CBS reports that Fred Phelps (pictured above), the founder of the rather vile hate-cult known as Westboro Baptist Church, is “on the edge of death.” and their source is his estranged son …
In a statement on his Facebook page, Nathan Phelps, who has been estranged from his father for 30 years, said the senior Phelps was dying in hospice care in Topeka, Kan., and that he had been ex-communicated from his own church in August of 2013.
And here is that tweet …
It is all very very weird, but then everything associated with them always was. We learn, not only is he now dying, but …
- He was ejected out of his own church last August that he himself founded … (what the story here?)
- That same church is stopping all those who left the cult from seeing their Mr Phelps … (They boot him out, but can still stop other family members from seeing him … how does that work?)
There is speculation …
- Lauren Drain, an ex-member of the cult, suspects that what may in fact be behind all this is that Mr Phelps is himself gay and was in complete denial, hence the extremely storming anti-gay stance that has made the cult rather infamous.
There have also been a few folks suggesting that it would be good to go picket his funeral as a form of poetic justice for a man who behaved in a truly obnoxious manner by picketing the funerals of soldiers who had died on service, not because they were even themselves gay, but simply because the US army reformed it policy towards gay people.
While it is clear that we was indeed a truly obnoxious and a rather vile human being, I personally do not feel it appropriate to go picket his funeral, because that is simply stooping down to his level of behaviour. He will be gone and will have left a bitter legacy behind, adding to that serves no purpose.
As for his legacy, rather ironically, the greatest ally that the LGBT community has ever had is perhaps Fred Phelps himself, he has unwittingly helped in two distinct ways …
- The outrageous behavior of WBC was so abhorrent that people who were otherwise indifferent to LGBT issues saw the face of bigotry and rejected it.
- Because of his actions, laws were changed to protect the families of both fallen military personnel and also the LGBT community from dangerous lunatics such as him.
If he had instead been a decent human being and had devoted his life to improving the conditions and standing of the LGBT community, then he simply could have not done as good a job as his hatred did.