The Death of the Westboro Baptist Church?
Apparently there's a little "Desperate Housewives" drama in the family of Rev. Fred Phelps. It's in the form of an estranged son, Nate Phelps, who fled his family and their Topeka-based Church at the tender age of 18 (and not one day later), and is now speaking out against his father's destructive institution that many of us know as the Westboro Baptist Church.
The Westboro Baptist Church has been infamous for more than a decade now, appealing to crazies since the late 1990s, when the Church bounced onto the national scene by protesting the funeral of hate crime victim Matthew Shepard. Westboro has continued down the road of tactlessness and ugliness for years, protesting everything from Lady Gaga to the funerals of fallen soldiers. Their reason? That America is too tolerant of homosexuality and abortion, and as a result, we should all be forced to eat cheeseburgers with babies in them, and then promptly incinerated.
Thankfully, Nate Phelps appears to have somehow survived his gene pool and emerged as a voice of reason within the Phelps family tree. Nate has now started to speak out against his family's church, peeling back some of the layers of what the Westboro Baptist Church really believes, and predicting that the church will head down the road of the dinosaur or the saber-toothed tiger: extinction.
Nate Phelps traveled back to his hometown of Topeka this past weekend, speaking to the Topeka Capital Journal about how he managed to escape his family's circle of hate, and why he feels obligated to speak out against them now.
But what's particularly interesting is hearing Nate Phelps say that when it comes to the Westboro Baptist Church, America should feel some sense of shame. Why? Because when the church solely targeted LGBT people, not too many folks spoke out against it. It wasn't until the Church started protesting soldier funerals that outrage really hit a tipping point. But the hate at the heart of the Westboro Baptist Church is the same, whether it's targeting LGBT people or fallen soldiers.
"It wasn't until something that (the public) disagreed with that they got all upset about it. To me that says something about whether the other side of Christianity is all that desirable, is all that caring. They're willing to stand by and let it happen as long as they also were against the group the church was attacking," Nate Phelps said.
Ouch. But a bit true, yes?
Nonetheless, today even "mainstream" hate groups (if such a phrase can be used to describe hate groups) condemn the Westboro Baptist Church. Recently, the Ku Klux Klan even issued a statement denouncing Westboro. You know it's pretty bad when the KKK has to issue a statement denouncing your group.
While extinction is a nice thought when it comes to Westboro, it's probably a far off goal. Last week, the Westboro Baptist Church found a friend in the Gainesville, Florida-based church, the Dove World Outreach Center. Both were able to bond over how "evil" it was that Gainesville elected their first openly gay mayor.
Might a hate church merger be in the future for Westboro and Dove?
source
The Westboro Baptist Church has been infamous for more than a decade now, appealing to crazies since the late 1990s, when the Church bounced onto the national scene by protesting the funeral of hate crime victim Matthew Shepard. Westboro has continued down the road of tactlessness and ugliness for years, protesting everything from Lady Gaga to the funerals of fallen soldiers. Their reason? That America is too tolerant of homosexuality and abortion, and as a result, we should all be forced to eat cheeseburgers with babies in them, and then promptly incinerated.
Thankfully, Nate Phelps appears to have somehow survived his gene pool and emerged as a voice of reason within the Phelps family tree. Nate has now started to speak out against his family's church, peeling back some of the layers of what the Westboro Baptist Church really believes, and predicting that the church will head down the road of the dinosaur or the saber-toothed tiger: extinction.
Nate Phelps traveled back to his hometown of Topeka this past weekend, speaking to the Topeka Capital Journal about how he managed to escape his family's circle of hate, and why he feels obligated to speak out against them now.
But what's particularly interesting is hearing Nate Phelps say that when it comes to the Westboro Baptist Church, America should feel some sense of shame. Why? Because when the church solely targeted LGBT people, not too many folks spoke out against it. It wasn't until the Church started protesting soldier funerals that outrage really hit a tipping point. But the hate at the heart of the Westboro Baptist Church is the same, whether it's targeting LGBT people or fallen soldiers.
"It wasn't until something that (the public) disagreed with that they got all upset about it. To me that says something about whether the other side of Christianity is all that desirable, is all that caring. They're willing to stand by and let it happen as long as they also were against the group the church was attacking," Nate Phelps said.
Ouch. But a bit true, yes?
Nonetheless, today even "mainstream" hate groups (if such a phrase can be used to describe hate groups) condemn the Westboro Baptist Church. Recently, the Ku Klux Klan even issued a statement denouncing Westboro. You know it's pretty bad when the KKK has to issue a statement denouncing your group.
While extinction is a nice thought when it comes to Westboro, it's probably a far off goal. Last week, the Westboro Baptist Church found a friend in the Gainesville, Florida-based church, the Dove World Outreach Center. Both were able to bond over how "evil" it was that Gainesville elected their first openly gay mayor.
Might a hate church merger be in the future for Westboro and Dove?
source