Fred Phelps Near Death

[Jaguar]

Westboro Baptist Church Founder Near Death

www.cbsnews.com/news/westboro-baptist-church-founder-fred-phelps-sr-on-the-edge-of-death-son-says/

www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/16/fred-phelps-dying-death-westboro-baptist_n_4974584.html

[ՏՇԾԵԵʅՏɧ_LԹՏՏʅҼ]

I can't say I'll mourn - his offshoot "Baptist Church" as he calls it, has spread much intolerance - the message he spread against gays, as well as interrupting military funerals is unacceptable.

He's no better than many Evangelistic "preachers" who spread their hate messages and intolerance.

[mmhmm]

Well, we all die sooner or later.  The sooner this waste of DNA does, the better off this world will be.

[djAdvocate]

i'll get my digs in while he is still alive, since my daddy always told me not to speak ill of the dead:

this man is a real sonofabich, and the world would indeed be better off without him.

[tallguy]

I can't wait to see if ANYONE defends this worthless, disgusting POS. 

What are we up to now?  Example #54,372,895 why "claiming" a relationship with God does not mean you actually HAVE one?  

[Jaguar]

Oh he is a really self-righteous ignorant creep.

[workpublic]

I wonder if there will be any protesters at his funeral? ;-)

[mmhmm]

Mar 17, 2014 7:38:07 GMT -5 workpublic said:

I wonder if there will be any protesters at his funeral? ;-)

Workpublic, I hadn't even thought of that!  Anybody with me?  ROAD TRIP!!!!! 

[wvugurl26]

Good riddance I have no use for such garbage. All he's done is spread pain and misery to those who are already suffering in some of their darkest hours.

[Deleted]

I hope he finds peace.

[Green Eyed Lady]

I'm thinking "peace" isn't exactly what he's going to find. 

[Tennesseer]

Afterlife justice would be a NR version of Ground Hog's Day in which each repeating day, Phelps finds himself to be a teenage hitchhiker and accepts a ride from John Wayne Gacy.

[Green Eyed Lady]

Normally, I find it dang near impossible to not feel bad in some way for the death of anyone.  I can dislike them intensely and be completely sure the world will be a better place without them in it, but can find some sympathy somewhere deep inside for those who loved him or something along those lines. 

Not this time. 

[jkapp]

It will be interesting, if he does die, whether people will "show up" to his funeral like he has for so many others

[Green Eyed Lady]

I surely hope not.  I hope that sort of idiocy dies with him.

(Although I want to go and play the Happy song on a giant boom box.)

[Tennesseer]

Mar 17, 2014 9:37:29 GMT -5 Green Eyed Lady said:

I surely hope not.  I hope that sort of idiocy dies with him.

(Although I want to go and play the Happy song on a giant boom box.)

Turnabout ìs fair play.

[Green Eyed Lady]

Not really.  Two wrongs don't make a right and would make me just as awful as him.  Not that I wouldn't do it.....it just wouldn't be right.  And it would be just one more thing I'd have to atone for and I've been way too busy with that lately.

[zibazinski]

Karma baby.

[NancysSummerSip]

I posted a similar thread on EE before I realized Sugi started one here, so I will repeat myself:

May all those souls at whose funerals he and his band of ugly, small-minded little haters protested meet him at the pearly gates of Heaven - and stone his self-righteous, loathsome, smirking spirit straight into Hell.

Oh, and any patriotically-minded protestors, accompanied by a motorcycle gang or two, who care to show up at his funeral should certainly be welcome to do so. And no pissing and moaning from any of the Westboro weenies allowed. You get as good as you gave, you mental midgets.

[mollyanna58]

Hopefully, his "church" will end with him. 

"Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us."

[djAdvocate]

Mar 17, 2014 9:15:57 GMT -5 Tennesseer said:

Afterlife justice would be a NR version of Ground Hog's Day in which each repeating day, Phelps finds himself to be a teenage hitchhiker and accepts a ride from John Wayne Gacy.

(shudder)

[djAdvocate]

Mar 17, 2014 9:40:52 GMT -5 Tennesseer said:

Mar 17, 2014 9:37:29 GMT -5 Green Eyed Lady said:

I surely hope not.  I hope that sort of idiocy dies with him.

(Although I want to go and play the Happy song on a giant boom box.)

Turnabout ìs fair play.

i think Happy Happy Joy Joy by Ren and Stimpy would be appropriate.

[Jaguar]

I was reading about this last night, does anyone know the truth on if Fred Phelps was excommunicated last August from his own church that he started. I read a piece about his own son that won't talk to him and supports LGBT issues. The church membership is mostly other family members.

[NancysSummerSip]

Mar 17, 2014 13:22:41 GMT -5 Jaguar said:

I was reading about this last night, does anyone know the truth on if Fred Phelps was excommunicated last August from his own church that he started. I read a piece about his own son that won't talk to him and supports LGBT issues. The church membership is mostly other family members.

According to his estranged son Nathan, yes, the church did excommunicate him. This is from CNN about 2 hours ago:

(CNN) -- Westboro Baptist Church, the Kansas congregation known for picketing funerals with anti-gay signs, called reports that its founder, Fred Phelps, is near death "speculative."

"Fred Phelps has health issues," the church said in a statement Sunday, "but the idea that someone would suggest that he is near death, is not only highly speculative, but foolish considering that all such matters are the sole prerogative of God."

Nathan Phelps, the estranged son of Fred Phelps, posted a Facebook message Sunday saying his father was "at the edge of death" at a hospice in Topeka, Kansas, where the Westboro Baptist Church has long been a controversial presence.

Nathan Phelps also said his father had been excommunicated from the church. "I'm not sure how I feel about this," he added. "Terribly ironic that his devotion to his god ends this way. Destroyed by the monster he made."

Westboro declined to say whether or not its founder has been excommunicated. The church's statement said that "membership issues are private" and that eight unnamed "elders" lead the Westboro congregation.

A church spokesman declined to respond to follow-up questions.

Fred Phelps founded Westboro Baptist Church in 1955 and molded it in his fire-and-brimstone image. Most of the small congregation are members of Phelps' extended family. Nathan Phelps is one of several relatives who left the church in recent decades. He lives in Canada, according to his Facebook page.

Despite its "Baptist" name, Westboro is not affiliated with any larger church denomination. Most Christians criticize the congregation's harsh anti-gay rhetoric and penchant for pursuing the limelight at inappropriate moments.

According to the church's website, it has picketed more than 53,000 events, ranging from Lady Gaga concerts to funerals for slain U.S. soldiers. Typically, a dozen or so family members -- including small children -- brandish signs that say "God Hates homosexuals" and "Thank God for Dead Soldiers."

Westboro's website keeps a running tally of "people whom God has cast into hell since you loaded this page."

By the church's idiosyncratic logic, God's damnation, including the death of U.S. soldiers, is the price to pay for the country's acceptance of "sins" such as homosexuality.

Despite the protests' unpopularity, the Supreme Court unanimously upheld Westboro's right to picket military funerals on free speech grounds in 2011. Several states, though, have passed laws aimed at keeping the controversial church at a distance from funerals.

"I feel sad for all the hurt he's caused so many," Nathan Phelps said of his father on Sunday.

"I feel sad for those who will lose the grandfather and father they loved. And I'm bitterly angry that my family is blocking the family members who left from seeing him, and saying their good-byes."

The-CNN-Wire

[Green Eyed Lady]

I have to say....the fact they picketed a Lady Gaga concert doesn't upset me that much.

(Sorry, Shoobs!)

[swamp]

Westboro's website keeps a running tally of "people whom God has cast into hell since you loaded this page."

I'm sorry, but that just sounds really funny.  How do they know exactly how many people God has cast into Hell?  Does God have a scoreboard?  Skype?  Email?

[Jaguar]

That's just beyond tacky, how anyone assumes or presumes to know anything about God.

[swamp]

Mar 17, 2014 14:26:05 GMT -5 Jaguar said:

That's just beyond tacky.

Me or them?

[Jaguar]

Mar 17, 2014 14:27:17 GMT -5 swamp said:

Mar 17, 2014 14:26:05 GMT -5 Jaguar said:

That's just beyond tacky.

Me or them?

Always them.

[Sam_2.0]

I would want to believe that anyone can be redeemed no matter how fallen, and I would hope for his sake that he finds peace. I am so sad for the children that grew up brainwashed under this guy and hope that they can be free like the few others that have managed to escape along the way. And I hope the families that have been deeply hurt by his church find some kind of closure and relief knowing that he is gone.

However, I fear this group will still live on as apparently there is always some underbelly of society that is ready to step in and fill the void as soon as one group leaves. I want to believe there is good in people, but these asshats keep ruining it for me.