Fred Phelps: Difference between revisions

|Row 9 info = Cult Leader, Dark Priest, Gay Basher, Religious Villain, Brainwasher.|image = Image:phelps_vert-4f9c607f59f4c2901340f508a0c75c330210ae1e-s6-c30.jpg

'''Fred Waldron Phelps, Sr. '''(November 13, 1929 - March 19, 2014) was an ex-lawyer and the founder and former pastor of the [[Westboro Baptist Church]], an Independent Primitive Baptist church in Topeka, Kansas, known for its extreme antagonism towards most of modern society, in particular homosexuality. The church uses hate slogans on their picket signs such as "God Hates Fags", "Thank God for Dead Soldiers" and "America is Doomed". The Westboro Baptist Church is comprised mainly of Fred Phelps' large extended family, and although tiny in number the group is infamous throughout America and regularly receives mainstream media attention for their audacity and the sheer degree of their hate. Members are brainwashed from childhood to support Phelps' agenda and spread his dogmatic beliefs in a manner that can be considered fanatical at best and criminally insane at worst.

Phelps began attending colleges around the country, such as West Point Military Academy, which never attended at all, as well as some bible schools. In 1951, Phelps was arrested for assulting a man while preaching, and was even featured in Time Magazine. He moved to Arizona in 1952, where met his wife, Margie M. Simms. The two soon married and had their first child Fred Jr. in 1953. In 1954, the Phelps family moved to Topeka, Kansas. During this time, Phelps got a job as a co-pastor at Eastside Baptist Church. However, the congreation wasn't too happy with Phelps. He would tell the male members that they should beat their wives if they didn't obey them. Phelps was soon voted out of the church, but was made pastor of Eastside Baptist's new branch church, Westboro Baptist. Soon after the WBC was established, Phelps broke ties with Eastside. Several members from Eastside joined Westboro, but some left after Phelps killed a dog with a shotgun after it defacted on his lawn.

During this time Phelps and his wife would go on to have thirteen children. Soon, Phelps began to take intrest in becoming a lawyer, and in 1962, he began attending Washburn University. Phelps graduated in 1964, and soon founded Phelps Chartered, a law firm. While he was a lawyer, Phelps began to grow more abusive towards his family. His estranged son Nathan recalls that his father would usually come home in a foul mood, and would take his anger out on his family.

Phelps' health also began to get worse too. He started to take perscription drugs, and gain a large amount of weight as well. After nearly dying of a drug overdose, Phelps decied to lose weight. He started to run marathons with his family, and gradually lost weight. But even here, the abuse contiuned, 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 a transvestite hooker. As usually, if the children didn't sell the amount of candy as expected, Phelps would beat them.  

Fred Phelps described himself and his church as "Old School Baptist", and they follow Calvinist principles as well. Despite his anti-gay actions, Phelps was a Democrat, and ran for both Kansas state Senator and Governer, both of which he lost. Phelps had also shown support for people such as Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, who even allowed WBC members to come picket there in the late 1990's. However, after Hussein was executed, Phelps claimed that Hussein was in hell. Phelps and the WBC also believe that President Barack Obama is the Antichrist described in the bible, and that his presidency is a sign of the end of the world.

Phelps and the church claim that all the tragedies and atrocities in the world are God's ways of "punishing" humanity for "disobeying" his word. They say that God actually hates all people, (except for Phelps' and his followers) who "sin" rather than just sinning itself (according to most versions of the Bible, God loves everyone and will forgive just about anything as long as people actually repent for their sins in life;), and that he hates homosexuals most of all. They also think that homosexuality should be a capital crime. Westboro though, claims that 'God loves everyone' is a Satanic lie, not taught in the Bible anywhere; but rather, created by Mahatma Gandhi.