<p>^^^^What did he give those people with broken hearts whose loved ones’ funerals were disrupted by these hateful people? Homophobes don’t really upset me; rather they just disgust me, but what they did to grieving families was despicable.</p>
<p>Now that he’s dead, will the crazy and horrible church/family keep on “protesting” at funerals? </p>
<p>Cobrat, your post at 1:25 (God I wish there were POST numbers) is ridiculous. I happen to LIKE those music groups. I can’t say the same for Fred Phelps.</p>
<p>I would only be happy about this if it means the protesting at funerals is over. </p>
<p>It seems to me that the very definition of failure is to have lived your life in such a way that people rejoice when you are gone. In Phelps’ case, that’s an enormous number of people. He failed utterly, not only in whatever hateful mission he pursued, but as a human being.</p>
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<p>Hey, I was trying to add a bit of levity to this thread. :)</p>
<p>Incidentally, one of my closest friends is a major Bee Gees fan and loves to irritate me by blasting it when I visit him on occasion. In return, I sometimes subject him to 70’s punk/hard rock and 90’s pop-punk music he positively detests. It’s all in good friendly fun. :)</p>
<p>Equality House, the Planting Peace rainbow-painted house across the street from the Westboro Baptist Church, posted this on FB, which I agree with:</p>
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<p>The church intentionally antagonizes with its pickets in search of publicity and would like nothing more than lots of media attention and strong reaction.</p>
<p>The people at Equality House are better people than I am, that’s for sure. But I don’t want vengeance. I just want indifference. The man died. Shrug, oh well – please pass the salt. </p>
<p>“Two granddaughters of Westboro Baptist Church firebrand Fred Phelps have split with the Topeka-based congregation, indicating their views have evolved and they now regret the pain they have caused others.”</p>
<p>“We’ve really appreciated the supportive words people have shared with us today. The environment we grew up in was very ‘us vs. them’; it’s been nice to see that the ‘them’ have been overwhelmingly kind — as we’d kind of hoped and suspected.”</p>
<p>Steve Drain, a spokesman for the church, said in an interview Wednesday that the sisters had rejected the Lord… “If they continue with the position that they have, those two girls, yeah, they’re going to hell.”
From <a href=“http://www.kansascity.com”>http://www.kansascity.com</a></p>
<p>The people showing him sympathy are much better people than I am.</p>
<p>I feel worst for his children and grandchildren who left the church. They had no say in who they were born to and because of their father/grandfather’s decisions, they lost that person in their lives. I can’t imagine what they go through knowing how much pain their father caused people. </p>
<p>I guess I’ll be meeting his granddaughters in hell… I’m sure it will be a much better place than the “heaven” where he and his congregants end up. Incidentally, the reason he was excommunicated stemmed from his support of female family members holding leadership positions within the Church - some of the newer Church leaders argued that Women have no place holding such positions.</p>
<p>The creep was abusive. Sadly, they were better off far, far away from his pathology.</p>
<p>Say, maybe someone’s cousins or former HS classmates know him and can attend / report back on the funeral.</p>
<p>What baffles me is why no one, to my knowledge, has ever looked into child abuse within the church. It’s clear that it’s not a healthy environment. I cannot believe that there’s no abuse. </p>
<p>As I said, he was abusive, so surely others were as well.</p>
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<p>Considering a substantial portion of that clan are licensed attorneys well-known for filing lawsuits at the slightest perceived “violations against their religious freedoms”, being wary of fighting endless lawsuits is a factor. </p>
<p>Another is that many local/state governments tend to give more of a pass to religious groups in such matters whether due to religious sympathies* or in this case, fear of more litigious behavior from this clan. </p>
<p>E.g.: Warren Jeffs & FLDS controversy over reported abuses because it has been reported that their members dominate the local governments and law enforcement agencies. </p>
<p>He was an evil man and the world is better off without him. </p>
<p>I read the CNN article (btw, the comments are pretty funny) and was surprised to learn that he pushed for civil rights and was an advocate for blacks in the 1950s. </p>
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<p>Somehow this makes it even more bewildering that he could expend so much hateful energy on gays. Geussing we’ll never know why.</p>
<p>cobrat, funny you should mention Warren Jeffs. He’s another religious freak the world will not be sorry to lose.</p>
<p>^sally—very interesting. Maybe it is a case of " …doth protest too much…"</p>
<p>Nevertheless, he was an awful bad man!</p>
<p>“…overwhelm hate with unconditional love…”</p>
<p>Or ridicule the idiots:</p>
<p><a href=“Superheroes Vs. The Westboro Baptist Church”>http://comicsalliance.com/super-heroes-vs-the-westboro-baptist-church/</a></p>
<p>I haven’t done a lot of research on this guy, but my impression is that it’s stupidity rather than hate. It doesn’t even make sense why you would protest about homosexuality at a soldier’s funeral. What’s next? Protesting about the Iraq war at the gay pride parade? </p>
<p>One weird thing about the “Westboro Baptist Church” is that it’s basically just this guy’s family. It has like 60 people total and around 50 are from his extended family. The whole thing is weird. </p>