Southern Poverty Law Center writes article on infamous homophobic preacher, Fred Phelps

[ck4829]

And accuses Topeka, Kansas of being whipped into submission by the Phelps Klan.

"Fred Phelps and the police found ways to get along — perhaps a little too well. The city's police chief was asked to resign in 1997 after allegedly instructing his officers never to arrest Phelps or his picketing congregants.

The new chief, who had tangled with Phelps earlier, promised to stand up to the man, to end the special treatment. Within months, Phelps and his lawyer-laden church had written up 40 pages of complaints and sued him.

To settle the case, the chief promised to never publicly discuss Phelps or deal personally with his church. Today, it is a brave local indeed who dares to stand up to the man who may be America's most vitriolic fountain of anti-homosexual hate.

"They have used their constitutional rights," Topeka Mayor Joan Wagnon says of Phelps and his followers, "to bully this town into submission.""

http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?aid=231

[Richard Steele]

1. Kicked and recommended.

[Richard Steele]

2. And I'd like to add an honest question:

Does anyone here NOT think that Phelps has ritually sexually
abused every member of his hateful little "personality cult"?

I sure as hell think he has. He's EXACTLY the type...to a degree
I've seldom seen.

[atommom]

3. There was some pretty horrific physical abuse, according to

Addicted to Hate. Sexual abuse wouldn't surprise me.

http://blank.org/addict/

[JackBeck]

6. The few family members who were able to escape

Have talked about how physically abusive he is. Sexual abuse wouldn't surprise me, since he allegedly has a ticket for solicitation in a men's bathroom. Gay? I don't think so. Just one really fucked up dude.

[bumblebee1]

9. One of the family members who escaped the Phelps clan

was Fred's namesake son. I read the on the Rick Ross website regarding cults.

[Bake]

4. I'd like to see the SPLC go after Phelps the way it did the KKK.

Sue the living daylights out of them. Take their property.

Bake

[Bicoastal]

5. Cross-post this in the "Kansas" forum, wouldja?

This article was written in spring 2001, even before "Godhatesfags" turned into "GodhatesAmerica," and they started picketing the funerals of US soldiers.

I'm interested to know if any Topekans on DU (if there are any) would acknowledge that problems with the WBC have gotten better or worse.

[quinnox]

7. Topeka Kansas

What a backwards town. Oh well, its flyover country.

[ArbustoBuster]

8. Why are Phelps and his coterie of villains still on the streets?

For instance, this paragraph turned my stomach: One little girl, going with her parents to see the "Nutcracker" ballet in a Topeka hall, had WBC pickets hiss at her: "Did your Daddy stick in his prick in your ass last night?"

Phelps has something very wrong with him. He's a sociopath, or a sadist, or something like that. His family are just as bad. If they weren't lawyers, they would have been scooped up and dumped into prison for our protection or into the mental hospital for their own protection.

My only hope in this situation is that Phelps himself is old, and will die soon. I suspect that his family will disintegrate into recriminations and infighting the second he's safely in a coffin, at which point their reign of terror will end.

[bumblebee1]

10. May he die a very painful death

May Fred Phelps die in as much pain as he and his merry band of morons have inflicted on others. To call his group a family is insulting to families everwhere. Heck, to call in congregation a church is an insult to churches. He is a disgrace to the ministry profession and well as to the human race.