Fred Phelps

Fred Phelps 2002

Fred Waldron Phelps (born November 13, 1929 in Meridian , Mississippi , † March 19, 2014 in Topeka , Kansas ) was an American Baptist and spokesman for the Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas, a fundamentalist Baptist church that is not affiliated with any Baptist or other Christian umbrella organization who criticized what he considered to be the overly liberal policy towards homosexuals and attracted attention through provocative demonstrations at funeral services for fallen soldiers. His main slogan was "God Hates Fags" (Eng. "God hates fagots ").

Youth and education

Phelps was born on November 19, 1929 in Meridian , Mississippi, the elder of two children of Catherine Idalette Johnston and Fred Wade Phelps, a railroad policeman. His mother died in 1935, so that a great aunt largely took over his upbringing. He took part in the religious life of the Methodist Church in his locality. Companions of his childhood and adolescence described him as sporty, intelligent and otherwise in no way conspicuous. He graduated from high school in his hometown with outstanding success and was invited to the West Point Military Academy . He turned her down because of a religious revival experience and instead enrolled at Bob Jones University , a Protestant educational institution in Cleveland , Tennessee . In the summer of 1947 he changed his denomination from Methodism to Baptism . According to fellow students, he was already showing strong religious zeal during this time. During a missionary visit to Vernal, Utah , he was ordained a Baptist minister at the age of 17 . From there, he went back to Cleveland, did not lead his education there, but further, but subsequently moved for a year at the Prairie Bible Institute in Three Hills , province, Alberta , Canada , in 1951 at the John Muir College in Pasadena , California graduate to acquire.

He met his future wife Margie M. Simms at a sermon at the Arizona Bible Institute in Phoenix , Arizona , and married her on May 15, 1952. The marriage had thirteen children. In 1954 the family moved to Topeka , Kansas , where he served as a minister in a Baptist church in the eastern part of the city and was commissioned to build a branch church in the western part of the city.

Established Westboro Baptist Church

Fred Phelps as a preacher

In 1955 he opened his own Baptist church, the Westboro Baptist Church, in a western district of Topekas, and soon broke off the connection with his ancestral church. The influx of believers was limited, so that he worked as a peddler for vacuum cleaners and strollers to finance his family's livelihood . Later he also sent his children around town to sell sweets.

His religious ideas included a fundamentalist understanding of faith based on the letters of the Bible. Like most of the Reformed Churches, he referred to the five points of Calvinism . Outstanding are his biblically based hatred of homosexuality and all who do not vigorously fight homosexuality, and his radical rejection of all religious teachings outside his own church, especially hatred of Catholicism and Judaism . Phelps strictly differentiated himself from all other liberal, mainline or evangelical churches or well-known Christian personalities such as Billy Graham and described them among other things. a. as "homosexual churches " (sodomite churches) .

For his religious views as pastor of Westboro Baptist Church, see also: Westboro Baptist Church # Beliefs .

Activity as a lawyer

Phelps began law school at the local Washburn University , a university with a civil law tradition, which he graduated in 1964. Because of his reputation, he initially struggled to get admitted to the bar in the state courts.

In his work as a freelance lawyer, he focused on representing the interests of colored clients in civil rights and anti-discrimination proceedings, especially before federal courts . He was so committed and successful that he received several awards for it in the 1980s, including a prize from the leading civil rights organization NAACP . He also had most of his children study law. On the other hand, he came into conflict with criminal law or professional ethics rules throughout his career, which for the first time in 1969 earned him a temporary suspension of his license. Some of the lawsuits he has filed seem absurd, e.g. For example, the lawsuit against a department store demanding payment of $ 50 million for late delivery of a television set, the lawsuit against three of his children being admitted to the local university because he could claim minority status as a civil rights attorney, or a lawsuit against US President Ronald Reagan over Dispatch of an ambassador to the Vatican . After 1979, the temporary or permanent restrictions on his lawyer license due to misconduct increased. In 1989, in a settlement, he completely renounced his further professional activity.

Since the late 1980s Phelps made attempts to be politically active. In 1988 he supported the Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore by providing rooms for his campaign team. In the 1990s, he ran in the Democratic primary election repeatedly for public office, including three times for the post as governor of Kansas, once for a seat in the US Senate and once as Mayor of Topeka. He was defeated in all primary elections, but achieved some impressive results of up to 30.8%.

Westboro Baptist Church demonstrations and national prominence

Action directed against Jews and President Obama by WBC members in front of a Jewish community center

In 1991, members of the Westboro Baptist Church first held demonstrations against homosexuals in Gage Park in Topeka, which was believed to be a meeting place for homosexuals, within walking distance of the church. Soon they extended their demonstrations to the entire city area and began touring all over the United States. As early as 1992, the Kansas Congress passed a law restricting funeral demonstrations, stalking and harassment by facsimile - it was primarily directed against the activities of the Westboro Baptist Church. As a result, the public protest activity of the Westboro Baptist Church was continuously reflected in legal disputes about the admissibility of protests, claims for pain and suffering from defamed and counterclaims for inadmissible persecution of the church by state organs. In 1993 Phelps first appeared on a talk show. In the show of the presenter Ricki Lake , Phelps took the view that AIDS sufferers deserved their deaths and after fights Phelps and his relatives were removed from the studio. From 1997 the group began using the Internet to spread their views. In the late 1990s, Westboro Baptist Church and its head Phelps were known throughout the USA, primarily for derisive demonstrations at funerals of AIDS victims and in particular the funeral of Matthew Shepard , a gay student who died on October 12, 1998 and who was beaten to death from the University of Wyoming .

High point of awareness and withdrawal from the public

Posters and a. against the US Army

After 2000, Phelps made headlines primarily by disrupting the funerals of US soldiers who died in Iraq and Afghanistan through demonstrations by his church. In his view, soldiers who died for a government that is so tolerant of the "homosexual problem" had no right to an orderly funeral or a Christian funeral.

The behavior of Phelps and his followers met with growing opposition from the American public. An example of this are the Patriot Guard Riders , originally founded on his behalf, who have made it their business to shield the grieving relatives of the soldiers from the demonstrating members of his church. But the legislative bodies in the USA have also taken action. Several states passed laws banning such protests at (soldiers) funerals. On May 24, 2006, the United States House and Senate passed the Respect for America's Fallen Heroes Act , signed five days later by President George W. Bush , which started protests within 300 feet of national war cemeteries one hour before and up to one hour after funerals with a fine of up to $ 100,000 or up to one year in prison.

Throughout the 2000s, Phelps became less and less involved in his church's public activities. Demonstrations and media appearances were increasingly taken over by his children, primarily his daughter Shirley Phelps-Roper .

Family life

Shirley Phelps-Roper

Most of Phelps' 13 children remained members of the denomination with their spouses, children and grandchildren. Several children and grandchildren have left the denomination, including Nathan "Nate" Phelps (born November 22, 1958). He has renounced his father, is an avowed atheist and LGBT activist. He also reports of brutal mistreatment that Fred Phelps has perpetrated on his children and his wife.

According to Nate Phelps, Fred Phelps was excommunicated from Westboro Baptist Church in August 2013 after a disagreement . On its website, the Church stated that membership matters are private; the church is not run by a single person, eight elders are responsible for teaching and preaching.

Fred Phelps died in the late evening of March 19, 2014 at Midland Care Hospice in Topeka. The Westboro Baptist Church did not hold a funeral service.

Web links

Commons : Fred Phelps  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Info page about Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church (English)
• Chronology of the activities of Fred Phelps
• Short biography of Phelps son

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b} Anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church leader Fred Phelps dies
2. ^ Joe Taschler: The Transformation of Fred Phelps . In: The Topeka Capital-Journal . August 3, 1994. Archived from the original on March 1, 2013. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved December 11, 2012. 
3. ↑ Phelps' short résumé on godhatesfags.com
4. ^ ^{A b} Intelligence Report, Spring 2001, Issue Number: 101 - Fred Phelps Timeline . Retrieved March 21, 2014.
5. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from April 4, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
6. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original dated December 2, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
7. ^ Congress Bars Military Funeral Protesters Washington Post, May 25, 2006
8. ↑ Chapter 8: Over the Wall at Westboro
9. ↑ Youtube: Nathan Phelps on domestic violence in the family
10. ↑ The Topeka Capital Journal of March 17, 2014
11. ↑ Declaration of March 16, 2014 on press reports about an alleged exclusion of Phelps on one of the Church's websites ( memento of the original of March 17, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
12. ↑ Ryan Grenoble: Fred Phelps, Westboro Baptist Church Founder, Is 'On The Edge Of Death' . The Huffington Post. March 16, 2014. Retrieved March 17, 2014.
13. ^ Jack Phillips: Westboro Baptist Church 'Asks Public Not to Picket' Fred Phelps Funeral Actually Satire; There will be no Funeral , The Epoch Times , March 23, 2014