Has His Legacy Of Hate Caught Up With Fred Phelps ?

The ugly human pictured at left is Fred Phelps, the founder and leader of the hate-filled Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas. He has devoted his life to spreading hate for his fellow Americans -- from innocent homosexuals to soldiers who gave their lives in battle for this country. It is no exaggeration to say he is the least respected and most disliked human in the United States.

Now it looks like his hate-filled legacy may have caught up with him. We learn that he has been excommunicated from his own vile church, and is currently dying in a hospice in Topeka, Kansas.

His seemingly imminent death is no surprise. He is in his mid-eighties and has looked like his health was failing for quite a while. The real surprise, at least for me, is that he was excommunicated from his own church -- a church he founded, and is made up almost completely of members of his own extended family. What on earth could have prompted that church, now led by his equally-venomous daughter, to turn on Phelps and kick him out?

Could he have become so hate-filled that even the church and family he fathered could not accept it? I doubt that. His followers, the church's current members, have demonstrated in the past that they have a bottomless capacity for hate. Could he have realized the error of his ways and repented? Again, I doubt that. He has never wavered in his hate -- and if he had truly repented, I think he would have found a way to somehow make that known.

That leaves us with an intriguing possibility -- that his campaign of hate against homosexuals was a cover for his own same-sex desires (a possibility that many of us have suspected in the past, since he "doth protest too much"). Has he, either accidentally or intentionally, finally revealed his own homosexual desires? That is certainly something his own church and family would not be able to accept, and something for which they would happily excommunicate him.

Whatever the reason, it now looks like he is reaping what he has sown. As he lays dying in a hospice, his church family has not only turned on him, but refuse to let anyone else have any contact with him. In short, he is dying alone among strangers (who probably have no respect for him -- a sad and pitiful end for even a hate-filled man like Phelps.

Some have said that his own funereal should be picketed when he dies, sort of a payback for his own actions against innocents. I disagree. We are better than him, and we should act like it. Good people live on in the memories of those who loved them. Phelps won't have that. The memories that Americans will carry of Phelps are that he was a bitter and hate-filled man deserving no respect. That is enough.

NOTE -- Some have said that while Phelps spent his whole life trying to deny equal rights to the LGBT community, he may have actually done more to help them get those rights than anyone else -- because he showed Americans just how ugly bigotry really is, and caused many to turn their backs on that bigotry. I think a case can easily be made for that.

Oklahomans Retaliate Against Westboro Baptist

As you probably know by now, there is no common decency displayed by the so-called "christians" of Westboro Baptist Church.   This group of idiots, led by radical preacher Fred Phelps, makes their living by irritating other people and then suing them when they react.   Their latest gambit is to picket the funerals of soldiers who have died in Iraq or Afghanistan with signs saying God hates America and the death was a good thing because homosexuals are allowed to exist in this country.

No decent person, regardless of their political or religious beliefs, would dare to intrude on a family's grief at the funeral of their loved one who had given his/her life for America.   But decency is a foreign concept to Phelps and his perverted followers (mostly his own family members).

Last Saturday, some members of Westboro Baptist were in the city of McAlester, Oklahoma.   They were there to picket and disrupt the funeral of an American soldier.   But many of McAlester's residents were having none of it.   They gathered around the religious nuts and drowned out their obscene chants with chants of "USA, USA, USA".

When the members of Westboro Baptist finally gave up and left, they found that at least two of the tires on their van had been slashed (see picture above).   They drove into town on the flat tires, but once there they couldn't find anyone who would repair the tires or sell them any new tires.   They finally called AAA.   AAA towed the van to a Wal-Mart and got them some new tires.

Slashing the tires was a crime, and I cannot condone it.   But I am having a hard time working up any outrage against that crime.   Westboro Baptist was just having to reap some of what they had sown.   As for those who refused to try and repair the slashed tires or sell them new tires, that is their right.   I would have probably done the same, since helping these nuts would on, at least some level, seem to lend credibility to their offensive actions.

The Westboro Baptist nuts have freedom of speech just like all Americans, but being free to speak doesn't mean others have to listen.   It also doesn't mean others are obligated to help you after you have offended them and disrupted a funeral.   Wal-Mart also had the right to sell them new tires, but it wouldn't surprise me if their business doesn't fall off for a while in that town.

While no one in McAlester should have slashed the tires (and I think most of those citizens would agree), they did have to right to practice their own free speech in opposition -- and their refusal to help the offensive bigots was just a part of their free speech.

Will Fred Phelps Be Held Accountable ?

Fred Phelps and his followers from the Westboro Baptist Church are sick bastards. We've all known that for quite a while now. But they've found a formula that allows them to spew their hate without retribution. They have woven free speech and religion into a protective cloak.

Free speech and religion are two things that most Americans hold as sacred, and they are loath to deny either. This is true even when perverts such as the cult at Westboro Baptist use them to attack not only gays, but our country itself. But they may have finally stepped over the line.

Recently, they have been holding their vile demonstrations at the funerals of American soldiers who gave their lives fighting for this country. Regardless of what we might think of the Iraq war, the soldiers who died fighting it are brave and honorable men and women who were just doing their duty for their country.

But the Phelps clan has been disturbing the funerals of these soldiers, carrying signs that say things like "You're going to hell" and "Thank God for dead soldiers". They have been noisy, rude and shown no respect for the families of the fallen soldiers. But they may have taken their disgusting road show to the wrong funeral.

In March of 2006, the Phelps clan showed up at the funeral of soldier Matthew Snyder in Maryland. But Matthew's father, Albert Snyder, did not take the disruption of his son's funeral lying down. He filed suit in a Baltimore court, charging them with invasion of his privacy and causing him severe emotional distress.

Of course, the attorney for the Phelps clan says Snyder is trying to deprive them of free speech. He asked, "If they're not permitted to have their views, where's it stop?" But that question is a bit disingenuous. He knows very well that there are limits on free speech.

No one is denying this group the right to preach their perverted gospel. They have been allowed to spew their filth all over this country. They had the right to hold their demonstration anywhere -- except in front of this grieving family. They didn't just cross the line of common decency, I believe they crossed a legal line also. The Snyder family also has rights.

The case is now before a Baltimore jury. Phelps and his followers should be glad I'm not on that jury. It would take me less than a second to hold them responsible for their actions.

UPDATE -- The jury has returned it's verdict. They have said the Westboro Baptist Church must pay the Snyder family $2.9 million. That sounds like a reasonable verdict to me.