
External links
Phelps's sites
Supporters of Phelps
Critics of Phelps
Relatively neutral
