Fred Phelps

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Fred Waldron Phelps, Sr.
Born	November 13, 1929 (age 77) Meridian, Mississippi
Title	Pastor
Religious belief	Independent Baptist-Calvinist
Spouse	Marge Phelps
Children	13; 4 estranged from family

Fred Waldron Phelps, Sr. (born November 13, 1929) is the pastor and leader of the Westboro Baptist Church (WBC), an independent Baptist church in Topeka, Kansas. Phelps is also a lawyer and founder of the Phelps Chartered law firm. WBC is listed as a "hate group" by the Southern Poverty Law Center.^[1] He is known for preaching with slogans and banners denoting phrases such as "God hates fags," "AIDS cures fags," and "Fags die, God laughs (or mocks)," and claims that God will punish homosexuals as well as people such as Bill O'Reilly, Coretta Scott King, and Howard Dean, whom his church considers "fag-enablers".^[2][3] His church says he is a "Five-Point Calvinist".^[4]

Phelps and his followers frequently picket various events, especially military funerals, gay pride gatherings, and high-profile political gatherings, arguing it is their sacred duty to warn others of God's anger. When criticized, Phelps' followers say they are protected in doing so by the First Amendment.^[5][6] President Bush recently signed the Respect for America's Fallen Heroes Act in response to Phelps' protests at military funerals.^[7]

Phelps says that he is a preacher who believes that homosexuality and its acceptance have doomed most of the world to eternal damnation. The church at Westboro which he leads has 71 confirmed members, 60 of whom are related to Phelps through blood or marriage or both, although his daughter Shirley says that only 80% are related.^[8]

The group is built around a core of anti-homosexual theology, with many of their activities stemming from the slogan "God hates fags," which is also the name of the group's main website. Gay rights activists, as well as Christians of virtually every denomination, have denounced him as a producer of anti-gay propaganda and violence-inspiring hate speech.^[9]

Contents 1 Childhood 2 Civil Rights Attorney 3 Disbarment 4 Activities and statements 5 Religious beliefs 6 The Laramie Project 7 Political views 7.1 Anti-gay 7.2 Against Flag Idolatry 7.3 Freedom of Speech 7.4 Democratic Party 7.5 Support for Al Gore 7.6 Opposition to Al Gore and Bill Clinton 7.7 Fidel Castro 7.8 Saddam Hussein 8 Criminal record 8.1 United States 8.2 Canada 9 People targeted by Fred Phelps 10 Efforts to discourage funeral protests 10.1 Legislation 10.2 Other responses 11 Legitimacy 12 Footnotes 13 References 14 See also 15 External links 15.1 Biographical information 15.2 Criticism of Phelps

Childhood

Fred Phelps was born in Meridian, Mississippi in 1929, the first of two children; his sister, Martha-Jean, was one year younger. His father, Fred Wade Phelps, was a security person employed by the local railroad, whose job was to keep people from illegally riding the rails. Fred recalls his father often came home from work "with blood up to his shoulders". Fred's mother, Catherine Phelps, was a homemaker.

The family were devout members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Catherine died of throat cancer at the age of twenty-eight, when Phelps was five years old. One of Fred's only memories of his mother is the fact that since she was the only woman on their street who owned a musical instrument (a piano), she used to push it to the front of the house, open all the doors and windows, and play for the pleasure of the neighbors. Catherine was highly regarded in Meridian — her funeral was attended by the mayor (who was also a pallbearer), a city councilman, two judges, and every member of the Meridian police force.

Shortly after his mother's death, his maternal great-aunt, Irene Jordan, moved in with the family and became a surrogate mother; she was killed in a motor vehicle accident in 1950, shortly before Fred's twenty-first birthday.

By Phelps's own admission, he never dated, and had no interest in members of the opposite sex. He played in the school band (cornet, later switching to bass horn), was on the track team (he specialized in hurdling), and worked as a field reporter for the high school newspaper. Also, during his time in high school he became a Golden Gloves boxer, going to state twice and winning by KO both times. In his graduation-year yearbook, his classmates predicted that he would end up as a professional boxer.

In 1947, Phelps enrolled as a student in at the fundamentalist Bob Jones University, which he left after three semesters.^[10] He then spent two semesters at the Prairie Bible Institute. In 1951, he earned a two-year degree from John Muir College.^[11]

Civil Rights Attorney

Phelps earned a law degree from Washburn University in 1962, and founded the Phelps Chartered law firm in 1964. The first notable cases were of a civil rights nature. "I systematically brought down the Jim Crow laws of this town," he says.^[9] Phelps' daughter was quoted as saying, "We took on the Jim Crow establishment, and Kansas did not take that sitting down. They used to shoot our car windows out, screaming we were nigger lovers," and that the Phelps law firm made up one-third of the state’s federal docket of civil-rights cases.^[12]

Phelps took cases on behalf of African American clients alleging discrimination by school systems, and a predominately black American Legion post which had been raided by police, alleging racially-based police abuse. Phelps' law firm obtained settlements for some clients.^[13] Phelps also sued then-President Ronald Reagan over Reagan's appointment of a U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, alleging this violated separation of church and state. The case was dismissed by the U.S. District court.^[13] Phelps' law firm, staffed by himself and family members also represented non-white Kansans in discrimination actions against Kansas Power and Light, Southwestern Bell, and the Topeka City Attorney, and represented two female professors alleging discrimination in Kansas universities.^[12]

In the 1980s Fred Phelps received awards from the Greater Kansas City Chapter of Blacks in Government and the Bonner Springs branch of the NAACP for his work on behalf of Black clients.^[14]

Phelps Chartered also won one of the first reverse discrimination cases.^[15]

Disbarment

A formal complaint was filed against Fred W. Phelps, Sr. on November 8, 1977 by the Kansas State Board of Law Examiners for his conduct during a lawsuit against a court reporter named Carolene Brady. Brady had failed to have a court transcript ready for Phelps on the day he asked for it; though it did not affect the outcome of the case for which Phelps had requested the transcript, Phelps still requested $22,000 in damages from her. In the ensuing trial, Phelps called Brady to the stand, declared her a hostile witness, and then cross-examined her for nearly a week, during which he accused her of being a "slut," tried to introduce testimony from former boyfriends whom Phelps wanted to subpoena, and accused her of a variety of perverse sexual acts, ultimately reducing her to tears on the stand.^[16] Phelps lost the case; according to the Kansas Supreme Court:

The trial became an exhibition of a personal vendetta by Phelps against Carolene Brady. His examination was replete with repetition, badgering, innuendo, belligerence, irrelevant and immaterial matter, evidencing only a desire to hurt and destroy the defendant. The jury verdict didn't stop the onslaught of Phelps. He was not satisfied with the hurt, pain, and damage he had visited on Carolene Brady.^[16]

In an appeal, Phelps prepared affidavits swearing to the court that he had eight witnesses whose testimony would convince the court to rule in his favor. Brady, in turn, obtained sworn, signed affidavits from the eight people in question, all of whom said that Phelps had never contacted them and that they had no reason to testify against Brady; Phelps had committed perjury.^[16]

On July 20, 1979, Fred Phelps was permanently disbarred from practicing law in the state of Kansas,^[16] but continued to practice in the Federal courts.

In 1985, nine Federal judges filed a disciplinary complaint against Phelps and five of his children, alleging false accusations against the judges. In 1989, the complaint was settled, with Phelps agreeing to permanently stop practicing in Federal court, and two of his children suspended for periods of six months and one year.^[17]

Activities and statements

Main article: Westboro Baptist Church

All of Phelps' recent actions were in conjunction with the congregation of Westboro Baptist Church; see Westboro's notable activities.

Religious beliefs

Phelps says he is an old school Baptist, which includes John Calvin's doctrine of unconditional election, the belief that God has elected certain people for salvation before birth. He says that almost nobody is a member of the elect, and furthermore that he and the members of his congregation (mostly his family) are the only members of the elect, (first point of Calvinism) because they are the only ones not afraid to publish the current relevant application of the word of God (that "God hates fags").

During 1993–94 interviews with the Topeka Capital-Journal, the four Phelps children (out of thirteen, Mark, Nate, Katherine and Dotty) who had left the church asserted that their father's religious beliefs were either nonexistent to begin with or have dwindled down to nearly nothing. They insist that Westboro actually serves to enable a paraphilia of Phelps, wherein he is literally addicted to hatred. This statement would serve as the inspiration for the title of the book about Phelps' life, which was never published due to fear of lawsuit, but became public when the author sued the publisher, who maintained that it was a work for hire and therefore could not be taken to another publisher, attaching a copy of the manuscript to the suit as an exhibit thus making it public record. The record was eventually sealed, although the document had already been released over the Internet.

Two of his sons, Mark and Nate, insist that the church is actually a carefully planned cult that allows Phelps to see himself as a demigod, wielding absolute control over the lives of his family and congregants, essentially turning them into slaves that he can use for the sole purpose of gratifying his every whim and acting as the structure for his delusion that he is the only righteous man on Earth.^[18] In 1995, Mark Phelps wrote a letter to the people of Topeka to this effect; it was run in the Topeka Capital-Journal.^[19] The children's claim is partially backed up by B.H. McAllister, the Baptist minister who ordained Phelps. McAllister said in a 1993 interview that Phelps developed a delusion wherein he was one of the few people on Earth worthy of God's grace and that everyone else in the world was going to Hell, and that salvation or damnation could be directly obtained by either aligning with or opposing Phelps. As of 2006, Phelps maintains this belief.^[18] Phelps and his family picket up to approximately six locations every day, including many in Topeka and some events farther afield. On Sundays, up to 15 churches may receive pickets.^[20]

The Laramie Project

Many of Westboro's pickets revolve around the play The Laramie Project; Phelps says he consistently sends his followers across the country to picket every performance he finds out about.^[21][22] The play documents the reaction of the people of Laramie, Wyoming to the murder of Matthew Shepard.

The presumed reason for these protests is that Phelps is a character in the play and is portrayed negatively. 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."^{[citation needed]} The play's authors state that all of Phelps' dialog in the play is taken verbatim from his own sermons.^{[citation needed]}

When the play was made into a movie by HBO, (The Laramie Project), Phelps and the WBC traveled to New York City to picket the HBO home offices with signs reading "United You'll Fall."^[23]

“

The Laramie Project is a tawdry bit of banal fag melodrama – sordid, cheap, unaffecting, drearily predictable – without the least artistic or literary merit or redeeming social value. Indeed, its only purpose is to promote sinful, soul-damning sodomy by playing on the sick, maudlin emotions of doomed, godless America and thereby to recruit ill-bred teenagers to lives of sin, shame, disease, death and hell.[24]

”

Political views

Phelps' stated political views and activities are primarily driven by his view that the United States of America is "A sodomite nation of flag-worshiping idolators."^[25]

Anti-gay

Phelps was the subject of nationwide controversy when his family proposed, in a referendum, the removal of workplace protection for homosexuals in Topeka.^{[citation needed]} The measure was defeated, fifty three percent to forty seven percent. Also in 2005, Phelps' granddaughter Jael was an unsuccessful candidate for Topeka's City Council; Jael was seeking to replace Tiffany Muller, the first openly gay member of the Topeka City Council.^[26]

On the Westboro website godhatessweden.com, Phelps declares the heavy Swedish losses in the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, initially calculated (exaggeratedly) at 20,000, to be God's punishment of Sweden for the prosecution of Åke Green and depicts a granite monument designed by himself to Green as a Christian martyr, announcing plans to erect copies of it throughout the U.S. In response, Green has called Phelps "appalling" and "extremely unpleasant",^[27] stressing that while Phelps proclaims hatred for homosexuals and condemns them to Hell, Green hopes for them to repent and go to Heaven.^{[citation needed]} Phelps then renounced Green as a traitor and an ingrate.^{[citation needed]}

The family started protesting homosexuality in the late 1980s after Shirley Phelps-Roper’s then-toddler son was allegedly propositioned by a homosexual in a Topeka park, according to Phelps-Roper.^[12]

Against Flag Idolatry

Fred Phelps refers to the United States of America as "A sodomite nation of flag-worshiping idolators."

"Military funerals are pagan orgies of idolatrous blasphemy where they pray to the dunghill gods of Sodom and play taps to a fallen fool, they shall not lament for him, saying, Ah my brother! or, Ah sister! they shall not lament for him, saying, Ah lord! or, Ah his glory! He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem." Jer. 22:lS-19. ^[28]

On his website, Phelps displays the American flag upside down. The flag, when flown in that manner, has historically indicated distress or imminent danger.

Freedom of Speech

Phelps is critical of laws against hate speech that make it illegal to preach that homosexuality is sinful. Hate speech laws in Sweden, resulting in the trial of Pastor Åke Green, and Canada are given particular emphasis by Phelps. Phelps has used the term "homo-fascist" to describe countries with such laws.^[29]

Democratic Party

Phelps has run in various Kansas Democratic Party primaries five times, but has never won. These included races for governor in 1990, 1994, and 1998, receiving about 15% of the vote in 1998.^[30]

Support for Al Gore

Phelps supported Al Gore in the 1988 Democratic Party primary election.^[31] In his 1984 Senate race, Gore opposed a "gay bill of rights" and stated that homosexuality was not something that "society should affirm".^[32] Phelps has stated that he supported Gore because of these earlier comments.^[33] According to Phelps, members of the Westboro Baptist Church helped run Gore's 1988 campaign in Kansas. Phelps' son, Fred Phelps Jr., hosted a Gore fundraiser, which Al and Tipper Gore attended, at his home in Topeka.^[9][33] Fred Phelps, Jr. served as a Gore delegate to the 1988 Democratic National Convention.^[33][34] Gore spokesman Dag Vega declined to comment; "We are not dignifying those stories with a response."^[35]

Opposition to Al Gore and Bill Clinton

During the 1992 presidential campaign, Phelps protested Hillary Clinton during a campaign speech in support of the Clinton-Gore ticket at the University of Kansas on October 14, 1992. In Bill Clinton's second presidential campaign, Phelps and the Westboro church also opposed Clinton and Gore because of the administration's support for gay rights. The entire Westboro congregation picketed a 1997 inaugural ball^[36], denouncing Gore as a "famous fag pimp."^[37] In 1998, Westboro picketed the funeral of Gore's father, screaming vulgarities at Gore and telling him, "Your dad's in Hell."^[37]

In the aftermath of the election, in an incident that would be repeated years later when Phelps circulated a petition to outlaw homosexual work protection, many of the Kansas Democrats who had cast votes for Phelps came forward to express their distaste for him. They said that Phelps had lied about his intentions to numerous constituents, using double-talk and fuzzy language to confuse them; neglected to mention his stances on race, religion, and homosexuality, and campaigned mainly on the platform of a "good ol' boy" Southern gentleman and retired lawyer unfairly prosecuted by the system.^[38]

Fidel Castro

Phelps has 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 U.S. 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-U.S. and anti-homosexual slogans.

Saddam Hussein

In 2003, before the fall of Saddam Hussein during the Iraq War, Phelps wrote Hussein a letter praising his regime for being, in his opinion, "the only Muslim state that allows the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ to be freely and openly preached on the streets."^[39] Furthermore, he stated that he would like to send a delegation to Baghdad to "preach the Gospel" for one week. Hussein granted permission, and a group of WBC congregants traveled to Iraq to protest against the U.S. The WBC members stood on the streets of Baghdad holding signs condemning Bill and Hillary Clinton and anal sex.^[40] After Saddam was hanged, Phelps released a video commentary that stated that both Saddam Hussein and Gerald Ford (who had died the same week) were now in Hell.

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 (along with Westboro and its other members) has filed suit against the city, the police, and the arresting officers. Though he has been able to avoid prison time, he has been convicted more than once:^[41][42][43]

• 1994: Contempt of court^[41]
• 1994: Two counts of assault (reduced to disorderly conduct on appeal)^[42]

Phelps' 1995 conviction for assault and battery carried a five-year prison sentence, with a mandatory 18 months to be served before he became eligible for parole. Phelps fought to be allowed to remain free until his appeals process went through. Days away from being arrested and sent to prison, a judge ruled that Phelps had been denied a speedy trial and that he was not required to serve any time.^[42][43]

Canada

Phelps has also claimed that his congregation, along with him, have been arrested in Canada for hate speech.^[44] This prompted the founding of "Godhatescanada.com." He has also strongly opposed the legalization of same-sex marriage in Canada and Canada's Supreme Court.

People targeted by Fred Phelps

Main article: Targets of Westboro Baptist Church

Since the early 1990s, Phelps has targeted several individuals and groups in the public eye for criticism by the Westboro Baptist Church after their deaths. Prominent examples include President Ronald Reagan, Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist, National Football League star Reggie White, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, murdered college student Matthew Shepard, the late children's television host Fred Rogers, Jews ^[45], Catholics, Scandinavians, US soldiers killed in Iraq and the Irish. He has also targeted Joseph Estabrook School in Lexington, Massachusetts.

Shirley Phelps, a daughter of Fred Phelps, appeared on Fox News, defending the WBC and attacking homosexuality.^[8]

In a recent video sermon, Phelps targeted comedians Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, claiming that they are among the "scoffers and mockers" referred to in the Bible, and used them as evidence that we are in the "last of the Last Days." He was particularly critical of Colbert's Emmy Awards show performance, in which Colbert, tongue-in-cheek, called the Hollywood audience "Godless sodomites."^[46] He compared Colbert's comments to the "blaspheming comics" of Sodom and Gomorrah and referred to both Colbert and Stewart as "sacrilegious buffoons."

Phelps' followers have repeatedly protested the University of Kansas School of Law's graduation ceremonies.

Efforts to discourage funeral protests

Legislation

On May 24, 2006, the United States House and Senate passed the Respect for America's Fallen Heroes Act, which President Bush signed five days later. The act bans protests within 300 feet of national cemeteries — which numbered 122 when the bill was signed — from an hour before a funeral to an hour after it. Violators face up to a $100,000 fine and up to a year in prison.^[47]

As of April 2006, at least 17 states have banned protests near funeral sites immediately before and after ceremonies, or are considering it. These are: Illinois,^[48][49] Indiana,^[50] Iowa,^[51] Kansas,^[52] Kentucky,^[53] Louisiana,^[54] Maryland,^[55]Michigan,^[56] Missouri,^[57] which passed the law, and Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma,^[58] South Carolina,^[59] South Dakota, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.^[60] Florida increased the penalty for disturbing military funerals, amending a previous ban on the disruption of lawful assembly.^[61]

These bans have not been uncontested. Bart McQueary, having protested with Phelps on at least three occasions,^[62] filed a lawsuit in federal court challenging the constitutionality of Kentucky's funeral protest ban. On September 26, 2006, a district court agreed and entered an injunction prohibiting the ban from being enforced.^[62] In the opinion, the judge wrote:

Sections 5(1)(b) and (c) restrict substantially more speech than that which would interfere with a funeral or that which would be so obtrusive that funeral participants could not avoid it. Accordingly, the provisions are not narrowly tailored to serve a significant government interest but are instead unconstitutionally overbroad.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit in Missouri on behalf of Phelps and Westboro Baptist Church to overturn the ban on the picketing of soldier's funerals.^[63] The ACLU of Ohio also filed a similar lawsuit.^[64]

Other responses

To counter the Phelps' protests at funerals of soldiers, a group of motorcycle riders has formed the Patriot Guard Riders to provide a nonviolent, volunteer buffer between the protesters and mourners.^[47]

In addition, when Phelps and his Westboro followers have shown up at Walter Reed Army Medical Center or other locales in the Washington area, they have been actively protested by the DC Chapter of Free Republic, a conservative website.

On June 5, 2006, Albert Snyder, the father of Lance Cpl. Matthew A. Snyder, who was killed in the line of duty on March 3, 2006, and whose funeral was picketed by Phelps, sued Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church, Inc., in the U.S. District Court in Maryland, for defamation, invasion of privacy, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. The lawsuit also involves accusations made on Phelps's websites that Mr. and Mrs. Snyder "raised [Matthew] for the devil" and taught him "to defy his Creator, to divorce, and to commit adultery".^[65]

Legitimacy

Because his activism has provoked opposition, some have speculated that Phelps might be an elaborate prankster or agent provocateur. Such speculation has come from conservatives who believe he is consciously trying to discredit social conservatives, and "some among the extreme-right have speculated that Phelps is a plant aimed at giving the anti-gay movement a bad name".^[66] Author Keith R. Wood suggested in a 2004 column that Phelps' protests "are most likley (sic) being funded by NAMBLA" and are designed "to draw unfavorable attention toward Christians as a whole, make [them] afraid to speak about morality, and make [them] all seem like idiots."^[67]

Phelps' estranged son Mark has said Phelps "simply wants to hate and to have a forum for his hate. . . . If it weren't the homosexuals, it would be something else."^[68]

Footnotes

References

• Tooley, Mark D.. "The "God Hates Fags" Left", FrontPage Magazine, February 9, 2006. Retrieved on December 26, 2006. “After the 9/11 attacks, Phelps celebrated that God was rightly punishing America for not hating homosexuals. The subway attacks in London persuaded Phelps that Great Britain also was being justly damned.”

See also

• A Union In Wait
• Shirley Phelps-Roper
• Violence against gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and the transgendered
• Homophobia

External links

For external links related to Westboro Baptist Church and not Phelps specifically, see this section.

Biographical information

• Phelps-Chartered, Attorneys At Law - A law firm founded by Fred Phelps, Sr., in 1964 and staffed by WBC members
• Topeka Capital-Journal Phelps and WBC archived stories

Criticism of Phelps

• A City Held Hostage - Southern Poverty Law Center article on Phelps' activities in Topeka
• The family was the subject of the TV programme "The Most Hated Family In America"; presented on the BBC by Louis Theroux.[1]