Inside Phelps church of hate...Video

[i have issues]

If you can stomach it. i'm gonna take a shower now.
http://www.sky.com/skynews/video/videoplayer/0,,91136-hate_251005,00.html

[classof56]

1. Nope, sorry--can't stomach it right now. Maybe never.

I know more than I'd like to about Phelps and his so-called "church". Evil, ugly stuff and it's too beautiful a day in Oregon to spoil it by watching this. I'll stick with viewing the beautiful Cascade range!

Blessings!

[FreedomAngel82]

4. I'm bravely watching it

It seems like a pretty good documentary. The guy goes undercover to figure them out and expose them. They show one guy saying how these people aren't just a Topeka or Kansas problem but it's a problem for the country and the world. He (Phelps) has thirteen children and fifty-four grandchildren. And if God is punishing us why isn't Canada attacked and punished eh? :eyes:

[MuseRider]

2. Thanks.

Maybe by seeing this people will understand. I am so tired of seeing the New York Times and Newsweek speaking of my community as the epicenter of hate. THIS is what we live with, 3 times a day in 3 different locations. Every venue, every community event. Many churches. Every time you go anywhere there they are. They have tormented this community since 1956 and there is no end in sight and it has never helped to confront them. Try explaining those signs to your little children as you drive or walk past them every day.

I was pleased to see one of my best friends in the beginning the video speaking against them, he has worked tirelessly trying to stop them and was a major force when we fought against their city ordinance.

These people need to be ignored. They only thrive from attention. They may not stop but it just does no one any good to interact with them. This, of course, is only my opinion.

I am a bit upset that they mentioned him as a former civil rights attorney without saying how corrupt he was when he was doing that and how he really never gave a damn about any of the people he represented.

I had not been inside their compound since I was a little kid. Once when in grade school they were allowed to invite some of us over but never again. His children and grandchildren have no clue about life outside of the compound. Yes, they do go to public school but by the time they get there they are totally convinced that everyone they encounter is evil.

This was well done. As icky as it is and as sick as it is this is Fred Phelps. Anyone with any real ideas how to stop them would be most welcome to provide their ideas because this is our community shame and frankly we have tried everything.

Edit to add... Yes I am feeling very sorry for myself right now. It is never pleasant to view these people and I just hate that my community was unable to keep them from expanding out to all of you.

[Imagine My Surprise]

5. What on earth was he protesting back in 1956?

[MuseRider]

7. Those were the days

when he was a "civil rights" attorney and he was causing all kinds of trouble even back then. I may have my dates wrong. I did not encounter or was not aware of them until kindergarten about 1957 or 1958. Somewhere I have a timeline but can't put my hands on it right at the moment.

Put it this way, he has been stirring up trouble in one way or another since he arrived here.

Edit I was incorrect. I looked it up and he was just preaching then he did not get his law degree until 1964

[Imagine My Surprise]

10. Where did Phelps come from?

Some documentary maker should do a full blown expose on this septic tank.

[MuseRider]

13. Let me go look for my links

Our city paper has some good info and one other DUer has a link to a great book written about them but I think I lost the site. Check for an edit and I will provide the link.

link http://cjonline.com/indepth/phelps/ He is from Mississippi

[Dogmudgeon]

12. Actually, he was, indeed, a civil rights activist

He did do a few good things in his life.

Nobody starts out bad. Fred Phelps is an excellent role model of how hatred and dogmatism can fester and turn a man into a kind of a monster.

--p!

[MuseRider]

16. I'm not going to

argue with you but I do disagree. He took them for every penny he could get. My recollection is that he was in the newspaper every day because of his actions in court and he ended up settling almost all of his cases out of court taking most of the money his clients got.

I spent a lot of years trying to ignore them (his oldest son gave me fits in grade school) so I can't say for certain but everything I have read is not positive about his record.

[Dogmudgeon]

18. Oh, no, I don't disagree

Phelps did actually advance civil rights, but it's utterly plausible that he scammed the civil rights movement along the way. That's typical behavior for super-aggressive (read: "hostile") lawyers. They'll put 110% into defending their own mother from criminal charges, then insist on payment on demand.

Phelps also beat his kids regularly. His oldest, if I recall from the Kansas paper who broke the story, was beaten frequently with the handle of a mattock. You and some of your friends may have been lucky to have not been a victim of a gruesome murder from a kid who had a massive breakdown and snapped. And I don't think the boy has spoken to Rev. Fred for a decade or so now.

My own experience with this was from observing legal the activists who worked for years to defeat a pumping station on the Delaware river that was to be used to support a planned nuclear reactor. Thousands of activist lawyers descended on the area, as well as Abbie Hoffman. For the most part, the lawyers were sincere in their convictions, but they had a mighty feast for the better part of a decade. Made tons of money. Fucked promiscuously and snorted coke by the tablespoonful. Then, when the project had been bankrupted, they moved on. And Abbie, deep in depression, took his own life, in part because nobody gave a damn about him anymore.

Fred Phelps is indeed a sick bastard. While it's not inconceivable that he supported civil rights, in Fred Phelps' universe, Fred Phelps comes first. And last. And always.

--p!

[MuseRider]

19. You are very correct on that last point!

I looked a little more (quite frankly I am so sick of this guy and the entire cult that I wonder about my own sanity when I jump in these threads) and he did get several awards for his civil rights actions but then like he always does, he screwed everyone and got disbarred.

He beat his children all so badly. I do remember that. My father, a rather famous batterer himself, used to say at least he wasn't that bad :eyes:. He is a very violent man but his physical violence is kept well within the family thankfully.

If you read the histories in my paper(http://cjonline.com/indepth/phelps/) it is quite obvious that from early on he was only interested in being THE story. That is why I choose to tell people to ignore him. That, of course, gets skewed often into supporting him but I guess that goes with the territory.

[Maddy McCall]

24. This link should interest you.

http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?sid=184

[Maddy McCall]

23. No, I wouldn't term him a civil rights activist.

He was a dirty lawyer who took on almost any case in which he believed he could make some moolah. Some of those cases happened to be civil rights cases.

He also sued Sears over a TV, Reagan over sending a diplomat to the vatican, and even his own alma mater because the school wouldn't admit his children as "minorities." He claimed that his work in "civil rights" gave his children that status.

Phelps was an opportunistic, greedy lawyer. I don't think there's any indication that he ever had a conscience in any of the suits he filed. It was about the moolah, or revenge, but never about principle.

[FreedomAngel82]

6. Don't feel sorry

:hug: I think we all know that it isn't just your community. They showed one guy saying how Phelps was a cult leader. This guy said that they need to just be ignored. LOL Phelps said that every policy maker is a fag. I guess someone should alert George Bush. This guy is really sick. England deserved the 7/7 bombings. Ugh. They show a woman from another church who said everything Phelps says is against everything she knows about God and I agree. How he has so much hatered and not love etc.

[MuseRider]

11. The church she is from

is one of the most popular Phelps sites. They were the church that put white crosses out for every soldier that had been killed in Iraq. They finally ran out of room. It is also the first place I saw the Phelps group with their God Loves IED signs this summer. The crosses behind them. I almost drove through the red light.

Thanks for the hug.

[Imagine My Surprise]

3. I will shower now, too...BUT...

I find it fascinating that Phelps was a civil rights lawyer. I think he's the quintessential "methinks he protests too much" self-loathing gay. He may have 13 kids (11 of which are lawyers!) but now more than ever I question his heterosexuality.

The video also was informative in that it underscores that Phelps (and his ilk) are a CULT.

[FreedomAngel82]

8. They are a cult

Everyone should watch this movie. This guy is truly insane.

[GreenPartyVoter]

9. I can't take it. Sorry.

---------------------------------------------------------------
Tired of nutty in your face fundies? Me too!
http://www.livejournal.com/community/thought_express/14905.html

[Imagine My Surprise]

14. This isn't fundamentalism per se' --

it's an outright hate cult that preaches in the name of Jesus. Just as the Arian Nation Churches claim their own brand of "Christianity".

I loathe a legit fundy as much as the next free-thinker, but Phelps is NOT a fundy. He's way more than that.

[GreenPartyVoter]

15. Yeha, he's off the scale wacko.

---------------------------------------------------------------
Tired of nutty in your face fundies? Me too!
http://www.livejournal.com/community/thought_express/14905.html

[Popol Vuh]

17. OMG!

These people are seriously wacked out. I mean these people have some serious issues.

I wish I was the guy standing there at the end where this leader's granddaughters said "We like it when people hate us because the bible says that all the sinners in the end of days will hate us", something like that anyways. I would of responded to them with a "hmmm, so since you're the ones who are delivering so much hatred, wouldn't that make you the evil ones and us the righteous ones?"


Thanks for the link. Disturbing stuff.

[classof56]

21. Awhile back, I encountered Phelps' picketers spewing their hatred.

I parked and walked around telling onlookers, "As a Christian, I apologize for these people." I felt compelled to say something, because Phelps Phollowers are anything but Christian and I hope they are not doing as much damage to Christ's gospel as I think they are.

BTW, welcome to DU!

Tired Old Cynic

[Popol Vuh]

22. Thanks classof56

I can only imagine what those kind of folks would want to do to me if they knew what my user name meant. lol

[TrogL]

20. what an adrenaline junkie

Whenever Phelps fires himself up into one of his screaming sermons, he gets a huge shot of adrenaline, which almost immediately wears off and makes him sad again.

Get the man on some Effexor.