Fred Phelps
Fred Phelps (born November 13, 1929) is a disbarred lawyer who is the creator and head pastor of the "Westboro Baptist Church", a church in Topeka, Kansas that is known for its extreme antagonism towards many factions of society, most notably homosexuals and gay-rights activists. They 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 some interpret it meaning that anybody who isnt sociopathic may be forgiven, or all will be welcome into heaven eventually), and that he hates homosexuals most of all. They think that homosexuality should be a capital crime. The church uses hate slogans on their picket signs such as "God Hates Fags", "Thank God for Dead Soldiers" and "America is Doomed".
The church regularly praises major tragedies and thanks God for causing them, and stages protests at funerals of victims, insulting the victims and others affected. 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 hatefulness.
The W.B.C. has gathered so much controversy that even the Ku Klux Klan (a group known for its violent hatemongering) have distanced themselves from the organization: as noted by a disclaimer on the Klan's official website ensuring that they have no connections to the church and "absolutely repudiate their activities." Ironically, skin color seems to be the only thing that Phelps and his followers don't discriminate against: Phelps was a Civil Rights Lawyer in the 1960s. 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.
Some of the church's more notable activities include protesting the 1998 funeral of Matthew Shepard, a gay college student who was murdered due to homophobic violence, and they have since picketed against a stage production based on his story, and boycotting the funerals of all fallen American soldiers. This practice in particular has generated massive legal controversy where the government has brought into question the protection of the group's activities under the First Amendment, which many argue the group abuses.
However, people have formed counter protests to shield the Westboro Baptist Church's target from them and a man by the name of Chris Mason formed the Phelps-A-Thon, that allows people to donate money to an organization, usually an LGBT or Jewish Group for every minute that the Westboro Church targets that organization, thus the Westboro ends up aiding the group they're against.