Text 51, 115 rader
Skriven 2006-05-09 04:38:00 av ROSS SAUER (1:123/140)
Ärende: Phelps
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Let's face it, Fred "Godhatesfags" Phelps is a racist, Jew-hating son of 
a bitch.

And to the Sewer Sharks lurking here, turns out Phelps LIED to Al Gore, 
saying he was willing to support him.

The curious case of Fred Phelps
There they were, this little bunch of raucous church members, carrying 
signs that proclaimed “hateö and preaching judgment at the funeral of a 
soldier killed in the war in Iraq.

The signs they carried read, “Thank God for 9/11,ö “God hates the United 
States,ö and, their specialty, “God Hates Fags.ö

“Theyö are the people of Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas, and 
they, by their own admission, rejoice in the deaths of American 
soldiers.

The church also has signs on its Web site (www.godhatesfags.com) that 
proclaim, “Thank God for IEDs,ö “Thank God for Crippled Soldiers,ö and a 
press release that reads, in part, “Thank God for 18 more dead troops. 
We wish it were 18,000.ö

The church then lists the names, ages, ranks, and hometowns of the dead 
soldiers under the headline “Roster of the Damned.ö

Westboro Baptist Church claims that, because America is tolerant of 
homosexuality, God is now “America’s terroristö and that God is 
“America’s enemy.ö

It is God, they say, who killed these soldiers and that they died not in 
honor but in shame. “God killed them and cast them into Hell,ö they 
write.

So, the WBC feels justified in bringing its noisy and sign-carrying 
group to funerals across the country where parents are burying their 
sons who were killed in Iraq and proclaim their brand of “Christianity.ö

According to the pastor of the church, Fred Phelps, who started WBC in 
1955, Catholics, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Baptists, and 
just about everybody else, it seems, are going to hell.

Ordained at 16 in 1947 by Southern Baptists, Phelps attended Bob Jones 
University before starting WBC. One of his claims to fame, according to 
his bio, is that he has organized over 22,000 picketing demonstrations 
in the U. S. and elsewhere aimed at “showing Americans their 
transgression ... and causing America to know her abominations.ö

He also has a website entitled www.godhatesamerica.com and recommends 
other Web sites such as www.priestsrapeboys.com, 
www.godshatescanada.com, and www.godhatessweden.com.

Phelps also calls President George W. Bush a “mongrel,ö and thanks God 
for the Katrina disaster, calling New Orleans a “a putrid, toxic, 
stinking cesspool of fag fecal matter.ö Phelps urges people to “Pray for 
more dead bodies floating on the fag-semen-rancid waters of New 
Orleans.ö

Phelps insists that all nations must outlaw homosexuality and impose the 
death penalty for anyone guilty of sodomy or homosexuality.

He says that the notions that “God loves everyone,ö and “Jesus died for 
everyone,ö are lies and that any church proclaiming such has been 
“apostatized.ö

Apologetics.org calls WBC a “hate group masquerading as a churchö and 
says that Phelps sees himself as a “modern day Jonathan Edwards.ö

The Anti-Defamation League says of Phelps, “Trained as a lawyer, Fred 
Phelps was disbarred in 1979 by the Kansas Supreme Court, which asserted 
that he had ‘little regard for the ethics of his profession.’ The formal 
complaint against Phelps charged that he misrepresented the truth in a 
motion for a new trial in a case he had brought, and that he held the 
defendant in the case up to ‘unnecessary public ridicule for which there 
is no basis in fact.’ Following his disbarment from Kansas State courts, 
Phelps continued to practice law in federal courts.

“In 1985, nine federal court judges filed a disciplinary complaint 
charging him and six of his family members, all attorneys, with making 
false accusations against them. The Phelpses fought the complaint but 
lost. In 1989, Fred Phelps agreed to surrender his license to practice 
law in federal court in exchange for the federal judges allowing the 
other members of his family to continue practicing in federal court.ö

One can claim that such people should just be ignored, but Phelps’ Web 
site has logged over 5 million visitors, so somebody is giving him 
plenty of attention.

Phelps’ attacks also include written assaults on Jews, blacks, and other 
Christians. He even says that Billy Graham, Jerry Falwell, and Pat 
Robertson have “departed from God,ö and that “from priest to Pope the 
whole clergy of the Catholic Church, the world over, is irreversibly 
hell-bound.ö

Phelps long ago left the Southern Baptists and has even picketed their 
national headquarters. He styles himself as an “Old School Baptist.ö

The sad thing is that not only does Phelps and his WBC amplify the 
suffering of those who have lost loved ones in Iraq, but that many 
people will associate Phelps and his followers with mainstream 
Christianity. Phelps, of course, would doubtless contend that the WBC 
does, indeed, represent authentic, orthodox Christianity.

But, in the United States, Phelps is free to present his views and rail 
against whomever he chooses. It’s his constitutional right, a right 
guaranteed by the very soldiers Phelps denounces and dishonors as he 
pickets their funerals.

Copyright 2006 - Fayette Publishing, Inc.

From Archae's Roost, Sheboygan, WI

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