Editing Fred Phelps (section)

===Final Years and Death (2011-2014)===
{{Quote|I, personally, do not see anything wrong with hating Fred Phelps! I don't see anything wrong with taking joy in the fact that we no longer have to share a planet with that bigoted piece of useless, subhuman fucking garbage! Some people want to take it a step further and pick at Fred's funeral. I would never pick at his funeral because, to me, that would be too much of an acknowledgement that he ever even existed in the first place. You know how I'm gonna commemorate his death? The next time I take a shit, before I even wipe my ass, I'm gonna sit up and look down at the turds in the bowl and I'm gonna say "Goodbye Fred!" and I'm gonna fucking flush him away and that will be the last time I ever even think about the name Fred Phelps! Good fucking riddance and cheers!|YouTuber TJ Kirk delighting in Fred Phelps' death.}}Even after the lawsuit, the church continues to hold daily pickets, but Phelps had started to grow absent from them, mostly due his old age and health issues in his younger years. In recent years, the church has shown small signs of falling apart, due to fact that several members, mostly younger ones, have either left or were kicked out. Phelps also began to give his sermons less often, on Sunday's, usually letting one of the male members finish for him. In September 2013, Phelps preached his final sermon.

On March 16th, 2014, it was confirmed by Phelps' estranged son Nathan in a Facebook post that his father was in poor health, stating that he was on the "edge of death", and had been relocated to a hospital in Topeka. It was later officaly confirmed by church spokesman [[Steve Drain]] that the reports were true. Nathan also stated that his father had been excommunicated from the church in August 2013. Ironically, his excommunication came as the result of one of one of Phelps' few attempts to do something arguably benevolent, when the church's new board of elders, headed by Drain, turned on him after an attempt on Phelps' part to intervene on behalf of his daughter [[Shirley Phelps-Roper]], who had been all but removed from the church herself.

According to family members, Phelps died of undisclosed health problems shortly before midnight on March 19th, 2014. Family members also stated that there would be no funeral for Phelps, due to the fact that the church views funerals as "worshiping the dead", making it unclear what will happen to him, and Westboro Baptist Church, now that he has died.

In June 2014, Zacharias Phelps-Roper, son of Shirley Phelps-Roper, allegedly made a claim to the Planting Peace organization that his grandfather, the late Fred Phelps, may have had a change of heart regarding homosexual people. According to Phelps-Roper, his grandfather stood outside of his church building and expressed his support for the Equality House within earshot of his congregation on the day that he was excommunicated from Westboro. It is believed that he had developed this sense of empathy after he had discovered that his wife was diagnosed with a serious illness.<ref>[https://www.cjonline.com/story/news/politics/state/2014/03/17/elders-excommunicate-phelps-after-power-struggle-call-kindness-within-church/987276007/ Elders excommunicate Phelps after power struggle, call for kindness within church], ''The Topeka Capital-Journal''</ref>