Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Human Rights Coalition
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They're Creepy And They're Kooky
April 6, 2009 By Meghan Chavalier
Documentary From The BBC: The Most Hated Family In America
Fred Waldron Phelps, Sr. is an American "pastor" of the Westboro Baptist Church (WBC), an independent Baptist church based in Topeka, Kansas. His church is monitored as a hate group by the Anti-Defamation League and Southern Poverty Law Center. He is a disbarred lawyer, founder of the Phelps Chartered law firm and previous candidate for political office. He and his family are currently notorious for their anti-gay protests, claiming that most natural disasters and terrorist attacks are God's punishment for a society that tolerates homosexuality. 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. The Phelps family "church" is one based on hatred. They have hatred in their hearts. They use the name of God, to spread their hatred throughout the world. They picket funerals of fallen soldiers, show up at any showing of "The Laramie Project" to picket, they picket anything that's related to gay issues storming the streets with their "God Hates Fags" signs. We may never see the end of the Phelps family considering they are raising their children with the same amount of hatred in their hearts as the elder Phelps have. Let's dissect the Phelps family for a moment. Most of the elder Phelps have legal backgrounds and normally end up suing anyone who tries to stand in their way. They basically survive on the money they make from frivelous lawsuits. In fact, many believe that this could be their only source of income which would make sense why they show up and do the things that they do. Do they do it for the notoriety? Maybe they just sit back in their houses of hate and laugh all the way to the bank. We may never know why the Phelps family does what it does because they are shrouded in mystery. What goes on behind closed doors in the Phelps family households? There have been reports of alleged abuse by the elder, Fred Phelps, the leader of the church. He has been called a pastor, but I refuse to give him the title. He is more Satan-Like than God-Like. The daughter, Shirley Phelps Roper is a delusional nutcase. You want proof? Watch the documentary or watch the video below.
This family is a disgrace to the United States of America. This family is a disgrace to humankind. It's just as the newscaster says in the video above, if you don't like America then get out and move to another country. Why don't they? Well, it's simple, they wouldn't be able to sue and make the money they make if they moved to another country. America is a sue happy country, and they have manipulated the legal system to make sure they have money in the bank by doing the things they do. The God the Phelps family worships is Fred Phelps. They don't worship the God from the Bible, they worship Fred Phelps, period. Fred Phelps has brainwashed his entire family his whole miserable life into believing exactly what he says. He's not a church leader he's a cult leader. A word of advice to any younger members of the Phelps family... Don't drink the Kool-Aid.
The Fred Phelps Timeline
Ordained as a Baptist preacher at age 17, he spends the summer trying to convert Mormons.
But most of his congregation leaves the church after a series of internal conflicts, and Phelps is forced to support himself by selling vacuum cleaners and baby carriages door to door.
Before the end of his legal career in 1989, Phelps will file some 400 suits, mostly in federal court. Estranged son Nathan Phelps will claim later that part of his father's strategy is to file frivolous lawsuits in the hope that his targets will settle to avoid the costs of defense.
Also this year, the Kansas Supreme Court temporarily suspends Phelps' law license on three counts of professional misconduct. But it denies a request by the state board of law examiners to have Phelps disbarred permanently.
This same year, WBC is sued by two companies for failure to pay for the candy resold by the Phelps children. The church is ordered to pay a reported $5,760 in one case; it settles for $1,650 in the other.
Another Phelps case results in a settlement for blacks who were illegally searched by police at a party. In 1986 and 1987, Phelps will receive three awards for his civil rights cases, including one bestowed by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
As a result of the same case, Phelps also will be suspended the following year from practicing in federal courts until 1982.
A later suit switches the argument, alleging reverse discrimination because Phelps' children are white. All are dismissed in 1986.
In a separate complaint, Phelps, still practicing in federal court, will be censured in 1987 for writing abusive letters this year to potential defendants threatening lawsuits if his demands were not met.
By 1998, Gore will be seen as such an enemy by WBC that its members picket the funeral of Gore's father.
Also as part of the settlement, daughter Margie is suspended from practicing in federal and state courts for one year, son Fred Jr. for six months.
Around this time, Phelps and his congregants expand their operations, picketing enemies around the nation.
Largely in response to Phelps' and his followers' harassment of gays and others, the Kansas legislature passes laws regulating funeral picketing and penalizing stalking, and amends a statute outlawing telephone harassment to include faxes.
After Phelps responds by filing the first of three suits against Hamilton alleging wrongful prosecution, a court invalidates the state defamation statute, enjoins further prosecution of WBC members in the cases, and awards $43,000 in legal fees to the church. Years later, an appeals court will reinstate the defamation statute, but by that time the statute of limitations on most charges has expired. All of Phelps' suits against Hamilton will be eventually resolved in the prosecutor's favor. Also this year, WBC's picketing of an AIDS victim's funeral prompts a Kansas City, Mo., funeral picketing law.
In July, a verbal attack by Phelps results in two convictions for disorderly conduct and two suspended 30-day jail sentences. Local efforts to oppose WBC are stepped up with pleas to the phone company to cut off WBC's notorious fax line. Publicly supporting the ultimately fruitless requests are Kansas Attorney General Robert Stephan — who says that cutting off Phelps' line would be "important public service" — along with a city councilman and many other victims.
After verbally assaulting passersby at a picket, Jonathan Phelps is convicted of disorderly conduct. Although the verdict is eventually thrown out because of a minor error in the judge's instructions discovered by WBC lawyers, he is convicted in a second trial. Also this year, Fred Phelps speaks at the Indianapolis Baptist Temple after being invited by Greg Dixon, a figure in the antigovernment "Patriot" movement.
WBC member Charles Hockenbarger is convicted of criminal restraint in an earlier incident involving a Lutheran minister who was demonstrating against WBC with a sign reading, "God's Love Speaks Loudest."
A city planner, offered a job in Topeka, backs out after seeing a Phelps picket. Police chief Gerald Beavers resigns after being accused of coddling Phelps with a no-arrest order. Beavers is replaced by Dean Forster, whose credentials include having prevailed in an earlier suit brought against him by Phelps. Also this year, the church puts up its first anti-homosexual web site; later, the site will become the infamous www.godhatesfags.com site.
Immediately after announcing a plan to study gay issues, the Topeka Human Relations Commission is abolished by the city council. After an uproar, the commission is reinstated in a considerably weakened form. WBC begins picketing evangelist Jerry Falwell after Falwell makes a conciliatory gesture toward a gay former aide. In the latest WBC battle over religious tax exemptions, a WBC pickup truck is ruled taxable because it is used for political, not religious, purposes.
As Phelps and WBC bring the city ever-growing notoriety, the Topeka City Council adopts an anti-hate resolution. 2006 On March 10, 2006 WBC picketed the funeral of Lance Cpl. Matthew A. Snyder. On June 5, 2006 the Snyder family sued Fred Phelps, WBC, and unnamed others for defamation, invasion of privacy, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. 2007 On 31 October 2007, WBC, Fred Phelps and his two daughters, Shirley Phelps-Roper and Rebecca Phelps-Davis, were found liable for invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress. A federal jury awarded Mr. Snyder $2.9 million in compensatory damages, then later added a decision to award $6 million in punitive damages for invasion of privacy and an additional $2 million for causing emotional distress (A total of $10,900,000). The organization said it wouldn't change its message because of the verdict. The lawsuit named Albert Snyder as the plaintiff and Fred W. Phelps, Sr.; Westboro Baptist Church, Inc.; Rebekah Phelps-Davis; and Shirley Phelps-Roper as defendants, alleging that they were responsible for publishing defamatory information about the Snyder family on the Internet, including statements that Albert and his wife had "raised [Matthew] for the devil" and taught him "to defy his Creator, to divorce, and to commit adultery." Other statements denounced them for raising their son Catholic. Snyder further complained the defendants had intruded upon and staged protests at his son's funeral. The claims of invasion of privacy and defamation arising from comments posted about Snyder on the Westboro website were dismissed on First Amendment grounds, but the case proceeded to trial on the remaining three counts. Albert Snyder, the father of Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew A. Snyder, testified: They turned this funeral into a media circus and they wanted to hurt my family. They wanted their message heard and they didn't care who they stepped over. My son should have been buried with dignity, not with a bunch of clowns outside. In his instructions to the jury U.S. District Judge Richard Bennett stated that the First Amendment protection of free speech has limits, including vulgar, offensive and shocking statements, and that the jury must decide "whether the defendant's actions would be highly offensive to a reasonable person, whether they were extreme and outrageous and whether these actions were so offensive and shocking as to not be entitled to First Amendment protection." See also Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire, a case where certain personal slurs and obscene utterances by an individual were found unworthy of First Amendment protection, due to the potential for violence resulting from their utterance. 2008 On February 4, 2008 U.S. District Judge Richard D. Bennett upheld the ruling but reduced the punitive damages from $8 million to $2.1 million. The total judgment now stands at $5 million. An appeal by WBC is still pending. Court liens have been ordered on church buildings and Phelps' law office in an attempt to ensure that the damages are paid.
Editor's Note: If you have any information you would like to provide to add to this article please email us at Stopping The Hate An LGBT Human Rights Coalition We will be adding your stories to this article as we receive them.
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