The Briefing Room
General Category => National/Breaking News => Topic started by: EC on March 17, 2014, 03:33:35 pm
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So, Fred Phelps is dying. A man of many parts, who made his seed money defending gay rights before creating a church that condemns gays and lives by being assaulted during their obnoxious stunts. Forgive me if I do not shed a tear.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/03/17/290852799/westboro-baptist-will-find-justification-to-continue-pastors-son-says
Westboro Baptist Church founder Rev. Fred Phelps Sr. is in hospice care and near death, family and church members say. Nate Phelps, a son of the longtime pastor, says his father's passing would put his followers in a crisis, because the church's members "think that death is a judgment from God."
Nate Phelps' comments come from an interview with , in which he adds, "So far, that illusion has held because none of them has passed."
The church's members are convinced that they will be taken up by Jesus Christ, Phelps tells the newspaper.
"They're clear about that, that they're not going to feel the sting of death," he says.
Nate Phelps says that if that belief isn't borne out, the church's members will likely see it as a test of their faith. He predicted that some would find a "palatable justification" to continue on with Westboro Baptist.
News that the founder of the church that's known for using controversial funeral protests to carry out a campaign against gays and other groups was in hospice care came out , along with a statement from Nathan Phelps that his father had been excommunicated last summer from the church he built.
Fred Phelps Sr., "is now on the edge of death at Midland Hospice house in Topeka, Kansas," Nathan Phelps wrote in . He said that church members were preventing him and others who have left the family over the church's teachings from seeing the ailing church founder, who is 84.
The reason for Phelps' excommunication isn't known; a church spokesman interviewed by the Capital-Journal didn't deny it had occurred, but he refused to elaborate. He also said that while Phelps is in hospice, he isn't near death. Another of Phelps' sons contacted the newspaper to say its version of events was accurate.
Nate Phelps in a phone interview Sunday night that church members had voted Phelps out of the church "after some kind of falling out."
He added that Fred Phelps and his wife were moved out of the space they had long occupied above the church and into a nearby house. Afterwards, the church founder stopped eating and drinking, Nate Phelps said.
The AP reports, "Nate Phelps said he has no doubt some people would want to protest his father's funeral but added, 'I wish they wouldn't.'"
More at link.
Stay classy. Don't protest the funeral, just give him a hearty send off to hell with your favorite tipple.
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That "justification" wouldn't happen to be that FBI cash that has been keeping these guys afloat, would it?
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church members had voted Phelps out of the church "after some kind of falling out."
Maybe he had a moment of sanity and said, "You know, there's really no reason for us to be so hateful all the time ..." and it didn't go over very well with the rest of the membership.
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Maybe he had a moment of sanity and said, "You know, there's really no reason for us to be so hateful all the time ..." and it didn't go over very well with the rest of the membership.
I recall two of the (daughters, grand daughters?) left the "church" over that. Too lazy to look it up though.
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The Fred Phelps Cult is nothing but a scam. They're all a bunch of lawyers who intentionally try to provoke altercations so they can then sue people for "violating their rights." This is how they make all their money.
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The Fred Phelps Cult is nothing but a scam. They're all a bunch of lawyers who intentionally try to provoke altercations so they can then sue people for "violating their rights." This is how they make all their money.
Looks like Fred is finding out soon exactly where "rights" come from, and the fact they are not free. You pay for them, one way or another. Like I said - tough to be him right now.
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We can only hope that with his death we will see the last of this crazy bunch of psychos. May he reap what he sowed at his funeral, hoping that every group of people that they protested – from gays to veterans will be there with to give him fitting send off.
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We can only hope that with his death we will see the last of this crazy bunch of psychos. May he reap what he sowed at his funeral, hoping that every group of people that they protested – from gays to veterans will be there with to give him fitting send off.
Best thing to do is to pay him absolutely no attention. They thrive on attention, and giving them none would be the biggest slap in the face possible.
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Best thing to do is to pay him absolutely no attention. They thrive on attention, and giving them none would be the biggest slap in the face possible.
Bingo..