Profile of Fred Phelps on Famous Like Me

Fred Waldron Phelps (born November 13, 1929) is the highly controversial leader of the Westboro Baptist Church, an alleged cult based in Topeka, Kansas, United States. The church is located in the basement of his home, which is located inside of a block-wide, fenced compound, the other houses in which are occupied by nine of his thirteen children. Phelps claims that he is a prophet sent to tell the world of the supreme hatred of God, and that only he and the members of Westboro have any hope of going to Heaven. The group, which has roughly 100 members, 90% of whom are related to Phelps through blood or marriage, is built around an anti-homosexual core theology, with much of Phelps' activities stemming from a mantra that "God hates fags." Gay rights activists, as well as both mainstream and fundamentalist Christians, have denounced him as a producer of anti-gay propaganda and violence-inspiring hate speech.

Four of his children, his sister, former congregants of his church, enemies, acquaintances, and other pastors who have worked with Phelps claim that he abuses both his children and wife and may have been instrumental in the death of his 17-year old daughter-in-law Debbie Valgos, the first wife of his son, Fred Phelps Jr. Most of these claims are denied by their other siblings, who are not estranged from Phelps. Several of Phelps' estranged family members, staff members from Bob Jones University, and the minister who ordained him, all claim that Phelps suffers from a mental illness that leaves him unsatisfied with life unless he can be responsible for the suffering of other human beings.

Pre-picketing years (1929-1989)

Childhood

Fred Phelps was born in Meridian, Mississippi, in 1929, the first of two children; his sister, Martha-Jean, was one year younger. His father, Fred Wade Phelps, was a detective employed by the local railroad, a.k.a. a railroad bull, whose job it was to keep people from illegally riding the rails. Fred recalls his father often came home from work "With blood up to his shoulders". Fred's mother, Catherine Phelps, was a homemaker. The family were devout members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Catherine died of throat cancer at the age of twenty eight, when Phelps was five years old. It was the first significant experience of his life and one that appears to have impacted him greatly. One of Fred's only memories of his mother is the fact that since she was the only woman on their street who owned a musical instrument (a piano), she used to push it to the front of the house, open all the doors and windows, and play for the pleasure of the neighbors. Her funeral was attended by the mayor of Meridian (who was also a pallbearer), a city councilman, two judges, and every member of the Meridian police force.

Shortly after his mother's death, his maternal great-aunt, Irene Jordan, moved in with the family and became a surrogate mother; she was killed in a motor vehicle accident in 1950, shortly before Fred's twenty first birthday.

Friends and enemies alike recall the young Fred Phelps as a bright, quiet young man; those asked seem to unanimously agree that he was fairly well liked in high school, despite not being very sociable (something to which Phelps himself admits). Friends further recall that Phelps had tendencies to be overbearing and arrogant. By Phelps's own admission, he never dated, and had no interest in members of the opposite sex. He played in the school band (cornet, later switching to bass horn), was on the track team (he specialized in hurdling), and worked as a field reporter for the high school newspaper. Also, during his time in high school he became a Golden Gloves boxer, going to state twice and winning by KO both times. In his graduation-year yearbook, his classmates predicted that he would end up as a professional boxer.

Conversion

Throughout the course of his time in high school, Phelps was groomed to go into the military; upon his graduation (sixth in a class of over 200), he was accepted into the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York, though because he graduated early at the age of sixteen, he would have to wait a year before attending.

In the interim, Phelps waited around Meridian for the time to come to ship out. He became dear friends with another boy, John Capron, with whom he spent most of his time; Fred introduced John to his sister Martha-Jean, and the two began dating; they would eventually marry.

In the spring or summer of 1946, Phelps and Capron attended a revival at East End Methodist Church in Meridian. According to friends of Phelps and Capron, the two boys took more interest in the sermon than anyone else in attendance; Joe Clay Hamilton, a high school classmate of Fred's, would recall years later: "The two of them got religion. Both Phelps and Capron became very excited about religion. They couldn't distinguish reality from idealism."

The sermon which Phelps credits with "awakening" him to his current theology is one which is considered to be relatively tame and devoid of any overt aggression: Christ inviting all men to come into God's service, likening the afterlife and God to a rich man who has made a great banquet and invites many to come dine with him.

After the sermon, Phelps, according to Rev. B.H. McAllister, the Baptist minister who would eventually ordain him, became a religious zealot, full of rage and fiery hatred, and developed eccentric tendencies. McAllister recalled in an interview with the Topeka Capital Journal in 1993 that there was some difficulty in ordaining Phelps:

Phelps considered the local church to be more than a place of fellowship--for him, membership in the local congregation directly corresponded to membership in the Body of Christ. Phelps may have conceded the point to be ordained, but, for forty years, his family and church members in Topeka have been controlled by his threat that, if they depart his congregation, they must carry a letter of permission from him. In addition, they must join a congregation that he approves. Otherwise...the paspator Phelps draws up the dreaded missive ordering the straying sheep to be "delivered to Satan for the destruction of the flesh."

Fred's sister recalled her brother's sudden change as being quite grim: "Fred, bless his heart, just went overboard. If you didn't accept it, he was going to cram it down your throat."

Family estrangement

In January 1947, Phelps dropped out of West Point before attending a single class, a move that Martha-Jean recalls devastated their father beyond consolation. The same year, Fred Wade Phelps remarried, this time to a thirty-nine-year-old divorcee named Olive Briggs (Fred Wade was fifty-seven at the time). Phelps stopped speaking to his father, citing Biblical restrictions on marrying divorcees. He also broke off contact with his sister, who supported their father's decision to marry Briggs. Olive's sister recalled to the Topeka Capital Journal in 1994: "Olive would say he grieved over that every day of his life. That he never would have parted ways. It was his son who parted ways."

Phelps' sister recalls, "Dad never really got over it."

She also remembers Fred Wade Phelps telling her that every year, Phelps returned Christmas cards unopened; one year, Fred Wade sent photos of himself and Olive to Fred's children, only to have the photos returned cut into pieces.

Fred would only see his father one last time, in the late 1960s/early 1970s; the only Phelps children to meet him were Mark and Fred Jr; Mark, Nate, and Dorothy claim they never knew their grandfather's name until the Topeka Capital Journal ran an article in 1994. Mark would later recall his only memory of his grandfather was seeing Fred Wade sobbing on a train platform as Fred Phelps told him to never come back, write, or call; around the same time, Phelps' sister arrived to try and reconcile father and son. Mark recalls coming home from school one day to see a woman running crying away from the house, getting into a car, and driving away. He would only learn years later that the woman had been his aunt. It was the last time that Fred Phelps would see or have any kind of communication with his sister, who was still alive as of 1995. She and John Capron spent most of the 1950s through the 1970s in Eastern Europe, as part of a Baptist mission that worked smuggling Bibles into communist countries. When John Capron died in the late 1970s/1980s, Fred Phelps was invited to the funeral, but did not come.

Fred Wade died in 1977, according to his friends and family, "a man at peace." Those who met Fred Wade later in life were never aware that he had a son, and only learned such when approached in the early 1990s by the Topeka Capital Journal for interviews. Of the property he left to Fred and Martha-Jean in his will, Martha-Jean was ordered to receive seven-eighths. Phelps attended the funeral, alone. His children recall him reacting badly to news of his father's death, silently walking out of the house and sitting on the curb to cry.

Despite Martha-Jean's conviction that Fred developed what could be considered a palpable hatred of their father and a strong conviction that he would go to Hell, a tearful Fred Phelps recalled in 1994:

He was disappointed when I didn't go to West Point, which is understandable. He worked hard to get that appointment for me, and he was a very active Methodist, so he was disappointed in that. But my dad was a super guy that I loved deeply and I miss him.

Olive died in 1985, which Fred Phelps says overjoyed him; he was not invited to, or mentioned in, her funeral service; Olive's obituary mentioned that she was survived by "one stepdaughter." In addition, Olive left all of her money and possessions to Martha-Jean. Included in the estate: 75 acres (304,000 m²) of land, a house, and an undisclosed sum of tax-free money.

Early career/marriage

Phelps left Mississippi for Bob Jones University. While there, he was part of an unsuccessful mission to convert Mormons in the town of Vernal, Utah. It was one of the earliest examples of Fred's newfound personality: When one of the missionaries choked during a question and answer session, Phelps responded by attacking the person who had asked the question, sparking a near riot. While in Vernal, Phelps was ordained a minister by the local Baptist Church; he returned to Bob Jones, only to mysteriously drop out. Years later, he cited an opposition to the school's racial practices (blacks were not allowed to attend until the 1960s); in 1994, a former employee of the university told the Topeka Capital Journal that the school staff actually feared Phelps, and he was given an ultimatum to either seek psychiatric counseling or be expelled.

Phelps moved to Canada, where he attended Prairie Bible Institute in Three Hills for two semesters before dropping out and moving to Pasadena, California, where he received a two-year degree in theology from John Muir Junior College in 1951. The same year, Phelps received national attention for the first time when he was featured in an article in Time Magazine for his street-ministry efforts to outlaw kissing on campuses in the Pasadena city limits. Phelps also sought to outlaw profanity, which would become a staple of his sermons in later years. The campaign ended in violence: Police had to escort Phelps off of a campus and put him into protective custody after students tried to attack him. He returned to the campus again, and was told by police that he did not have permission to demonstrate there. When Phelps refused to leave, the officer attempted to remove him by force, and Phelps assaulted him, leading to his first arrest. He continued his street ministry from the front lawn of a sympathizer who lived across the street from John Muir College.

Shortly thereafter, Phelps moved to Tucson, Arizona, where he was taken in by a family. Years later they recalled him as "the perfect guest": during his stay, he helped to add a room onto the house and did all of the family's yard work. The family's nanny, Margerie, is the only woman to whom Phelps has ever been romantically linked: They were married in May 1952. Their first child, Fred Jr., was born May 4, 1953; a year later, the family moved to Kansas, where Fred Sr. had been invited by Pastor Leaford Cavin to be his co-pastor at Eastside Baptist Church in Topeka. The Phelps Family arrived May 17, 1954, the same day that the supreme court handed down its decision on Brown v. Board of Education. Fred Sr. would later claim that he took this as a sign from God that he should become a lawyer.

Fred's position at Eastside was shortlived; as some congregants would recall years later, he was a "reverend from Hell," encouraging his congregants to beat their wives and children; he was once forced to bail one of his parishioners out of jail after counseling the man to punch his wife in the face until she became "subjugated." Parishioners of Eastside recall one of Phelps' sermons in particular:

A good left hook makes for a right fine wife. Brethren, they can lock us up, but we'll still do what the Bible tells us to do. Either our wives are going to obey, or we're going to beat them!

Most congregants asked about Phelps as a minister by the Topeka Capital Journal recalled an incident one Sunday morning when Phelps' infant son, Mark, began to squirm during a sermon; Phelps responded by repeatedly punching the baby in the face. Afterwards, several men of the congregation confronted Phelps about the attack.

Phelps' dismissal from the church came when a female congregant admitted that she had committed adultery. The next Sunday, Phelps' sermon revolved around the woman, repeatedly referring to her as a whore and encouraging the congregation to draw up an official "form" declaring her to be damned to Hell and excommunicated from the church. In response, the congregants voted to kick Phelps out of the church. Today, Phelps maintains that he left willingly because Cavin was not staunch enough of a Baptist. Remembers one Eastside congregant:

Theological differences? Brother Cavin was a very staunch Baptist. I don't know if there ever was a man more strict than Leaford Cavin. Really, it was the anger in Fred, not doctrine, that caused him to act the way he did.

Several congregants chose to stand by Phelps, including George Stutzman, the Davis family, and the Hockenbarger family, the patriarch of which, Charles William (called Bill by fellow congregants), is member of the Christian Identity sect of the Ku Klux Klan. With the exception of the Davises, Hockenbargers, and Stutzman, all of the other congregants who remained loyal to Phelps returned to Eastside shortly after leaving, following an incident in which a stoned and drunken Phelps shotgunned to death a German Shephard in front of a six-year-old because the dog had defecated on his lawn.

Beginning in the 1990s, Phelps' children and grandchildren began marrying the Hockenbargers and Davises. Along with the Phelpses, the Hockenbargers, Stutzman, and the Davises, would become the founders of Westboro Baptist Church.

The Children's Crusade/child abuse

Phelps founded Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) in 1955. While running the church, Phelps graduated from Washburn University in 1962. In order to become an attorney in Kansas, the applicant must have a signed affidavit from a judge attesting to the applicant's good character. Because of the reputation Phelps had garnered during his time at Washburn, no judge was willing to do so. Phelps finally managed to bypass this by submitting affidavits from the Hockenbargers, and copies of letters of good conduct from his days as an Eagle Scout. Phelps still claims that there was a conspiracy against him to prevent him from becoming a lawyer. In a 1983 interview with the Wichita Eagle- Beacon, Fred claimed he was a victim of "the leading lights of the Jim Crow Topeka community...the presidents of the First National Bank, Merchants National Bank, Capitol Federal Savings and Loan, and the Kansas Power and Light Company."

After finally becoming an attorney, Phelps began work as an attorney defending the civil rights of African Americans being discriminated against in Kansas. Mark, Nate, and Dorothy Phelps maintain that their father possesses a bizarre dislike of blacks, believing that they deserve to be defended in court, but that they are also "the servant of the servant," which is to say, the servant of the white race, and more specifically, Westboro Baptist Church, "God's chosen people." Mark further recalls his father playing a game with his black clients, the object of which was to slip in the letters "D.N." while he was talking to his clients, disguised as legal terminology. The letters stood for "Dumb Nigger."

Sometime following his graduation from Washburn, Phelps became addicted to amphetamines and barbiturates, which he often combined with large quantities of alcohol. One of his sons claims that his first memory in life is of a drunk Phelps shotgunning to death their neighbor's German Shepherd in front of the owner's six-year-old child as a punishment for the dog defecating on Phelps' lawn. The owner sued Phelps, but Phelps defended himself in court and won. The killing of the dog caused the last remaining loyal members of Phelps' church, excluding Stutzman and the Hockenbargers, to leave him; in the middle of the night, for the next several weeks, his ex-congregants sneaked into the front yard of Westboro and placed signs reading: Anyone who'd stoop to killing a dog someday will mistake a child for a dog.

Phelps continued to take drugs, consume alcohol, and binge eat for six years, and would often go for days or weeks without leaving his bedroom. When Phelps did leave his room, it was to throw temper tantrums, during which he would throw food, break plates, and scream at his children for not eating. When Phelps was then too exhausted to continue his fit, he would take his wife back to their room for sex while the children cleaned up after him. Son Mark recalls:

It established a life habit for me. Even today, the moment I get home, I'm thinking 'Is Daddy mad?' Our walls were stained with food. And my mom used to cry because she couldn't keep good dishes. My father would also bust holes in the walls and doors. If they were on the outside, he'd fix them quickly. On the inside, he'd leave them unrepaired for months.

Because of his habits, Phelps stopped earning money for the family, and because he refused to allow his wife to get a job, the family's financial resources quickly dried up. Phelps's binge eating pushed his weight to nearly 300 pounds.

During this time the family's only income came from what Phelps called "The Children's Crusade," a money-making scheme disguised as evangelical witnessing and a church fundraiser, which consisted of the Phelps children going door-to-door selling candy that Phelps had obtained by defrauding the manufacturer. Phelps assigned the children quotas, and those who didn't meet the quotas were beaten with a mattock handle, a farming tool possessing twice the density of a baseball bat. The sales often found the children in dangerous areas of town, including the red-light district, where a teenage Jon Phelps and eight-year-old Rebecca Phelps were nearly killed by a transvestite after Jon Phelps called him a fag. The transvestite pulled a switchblade and attacked the children; they ran into an alley, were trapped, and, as sister Margie recalls, Jonathon Phelps got 'bitch-slapped' by a guy in a dress to teach him a lesson.

The youngest child Tim "Timmy" Phelps consistently sold the most candy, by being cute, his sister Margie recalls. He would stand around town and act out a routine in which he took on the persona of a carnival barker. He was once seen by a talent scout, who put Timmy into a commercial for Payless Shoes. Timmy also earned by going to a restaurant whose owner felt sorry for what Phelps was forcing the boy to do; the owner never failed to buy every candy bar that Timmy had on him, and to give the boy free Coca-Cola.

Eventually, candy sales dried up, but Phelps was insistent that money keep coming in from them. In order to avoid beatings, the children began stealing from businesses around town and acting as purse-snatchers. The children were often caught, with eyewitnesses filing affidavits, but the district attorney refused to prosecute even one case for fear of violent retribution from Phelps. Eventually, the theft became so prominent and so severe that the Topeka Police Department began a special investigation into Phelps under the belief that he was running a "Fagin operation."

Drug addiction/law career

In the mid-1960s Marge Phelps loaded her ten children into the family car and attempted to flee from Fred, but found that none of her relatives or friends had the resources to accommodate eleven extra people. The family was forced to return to Fred, who promptly brutalized his wife.

In 1968, Phelps tried to commit suicide while high on methamphetamines, attempting to shoot himself in the head with a shotgun; he was so inebriated, however, that he ended up missing his head completely and striking a roll of insulation. Shortly thereafter, Phelps overdosed on a cocktail of alcohol and amphetamines. He slipped into a coma and was rushed to the hospital, where he remained comatose for a week. Upon his return home he put himself on a detoxification diet, drinking only water and eating no solid food for several weeks. There is no evidence that Phelps has since relapsed.

Phelps then decided that his children should be as fanatical about dieting as he was, and began to deny them food and force them to run ten miles a day; the marathons included all of his children, the youngest of whom were six and eight. If anyone beat Phelps in the race, they were beaten.

At the same time, even though he had gone back to being an attorney, Phelps continued to force the children to sell candy. They would do this from 4:00 p.m. until they had either met their quotas or until it was too late to sell, return home, and then run their ten miles; upon returning home, they were then allowed to do their homework and, if Phelps allowed, eat. They usually went to bed at 1:00 a.m.; Phelps would then awaken them at 5:00 a.m. for a run before school. Phelps' fanatical dedication to running earned him articles in Runner's World magazine, in the November, 1970 issue and again in November, 1988. Around this same time, Phelps was sued by the Money Tree Candy Co., in Minneapolis, Minnesota, for the candy he had paid for with bad checks. Despite fighting the case in court — Phelps instructed his children to perjure themselves — Phelps lost the case and was ordered to pay $20,000 to the company. Phelps still owed this money as of 1995, at which time the corporation was still attempting to find Phelps' bank account to put a lien against it.

Phelps' law career saw an abundance of fraud and extortion. He sold expensive baby carriages on a layaway plan to poor, young couples, and then immediately filed lawsuits against them when they were so much as a day late. In another scam, Phelps would go to friends of his customers asking them to sign a paper attesting to their friends' good credit. The paper contained a vague clause that, when translated, obliged the signing party to buy a baby carriage from Phelps; those who Phelps targeted were often blacks who were either illiterate or had poor education. When the person inevitably refused to buy the carriage, Phelps would sue them for breach of contract.

Between 1958 and 1964, Phelps filed fourteen lawsuits, targeting among other people Leaford Cavin and the radio station KTOP; Phelps had paid to deliver sermons on the station every Sunday morning, but the station cancelled the deal when Phelps began to use the time to launch into obscenity-laden tirades.

In October of 1966, Phelps, now a public defender, was appointed to a black man arrested for forgery. Phelps obtained $200 from the man's wife to use as bail. Days later, the woman hired Phelps to help her divorce the man. He charged her $50, then drew up legal documents to show she had paid him $250 for the divorce, keeping the bail money for himself. The man remained in jail until his trial.

In March 1965, Phelps was hired to handle a divorce case. The woman paid an up-front fee of $1,000. She fired him a month later, but Phelps still demanded $1,500 in unpaid bills. He took the woman to court, where the court ruled that Phelps had no right to the money. Phelps responded by suing the woman in civil court; the Kansas Supreme Court stepped in, accusing Phelps of harassment. They issued a statement declaring that Phelps "demonstrates a lack of professional self-restraint in matters of compensation."

Assistant Attorney General Richard Seaton stated that Phelps displayed

an uncontrollable appetite for money-especially the money of his client... [Phelps' conduct] is one of total disregard for the duties and the respect and consideration owed by an attorney to his clients. Where money is concerned, the accused simply lacks any sense of balance and proportion. Whatever the reason for this, it appears to me a permanent condition.

As a result, Phelps was suspended for two years. A former co-worker at Phelps' law firm recalls Phelps' attitude towards the people he sued:

I was waiting in the Denver airport with him. We were working a civil rights case. He told me [he] had to file twenty lawsuits to get one judgement. I said to him, "But what about the other nineteen people you sue? It costs them a lot of money and heartache to defend themselves." He just laughed at me.

In October of 1973, two of Fred's children placed a television set on layaway at Sears, to be ready at Christmas. When the children came back in November and asked for the television set, Sears told them that it would not be ready until Christmas, per the layaway contract. Fred Phelps responded by filing a $50,000,000 lawsuit against Sears, in addition to another class-action lawsuit, claiming it to be on behalf of 1,000,000 unidentified Sears customers. The class action portion of the suit was thrown out of court; the case lasted six years in court, ending in 1979 with Phelps being granted $126.34, less than the cost of the television set.

By this time, Phelps had more complaints filed against him for misconduct than any attorney in the history of the state of Kansas (and, some would argue, the history of the United States).

The Carolene Brady incident/disbarment

In 1976, an investigation launched by the Kansas Supreme Court in association with the Kansas Bar Association determined that Phelps had been extorting his clients by demanding more money than he was entitled to and threatening to sue the person, but taking a series of $1,500 "walk-away fees." He had done the same to people he was threatening to sue, telling them that if they paid him $1,500 up front he wouldn't file against them.

In 1977, the Kansas State Bar Association sought to have Phelps permanently disbarred from practicing law in the state of Kansas for his conduct during a lawsuit against a court reporter named Carolene Brady. Brady had failed to have a court transcript ready for Phelps on the day he asked for it; though it did not affect the outcome of the case Phelps had requested the transcript for, Phelps still requested $22,000 in damages from her. In the ensuing trial, Phelps called Brady to the stand, declared her a hostile witness, and then cross-examined her for nearly a week, during which he accused her of being a "slut," tried to introduce testimony from former boyfriends whom Phelps wanted to subpoena, and accused her of a variety of perverse sexual acts, ultimately reducing her to tears on the stand. Phelps lost the case; according to the Kansas Supreme Court:

The trial became an exhibition of a personal vendetta by Phelps against Carolene Brady. His examination was replete with repetition, badgering, innuendo, belligerence, irrelevant and immaterial matter, evidencing only a desire to hurt and destroy the defendant. The jury verdict didn't stop the onslaught of Phelps. He was not satisfied with the hurt, pain, and damage he had visited on Carolene Brady.

In an appeal, Phelps prepared affidavits swearing to the court that he had eight witnesses whose testimony would convince the court to rule in his favor. Brady, in turn, obtained sworn, signed affidavits from the eight people in question, all of whom said that Phelps had never contacted them and that they had no reason to testify against Brady; Phelps had committed perjury.

On July 20, 1979, Fred Phelps was permanently disbarred from practicing law in the state of Kansas. Years later, when the attorney who led the hearings died, Phelps snuck into the wake and signed the guestbook, "Vengeance is mine." Because of the state disbarment, Phelps was automatically suspended from practicing law until 1982. In the spring of 1983, Phelps began issuing letters of demand for $1,500 to people he was planning on suing, causing federal extortion charges to be brought against him. He immediately filed 200 lawsuits, including one against Ronald Reagan for $1,000,000 for sending a US ambassador to the Vatican. He also sued a Topeka school teacher for $1,000,000 for criticizing Calvinism, and the Wichita Eagle Beacon for running a story about him. By this time, Phelps had forced several of his children to go through law school --getting them accepted through the help of Washburn employee and Westboro member Karl Hockenbarger-- and formed a law firm with them, Phelps Chartered. When charges were brought up against Phelps, his children were also named. In response, Phelps began an attack on the federal judges who were to preside over his hearing, demanding they resign, and claiming that he had affidavits from independent witnesses who claimed to have overheard one of the judges say: Those Phelpses, they're everywhere showing off. It will be harder now, but I will destroy them.

Phelps was finally disbarred from practicing federal law in 1989 as well, for his conduct in the Brady case, his perjury, and for a series of unrelated ethical violations; in an unprecedented move, the motion for disbarment was signed by every federal judge in the state of Kansas. His final disbarment resulted from a plea deal through which the Federal Court would stop disbarment hearings against the rest of his family. Two years later he would begin his picketing campaign.

Phelps alleges that his success resulted in animosity among the white legal establishment and his eventual disbarment by the Kansas Supreme Court for ethical violations. (PDF file of Phelps's point of view on his disbarment)

Purpose, non-homosexual prejudices, and notable activities and statements

For a summation of Phelps' stated goals and theology, as well as information on his pickets, please see the Westboro Baptist Church entry, as they are the stated goals and theology of the entire congregation and not exclusive to Phelps.

For a comprehensive look at Phelps' racism and anti-Semitism, see racism and anti-Semitism, as his views are shared by the congregation.

For a look at Phelps' more infamous actions and statements, refer to Westboro's Notable Activities, as all of these actions and statements were done and made in collusion with the entirety of the congregation.

Personal beliefs

During 1993–94 interviews with the Topeka Capital Journal, four of Phelps' children asserted that their father's religious beliefs were either nonexistent to begin with or have dwindled down to nearly nothing since his conversion to the Baptists; they claim that Westboro serves to enable a paraphilia of Phelps, wherein he is literally addicted to hatred (this statement would serve as the inspiration for the title of the book about Phelps' life). Two of his sons, Mark and Nate, claim that the church is actually a carefully planned out cult that allows Phelps to see himself as a demigod, wielding absolute control over the lives of his family and congregants, essentially turning them into slaves that he can use for the sole purpose of gratifying his every whim and acting as the structure for his delusion that he is the only righteous man on Earth. In 1995, Mark Phelps wrote a letter to the people of Topeka to this effect; it was run in the Capital Journal newspaper.

The children's claim is partially backed up by B.H. McAllister, the Baptist minister who ordained Phelps. McAllister said in a 1993 interview that Phelps developed a delusion wherein he was one of the only people on Earth worthy of God's grace and that everyone else in the world was going to Hell, and that salvation or damnation could be directly obtained by either aligning with or opposing Phelps. Phelps maintains this belief to this day.

Authorship

According to Phelps' children, he has written several unpublished biographies of medieval religious figures. From all indications (such as the fact that Phelps is a collector of ancient religious texts and has a library of books about and by medieval- and reformation-era religious figures, some of them centuries old), the books are well researched and thought out.

Phelps also wrote a book in the 1980s with his son-in-law, Brent D. Roper, called The Conspiracy. In the book, Roper and Phelps claim to possess evidence that AIDS spontaneously generated in Africa; Truman Capote contracted the disease during an orgy with African tribesmen; Capote then gave the disease to John F. Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe by playing football with them; and that the CIA assassinated all three to prevent the spread of the disease. Phelps published and distributed the book himself; it was also sold in the back of Peter J. Peters catalogue of extremist literature, and thus became a widely circulated text among such groups as the Ku Klux Klan, Aryan Brotherhood, and Christian Identity.

The Laramie Project

A large portion of Westboro's pickets are "retribution pickets" revolving around the play The Laramie Project; Phelps constantly sends his followers across the country to picket every performance he finds out about. The play documents the reaction of the people of Laramie, Wyoming, to the murder of Matthew Shepard. The reason for these protests is that Phelps is a character in the play and is portrayed negatively; indeed, some of his ardent supporters claim that the play constitutes libel. Phelps himself says about his portrayal in the play: They did not interview me, and portrayed me in a false light that amounts to defamatory misrepresentation.

However, all of Phelps' dialogue in the play is taken verbatim from his own sermons.

When the play was made into a movie by HBO, Phelps traveled to New York to picket the HBO home offices with signs reading "United You'll Fall". Whenever Phelps sends picketers, he faxes a "review" to local newspapers for publishing; every review he sends is identical:

"The fag play "The Laramie Project" is a tacky bit of melodrama—unaffecting and drearily predictable—without artistic merit or redeeming social value."

In expressing their opinions on the play, Phelps' children have each expressed nearly identical opinions:

"The fag play 'The Laramie Project' is a tacky bit of melodrama—maudlin, unaffecting, drearily predictable—without artistic merit or redeeming social value."

Political affiliations: Saddam Hussein, Fidel Castro, Al Gore, and the Democratic Party

In 1997 before the fall of Saddam Hussein during the Iraq War, Phelps wrote Hussein a letter praising his regime for being, in his opinion, "the only Muslim state that allows the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ to be freely and openly preached on the streets." Furthermore, he stated that he, if U.S. Government and laws permitted and at the invitation of the Iraqi government, would like to send a delegation to Baghdad to "preach the Gospel" for one week. Hussein granted permission, and a group of WBC congregants traveled to Iraq to protest against the U.S. The parishioners stood on the streets of Baghdad and in heavily patronized Baghdad establishments holding signs reading:

• AL GORE FAMILY VALUES (with a cartoon of two men having anal sex) http://www.hatemongers.com/images/gore_family_values.jpg
• GO HOME (with a cartoon of Bill Clinton)
• BABY KILLER (with a cartoon of Hillary Clinton)
• BABY KILLER (with a cartoon of Bill Clinton)
• FAG GORE
• FAG USA= SODOM
• STOP THE HOLOCAUST (in reference to Phelps' "Topeka Baptist Holocaust" campaign)
• FAG USA (with a picture of an inverted, burning American flag)
• USA SIN (with a picture of anatomically incorrect stick figures engaged in anal sex)

Phelps mourned the fall of Hussein's regime and has consistently criticized the invasion of Iraq, citing, "IRAQ=USA=SODOM" and keeping a toll on his webpage celebrating the death of every American soldier killed and pronouncing loyalty to Iraq.

Phelps has also repeatedly championed Fidel Castro for Castro's stance against homosexuality; in 1998 Harper's magazine published a letter Phelps sent to Castro in which he praised Castro and lambasted the U.S. In 2004, when a pro-homosexual Cuban refugee announced plans to travel to Cuba, Phelps sent another letter to Castro "warning" him of the man's plans and requesting travel visas for a group of WBC congregants so that they could follow the refugee around Havana with signs bearing anti-U.S. and anti-homosexual slogans.

In the 1980s, the Phelps family were strong political allies with then-senator Al Gore. The home of Fred Jr., Phelps' eldest son, located in the Westboro compound, acted as Gore's campaign quarters for one of his senate races, and the Westboro compound was host to a fundraiser. Numerous photos exist on the internet of Fred Phelps Jr. and his second wife, Betty Phelps-Schurle, posing with Al and Tipper Gore in Phelps Jr.'s home. Phelps also served as a Gore delegate on the floor of the Democratic National Convention in Atlanta in 1988.

During Bill Clinton's presidential campaign, Fred Phelps Jr. and members of Westboro campaigned for Gore, though simultaneously attacking Hillary Clinton. In January 1993, Fred Phelps Jr. and Betty Phelps-Schurle were invited to the inaugural ball in Washington, D.C.

In the ensuing years leading up to Clinton's second presidential campaign, Gore and Clinton took increasing pro and neutral stances on homosexuality. Thus, Westboro turned against Gore, who nevertheless invited Fred Phelps, Marge, Fred Jr., and Betty back for the 1997 inauguration; they responded by bringing the entirety of Westboro to the White House and picketing on the front lawn during the ball, with signs proclaiming that Gore, Clinton, and both men's families were going to hell, not necessarily for their stances on homosexuality, but because they had "betrayed" Westboro.

In 1998, Westboro picketed the funeral of Gore's father, screaming vulgarities at Gore and telling him "your dad's in Hell."

Phelps has run in numerous Democratic primary elections for governor of the state of conservative Kansas, in 1992, 1994, and the last time in 1998, when he came in last with 15,000 votes out of a total of over 103,000 votes cast, or 15%.

In the aftermath of the election, in an incident that would be repeated years later when Phelps circulated a fuzzy petition to outlaw homosexual work protection, numerous Kansas residents who had cast votes for Phelps came forward to express their distaste for him. They claimed that Phelps had lied about his intentions to numerous constituents, using double-talk and fuzzy language to confuse them; neglected to mention his stances on race, religion, and homosexuality, and campaigned mainly on the platform of a "good ol' boy" Southern gentleman and retired lawyer unfairly prosecuted by the system.

More recently, Phelps was the subject of nationwide controversy when his family proposed, in a referendum, the removal of workplace protection for homosexuals in Topeka. The measure was defeated, fifty three percent to forty seven percent. Also in 2005, Phelps' granddaughter Jael was an unsuccessful candidate for Topeka's City Council; Jael was seeking to replace Tiffany Muller, the first openly gay member of the Topeka City Council.

Phelps carries a burning hatred against Scandinavians and Lutherans in particular, whom he considers to be hellbound heretics. That may be because a Lutheran girl of Swedish origin, Luava Sundgren, estranged his son Mark Phelps off the family cult. His hatred on Finns initiated on 1998, when a Finnish national, name withdrawn by request, humiliated him on a religious debate. As Tarja Halonen won the Finnish presidential election in 2001, Phelps used the fact that Halonen, a lawyer by profession, though heterosexual herself, had in her youth worked as the human rights lawyer of SETA, Finnish lesbigay organization. Phelps threatened on his webpage to come with his parish to burn the Finnish flag in front of the Finnish Parliament. This threat united the Finnish lesbigays, reservists and hackers, who cracked his website and defaced it by replacing every page with Finnish flag. As the Finnish police stated his safety cannot be guaranteed should he arrive in Finland and should he carry out his intentions, he would be arrested and sentenced for treason on defacing the national flag, he never carried through his threat.

After the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, Phelps seems to have targeted his hatred against Sweden instead of Finland; both countries are traditional Lutheran countries.

Spousal and child abuse

Though the children who remain loyal to him claim that they were only spanked as children, there is an abundance of evidence to support the claims of two of his daughters and two of his sons that Phelps was physically abusive to his children and wife.

Phelps' sons Nate and Mark, who claim that they were among the most abused, each suffer from permanent debilitating injuries consistent with their accounts of Phelps beating them with a mattock handle. According to the boys, he woke them one Christmas Eve in the 1970s while under the influence, bent them over a bathtub, and struck them nearly 300 times with the mattock handle.

In 1972 Nate and Jon (who today is considered by Topeka residents to be his father's most ardent and vulgar supporter) showed up to school covered in welts, bruises, and bleeding wounds; the school nurse determined that Nate exhibited signs of shock. The family was investigated by social services, but Nate claims that their father threatened them with death if they spoke about their beatings. Phelps likewise issued threats against individual police officers and school staff, and filed a lawsuit against the school claiming they beat his children; the charges against Phelps, and Phelps' lawsuit, were dropped, but the affidavit that the school principal issued to social services remained on file as concrete evidence to support the stories of child abuse. Even Phelps' loyal daughter, Margie, who now acts as his personal attorney, admits the incident occurred

In the early 1990s Nate Phelps was diagnosed as suffering from post traumatic stress syndrome. He and his brother have each been diagnosed as having suffered damage to the muscle tissue and tendons in their buttocks and legs, and both have scarring on their backsides, which they claim is the result of Phelps beating them with a custom-made, four-inch-wide strop. Around 1994 Nate was diagnosed as suffering from bone chips and severe damage to the muscle tissue in his knees.

Marge Phelps, the boys' mother, suffers from bone chips and severe cartilage damage in her right shoulder, consistent with a story three of the Phelps children tell about Fred throwing her down a flight of stairs.

Many of the Phelps children who remain at Westboro openly admit to using physical violence against their children; Phelps' son Jonathan boasted to the Topeka Capital Journal in 1994 that he regularly beat his wife, Betty, and his children:

Jonathon Phelps, who admits he beats his wife and four children, for emphasis reads from Proverbs, 13:24: "He that spareth his rod, hateth his son. But he that loveth him, chasteneth him betimes."

...Betty Phelps, wife of Fred, Jr., glowers... Anytime you spank a child, you're going to cause bruising, she explains. And sneers: "I'll bet your parents put a pillow in your pants." Jonathon, staring straight ahead and not looking at the reporter, states in a barely controlled voice of malevolent threat that, should the reporter tell it differently than just heard, said scribbler is evil and going to hell. Assuming there'll be space, the doomed dromedary of capital muckraking must tell it differently [lie].

On occasion members of the church have dared police and government officials to try and take legal action against them.

In spite of the evidence, Phelps' loyal children, especially Margie, Fred Jr., Rachel, and Rebecca, all deny that there was ever any physical abuse in the home, to them, their siblings, or their mother.

Criminal record

United States

Phelps was first arrested in 1951 and found guilty of misdemeanor battery after attacking a Pasadena police officer. He has since been arrested for assault, battery, threats, trespassing, disorderly conduct, contempt of court, and several other charges; each time, he has sued the city and arresting agency. Though he has been able to avoid prison time—often on technicalities (he escaped prison time on an assault and battery charge because an appellate court ruled he did not receive a speedy trial)—he has been convicted numerous times:

• 1987: Witness intimidation, threats, and attempted extortion (charges were brought up by the Kansas Bar Association and used as evidence in Phelps' disbarment and the launching of disbarment hearings against his children)
• 1992: Disorderly conduct
• 1993: Disorderly conduct
• 1993: Witness intimidation
• 1994: Contempt of court
• 1994: Two counts of assault (reduced to disorderly conduct on appeal)
• 1995: Assault and battery
• 1997: Two counts of disorderly conduct
• 1998: Disorderly conduct

Phelps' 1993 convictions stemmed from a raid on the offices of his family's lawfirm, "Phelps Chartered," in which $37,000 worth of equipment was seized as evidence. Phelps later sued the city of Topeka for seizing the equipment and won $43,000 in damages. By the time an appeals court overturned the ruling, the statute of limitations had expired and Phelps was allowed to keep the money.

In December 1996 two Topeka police officers came forward claiming that then-police chief Beavers had, in 1993, enacted a "no-arrest" policy that actively ignored complaints against Phelps and WBC members. Beavers was quoted as saying:

The Phelpses are not going to live in my house. Don't these officers know the Phelpses can sue us and take our houses? Commander, do you understand my order?

An investigation was launched by the City of Topeka and the Topeka Sheriff's department in 1996. It was determined that Chief Beavers had been allowing Phelps and WBC protestors to commit crimes without arrest, and that Phelps and WBC members had taken advantage of their knowledge of the policy by becoming more abusive towards Topeka citizens; in following years, Topeka citizens formed a loose support group on the Topeka Capital Journal message board recalling abuse they had suffered from Westboro members during this period, which included threats of sexual assault to women and children, and some who claimed that they had caught members of Westboro going through their garbage looking for personal information to use against them. Following the findings of the city and Sheriff's office, Beavers was asked to resign, and his successor immediately repealed the "no arrest" policy.

In addition, he could be tried for the alleged abuse inflicted on his family if not for statute of limitation laws.

Transcript of appeal trial for Phelps and several other WBC members on some of the charges and convictions listed above

Canada

Phelps and congregants have been arrested on numerous occasions in Canada for violation of that country's hate crime laws. On one occasion, the congregation had their signs confiscated by customs, and responded by going to the federal capital and burning and spitting on the Canadian flag, and threatening to urinate and defecate on it. Should Phelps ever try to enter Canada again, he would be arrested and tried for violation of hate crime laws.

Health

In Topeka, Kansas, there is much speculation regarding Phelps' health. He is reported to be suffering from an advanced form of liver cancer due to his drinking (a rumor which, started in the late '90s, would appear to be false or no longer true) or Parkinson's Disease and has made few recent appearances. Recent photographs showing apparent partial facial paralysis suggest that he may have suffered a very mild stroke for which he was never hospitalized. Also, the length and incoherence of many of his recent sermons, as well as a large number of bizarre claims (including "George Bush worships Mr. Peanut, whose name is the great God Goober," and his statement in an October 2, 2005 sermon, "I said [George W. Bush] gets his jollies masturbating horses!"), suggest to many that he is suffering from Alzheimer's disease, senility, or has suffered brain damage due to his amphetamine and barbiturate addiction in the 1960s.

Sources cited/biographies

In 1994, a reporter working for Stauffer Communications, Inc. filed a lawsuit about ownership of a book he had been researching for them, which details Phelps' life and activities. Because the text of the book was entered as Exhibit A, the text entered into public domain.

• Hate for the love of God—biographical special section from the Topeka Capital-Journal, first published in 1994
• Addicted to Hate: The Fred Phelps Story—The full text of the book mentioned above.
• Rotten.com's Fred Phelps timeline and quotes page

This content from Wikipedia is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Fred Phelps