Fred Phelps: Difference between revisions

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{{Quote|God hates fags! God hates America! Thank God for dead soldiers! You're going to hell!|Fred Phelps}}

During this time Phelps and his wife would go on to have thirteen children. Soon, Phelps began to take interest in becoming a lawyer, and in 1962, he began attending Washburn University. Phelps graduated in 1964 with a degree in law and soon founded Phelps Chartered, a law firm. While he was a lawyer, Phelps took up several civil rights cases. Phelps also claims to have brought the cities' [[Jim Crow laws]] down. Because of racist attitudes towards blacks at the time, residents of Topeka would label the Phelps' family as "nigger lovers". According his estranged sons Mark and Nathan, Phelps was also a racist, and would sometimes use the initials, D.N. with certain clients, which would stand for "dumb nigger".<ref>[https://www.bet.com/article/1reiuc/the-unsurprising-racism-of-the-westboro-baptist-church Commentary: The Unsurprising Racism of the Westboro Baptist Church], ''Black Entertainment Television''</ref> In 1977, Phelps was disbarred for perjury, which involved him making false claims about women during a lawsuit, and in 1979, he has permanently disbarred in Kansas. His children, however, continue run the law firm for him, even after his death.

Phelps' health also began to get worse too. He started to take prescription drugs, and gain a large amount of weight as well. After nearly dying of a drug overdose, Phelps decided to lose weight. He started to run marathons with his family, and gradually lost weight. But even here, the abuse continued, as Phelps would make his family run for up to ten miles a day, and if they beat him home after they were done running, he would abuse them. Phelps would also started to make his young children go around the Topeka area and make them sell candy in order to keep money flowing into the family. He would make the children go into dangerous parts of town such as the red-light district, where his son Jonathon was attacked by Prostitute. As usual, if the children didn't sell the amount of candy as expected, Phelps would beat them.

*'''[[Gay Bashing]]:''' Phelps and his church's most notable activities are their attitude and actions against homosexuals. Their message of "GOD HATES FAGS" has become infamous. The church claims that homosexuality is the most deplorable of all sins. They also claim that anyone who supports homosexuality is a "fag enabler" and what they're doing is even worse. The church also blames the death of soldiers, as well as every disaster and calamity that happens, on America's, and the world's tolerance of homosexuality, and the reason they picket funerals of soldiers is to get their message across.<ref>[https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-26582812 Fred Phelps: How Westboro pastor spread 'God hates fags'], ''BBC News''</ref>

*'''Religious Intolerance: '''Phelps and the WBC have also been hateful towards other religions as well, including Christianity, as the church views themselves as the only true followers of God. The Catholic Church is one their biggest targets, criticizing them mostly due to the sex abuse scandals in the Catholic Church, and the WBC even have signs which read; "PRIESTS RAPE BOYS". They have also been critical of the Catholic Church's, as well as the Eastern Orthodox Church's use of icons. Phelps and the church have also been critical of Protestant churches too, criticizing several Evangelical preachers such as Pat Robertson, Billy Graham, and [[Jerry Falwell]], whose funeral they picketed. The WBC is also hateful towards Jews as well. They frequently picket outside of synagogues, stating that "JEWS KILLED JESUS", and even say that [[the Holocaust]] was God's punishment on the Jews. Islam is another religion criticized by the WBC, claiming that Mohammed was pedophile (which is technically true, considering he had sex with his 9-year old wife), and the church went so far to [[Quran Burning|burn a copy of the Qur'an]] on September 11, after Pastor [[Terry Jones]], another WBC target, chose not to.<ref>[https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2010/0910/Florida-church-may-not-burn-Qurans-but-Kansas-church-says-it-will Florida church may not burn Qurans, but Kansas church says it will], ''The Christian Science Monitor''</ref> They also maintain a ''God Hates India'' website, showing their intolerance for Hindus and their polytheism, admonishing them to convert to Christianity. The WBC also condemned Ethiopian Orthodoxy, claiming it to be "grounded in a big, fat lie" and is a "strange co-mingling of Jewish and pagan rituals". They also believed that a true church must be "independent, local, autonomous, and without any formal affiliation with other churches", also hating Orthodox churches for being in full communion with one another, claiming that they're not "true New Testament churches".

*'''[[Cruelty to animals]] / Psychological abuse: '''Phelps killed a dog with a shotgun after it defecated on his lawn, and''' '''while he had never murdered anyone directly, he may have been indirectly responsible for the death of a young woman named Debbie Valgos. Valgos was a young woman who had a relationship with Phelps' oldest son, Fred Phelps Jr. Phelps Sr. did not approve of her, and even verbally attacked her during a sermon which she attended, calling her out as a whore. Fred Jr. and Debbie soon ran away together and got married. Phelps Sr. soon found his son, and forced him back to the church, where he later remarried and remained to this day. Valgos on the other hand soon got addicted to drugs, and later died from an overdose.