The Phelps Family of Westboro Baptist Church - As sick as they get!
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The Phelps Family - ruining funerals of fallen soldiers, and worse...
You may have seen these people on your TV. Maybe you have, like me, seen them in person and maybe you stood in their way to show the world that these people do not speak for any religion, or any religious group, other than their own twisted, sick selves.
Yes, they are the Phelps family, and they have been protesting at military funerals all over the nation, spewing forth their rancid hatred and saying things like "Thank God for Dead Soldiers". They absolutely believe that they are doing God's will in pointing out the sins of our nation and that God is punishing us for what we do, think and say.
These people are the Taliban of Christianity, and unfortunately, there are others like them. In our nation there are many groups so sure that they, and only they, know God's will, or know exactly what the Bible means, and they are growing in number.
These are the ultra-fanatics, the al Qaeda of our nation, the same people who would rejoice in another 9-11, and perhaps may even be behind future attacks and terrorism inside our borders. And guess what! They have many sympathizers!
People like Timothy McVeigh were influenced by racists, religious fanatics, white supremacists, all of whom believe they have been given God's permission to spread hatred, spew forth lies, and bring about Armageddon, and in short do anything they think necessary in order to force all of us to believe what they think.
Not much has been written about these fanatics as we approach our next election but they are out their, and their sympathizers are out there as well, sending out hate emails, demeaning people they hate, and generally trying to rally a certain portion of the electorate to turn out and vote against or for certain candidates.
These people have also been recruiting. They have been adding new members into their brotherhood and sisterhood of anger and hate. whether they march at funerals or send out hate emails, the underground Neo-Fascist, Pseudo Religious fanatics are at work. And they are coming to a town near to you!
Why Do People (Hate) (Mistrust), (Fail to Understand) Christians?
I had read another interesting hub some weeks ago that asked why do people hate Christians? Over all, it was a very interesting piece, and I added quite a few comments to it, trying to understand the basis for the seeming paranoia.
Well, perhaps there are people who hate Christians, and perhaps their opinions, wrongly, are based on people like these in the videos below. Personally, I know that most Christians, and yes, I count myself amongst the Christians of the world, are not at all like this group of flakes, but if this is all one knows, then this is that upon which one bases an opinion.
We in the U.S. often wrongly think that al Qaeda is an Islamic group that follows Islam nd the Quran, and that, secretly or otherwise, all Muslims think that al Qaeda is OK by them. The truth is, al Qaeda is to Islam what these people are to Christianity.
But I don't want to debate the fanatics. What I do want to say is, fellow Christians, and others who may not be Christians, stand up to these fanatics and deny their works. I have stood up and been a part of a peaceful protest that actually pushed them farther away from a funeral. I did this because I am a veteran, and I am a Chrsitian, and I know these people use my religion to put forth an evil, foul front.
When you ask why some people hate Christians, look to people like this demented family, as well as people in the KKK, White Supremacist movements, home-grown terrorists like Tim McVeigh, and look to people in various parts of the nation who use the Bible to preach hatred of people based upon the color of their skin, the nation of their birth, or simply the fact that they are not from our town/state. Then ask yourself - is that what I want people to think about my faith?
If it is not, then use your intelligence and your voice to drown out the al Qaeda of Christianity, and people may begin to have a more positive opinion about real Christianity.
BBC Report -The Most Hated Family in America
OK, if you can stand to learn more about these people, and I use the term "people" loosely, the following BBC report tells the story of who they are, why they believe as they do, and will immediately show you why the United States has both the freedom of religion as well as the separation of church and state.
I know it may not be popular to think so, but religion has often enough made itself into a worldly power, and the reason for such is found in the actions of people like those who are part of the Westboro Baptist Church. Remember that Hitler once had a dozen followers, but he spread his message, appealed to common sense, spoke of great patriotism, and thus he won over the majority of the German people by spouting hatred and lies such as these.
We walk a fine line between those who would allow for no religious freedom at all, and those who take religion far to the extreme, causing others to fear what religion might do to the country. Again, there will be some who don't make this connection, or see this fine line, but that's the risk I take in writing about this. If you know anything about Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, you know that he uses Marx as well as Christ to keep himself in power. Make no mistake about it - he actually believes God put him there, will keep him there, and anyone who moves against him is sent by Satan.
Are we so smug as to think that such a thing could never happen here? We could just as easily mix capitalism and religion to remake society in a manner that resembles a 15th Century Italian oligarchy more than what we enjoy today. Perhaps that is what people fear about the politicization of modern day Christianity. That, and also the fact that some Christians speak just as hatefully about "fags" and people who don't believe as they do.
I know this is not the agenda of most Christians or Christian churches in America. However, is it possible that this is how many people view modern day Christianity as it gets more and more involved with secularized politics?
OK, take a look at the videos and let me know what you think.
The Most Hated Family In America?
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Comments
ugh.
My nephew sent me the documentary last year about this family. It was the sickest thing I've ever seen.
The worst thing about this is the indoctrination of the kids. You hope that someday these youngsters will be saved from their sick parents and their 'church' and will be socialised to play a normal part in society.
When I saw Louise Theroux's documentary on TV I felt most sorry for the Phelps children who are having their lives stolen by their parents' odd beliefs. I think the documentary did an impressive job of showing the contradictions inherent within the children. Possibly the most interesting member of the family was the teenage daughter at college. I think perhaps she will one day be able to struggle free of her parents grasp. There were times where you could see she wanted to lead a normal life.
Are they Americans? Why do they pray for more dead people? They are really hardened by their religion, whatever that is.
If nothing else, this family is proof that insanity can be taught. If they hate the States so much, why don't they move instead of forcing themselves and their sick opinions into other people's business. What do they hope to prove by being so disrespectful at someone's funeral.
THIS IS NOT MICHAEL PHELP'S FAMILY.
Sorry for shouting, but I thought it needed to be made known. I agree that this congregation needs to be stopped. They certainly are haters and go against everything God stands for. Thanks for writing this hub Jeff. It is a beginning of drowning out their rhetoric.
I enjoyed this Chef Jeff, but just have to take issue with one comment, the one about Chavez. It's not God or Marx who keeps him in power, it's the electorate, who vote him in with increasing majorities time after time. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that he uses the national oil wealth for the benefit of the Venezuelan people? The comment about Satan was a joke directed at George W. Bush as I remember.
They do it for publicity. America loves drama.
This is an excellent Hub Chef and it's something that needs to be dealt with.
It often seems that paying any attention to these kinds of aberrant groups gives them power. The more they can be ignored the better. Acknowledging them validates their existence and gives them strength.
I know there are times when confrontations are inevitable but the more they can be marginalized the better.
It certainly works for eliminating presidential candidates who might actually do something to bring about serious changes.
These people are a perfect example of how dehumanizing willful ignorance can be. It's beyond comprehension.
By the way, I have to chime in with CJ here. I something of a Chavez fan myself. Hadn't ever heard of him playing the Dubya game claiming he was chosen by god.
I believe that they were sued and lost a few million when all was said and done.
These people are cowards.
It normally starts as a small group of a few individuals and before long it will grow into a big group you can’t manage. The society should stop them now before it become a retrogressive mass movement. Freedom is good but too much freedom will not be good to the American people.
And to the Christians: pray very hard for the youth in America.
So many comments - let's start with the first. No, not any relation to Michael Phelps, thank God! These are just some fanatical people who use God and the Bible to twist a message of hatred toward others.
As for Hugo Chavez, after reading some of the Venezuelan newspapers online, I have come to the conclusion that he really does think of himself as sent by God. He is a very religious man, but he is also a Marxist at heart, and he uses the two ideologies to hang on to power. Yes, he was elected, but he appealed to the Catholics on the one hand, and the Leftists on theother, while his first opponent had a small base of voters, and thus lost.
The first election was pretty much above board, while the next was tainted. He did suffer a voter backlash on his change to the Venezuelan Constitution, however, and has been losing strength in the electorate since last year.
I personally don't have anything against either his being a Socialist or his being Catholic - I guess maybe I didn't get my point across that people often use opposing ideologies to build their little empires. Stalin appealed to Mother Russia in WWII and brought a lot of people to his side against the Germans, and, coupled with a racist German attitude toward the Russians, convinced the Slavic people that it was better to go with Stalin than Hitler. This was after a lot of people, especially non-Russian - ethnic Ukranians and others at first saw the Germans as liberators.
Later Staln dealt with the Ukranians much as he had in the 1930's - he let them starve.
But back to my point - I was saying that religion, when politicized, can be as dangerous as any other dogma - Fascist, Communist, Capitalist, etc. To anyone who studied the American history of the 1800's, Capitalism nearly ruined this nation, as it threatens to do today. From the introduction of "shoddy" during the Civil War to the rape of the land and people by railroad & industrial barons, to the mass, nameless, faceless industrialization of the late 1800's and early 1900's, Capitalism was the enemy of the common folk, although we are being taught something different today.
To his credit Teddy Roosevelt, in my opinion, stood pretty much against the rapine tendencies of unfettered Capitalism while using some of it's better tendencies to get a lot of work done, such as the Panama Canal.
Of course this period of history is more complex than I make it seem here, and people with either political or industrial power often had two faces. Carnegie wanted to build a Utopia for the workers, but with him as its benevolent dictator, while Rockefeller and DuPont sought ways to make themselves monetary rulers of the world.
In the past, as now, for those with money, Capitalism is the cat's meow. For those with the power, Communism as practiced in Russia and China, was a method of wreaking revenge as well as forcing ridiculous ideas upon the masses. In Europe Socialism has failed as much as it has succeded, and we all know that Socialism can be both fanatical, as in Fascism, or strictly worker-oriented, as in France and England.
It can also be benevolent to the great majority, while confining to those who are wealthy, and those who seek political changes.
But as for these people, the Phelps family, they are a danger, and there are more like them, only the others do not make a public spectacle.
I have had a close encounter with the Posse Comitatus, a survivalist group, because of their belief that God has set them aside to survive the coming world holocaust they preach about. That is one thing that worried me about the clip I showed with Palin's church in Alaska - they were preaching survivalism in its most basic form. (Alaska being a sanctuary state).
I don't know if she believes that as well, but if she does, then she may be one of the Armagedonists as well - those who seek to force God to bring about the final battles they read into the Book of Revelations.
A lot of people don't know this, but NASA was closely linked with Survivalists and Armagedonists, and many of the people who worked there a decade ago really believed that by building Reagan's Star Wars project they could actually bring about The End of Days.
I had the rare chance to meet with several of the people who used to work at NASA and they were quite free with their information, about how many of them had come to work at NASA because of Reagan's dream of the Star Wars project.
The idea was to goad the Soviet Union into declaring war and sending over a missle attack.
Of course that didn't happen, so the plan fell flat. But it was a plan, and there were people who tried to make it happen. The frightneing thing to me is that the people who planned that are very much like the Phelps family of Westboro Baptist Church - they believe that God will destroy the U.S. and the world because of the sins of men, and that they and only they will be saved from the nuclear holocaust. It is the same belief that most of the Survivalists groups share and believe.
Sick family, you are right in saying them as Taliban of the West, I don't know what is the difference between them and KKK, only the dress I guess. They should go read the Good Samaritan Chapter in the Bible.
Good hub, Jeff, and this sort of thing is exactly my biggest problem, and fear, with religion. I know these "people" (can we actually call them that?) are the extremists and not all religious people are like this, but how many of them are there, here and around the world? How many of them have there always been?
Can these monsters be arrested for the horrible things they are doing, or are they protected because they claim to be "religious"? I'm honestly curious about that. Is it not not illegal to do that sort of thing at the funeral of a fallen soldier?
Hi Jef !
Ok , Tell you what lf they think God hates America so much and the men that gave their lives for you and me. then instead of sending our greatest and finest into the next conflict send out the Phelps to the front line __________as the enemy comes screaming in and they can shout all they want and the best part is they will get fire from both sides and when they die, the truth will really hurt, and the world will be abetter place without them...just a thought People that hate somthing so bad as they do are normly struggling with the same problem:0)
Later my good buddy Jeff !!!! Mike :0)
Wow, chef Jeff,
I had never heard of these people before, but they are scary. You have to feel sorry for those kids. Indoctrination is a very little word for the views that have been imposed upon them. The more I learn about religion in all it's forms, the more I've come to understand that our religious viewpoint is no more than an accident of geography. If I had been born in India I might have been Hindu, if in China, a buddhist, and so on. Presumably if you extend this argument to it's logical conclusion, Al Qaeda members might have been radical fundamentalist Christians if they had been born in the USA. Who knows?
By the way, the video clips are no longer working, apart from the final one.
Great hub! It really bothers me and saddens me that people will twist religion in order to spread their own hateful lies. It angers me and saddens me since some people will automatically throw all Christians together with these people. I normally am the type of person that believes people should follow their own beliefs and practises and I should not judge them but when they are harssing and harming people they need to be stopped.
And as Amanda stated in the comment above, the video clips are no longer working...
wonder if those kids even know what the words on their t-shirts mean.......
hahaha check out the cameltoe of the lady in the second picture
Amen.
PS you typed, "our next election but they are out their" could it be "out there?"
Anyone else wonder if Fred Phelps is a closet homosexual with serious issues?
fuck all of you phelps your going to tell me thank god for dead soldiers my fuckrn brother is in the army and he and the rest of the millitary are fuckin fighting for your rights and die for you ignorsant motherfuckers and now ya are holding up signs ya want kids to die what the fuck is wrong with ya you fucking asshole lunatic freaks i cant believe this shit and then you think your fucken race is the only one that is important there is no fucken sense in bein racist. and righ noe i hate the fact thaqt im goin to be fighting for you when i join the army. i am so pissed off right now i wish i could fucken beat the shit outta all of you right now i dare any of youy to go to 803 newbern avenue in hampton virginia because ill be waiting for you the house has a 66 mustang fast back in the front yard with a cover on it come ion july 15 through about august first and ill be there to beat the hell out of you and im not fuckin joking i really want this family to come because my brother ready to kick these motherfuckers asses right now.oh yeah and i will probably be wearing black ka=hacki like pant with some band shirt on and i'll get my bro to wear his army uniform.
Hey, Chris, I feel your anger, my friend! I doubt they'll show up, though, since they only go where the police are there to keep anyone from doing them harm. But I do want someone to take these creeps to court and stop them.
I haven't heard much about these creeps in the past month or so, but we have seen people who hold their extremists views shooting recruiters and doctors and others like them but of different religions trying to blow up things. And now that creep who went in and shot the a security guard.
And there are still some people like this creepy family who say they have God on their side!
I saa many documentary from richard dawkins and louis theroux and others on the bbc regarding these sick people , and they are so brainwash that death is there only exit , i love god and im not a practicant of the church in any way , i worship and respect god in my own way and thank him for everything i leanr so far in my life , these sick idiots dont know crap about god they take thing from from a book and apply it as if it was fact , you can only judge action through your own life and experience not a book written by a man , no matter what people say i will never take the writting from a book down to the leter not even science , only my own existence and what i saa and experiement with my own eye , and being from an army background everything i saa was quite evil , but nothing as worst as the phelps family
Doctor z, the really sad thing is that they claim we can never be Christians because we don't act like they do! Yikes!
fantastic and scary writing Chef! I cry for the children...they cannot know the truth of what they say. I hope they can be enlightened one day. my hubby is ex seal, our son is marine, my friends are all kinds, straight and gay...isnt that what makes all of us a human family? but I have members of my immedite family I will not speak to, due to their lifestyle and so I will choose to remain outside of this phelps family as well/they are sick!
better retrack that...I will stay away from them until they get in my way then I hope I have the courage, with the likes of you Chef Jeff, to stand and peacefully push them away!!
Liked your piece Chef. As a gay person, I've been aware of, and kinda kept an eye on, Fred Phelps and his supposed "church". I know I don't consider them anything near "Christian". A few years ago, their webpage featured a picture of Matthew Shepard burning in hell, which was bad enough. I think it shows their growing irrationality by their actions at the military funerals and trying to equate that with God "hating fags." My older brother is also in the military and has been to the Middle East quite a few times since 9/11, and if something happened to him (God forbid), I would be hard-pressed to stand back if those jokers showed up.
Nice job!
RNMSN, yes we are a HUMAN family and unless we stand by our convictions, as you say, we could be bullied by people like this. Thanks for the excellent comment! I hope your son is OK where ever he is deployed.
mward1125, freaks like this came to Galena when I lived there and tried to equate combat deaths with homosexuality, and we stood our ground and slowly walked them back off the corner where they were preaching their hatred. And then in Dubuque, Iowa we did the same thing with a Klan rally that fizzled when people started booing them louder than their portable PA system could handle.
We need as Americans to stand up for many things, but also to stand up AGAINST people who use hatred and phobias to spout their poison.
I am straight, but I feel that all people should have their civil and human rights. I heard and read about how in other countries they persecute people based on sexual or political orientations, and I don't like that!
What angered me was when I learned that in April, 2009, Rep. Virginia Foxx of Notth Carolina said that Matthew Sheppard was killed in a robbery attempt that had nothing to do with a hate crime. She said that in front of his mother! he also said "It's really a hoax that that continues to be used as an excuse for passing [hate crimes] bills". (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Foxx)
Cheers!
Chef Jeff
This is the result of dumb asses meet religion. Good hub Chef Jeff!
Couldn't agree more, Tom! Kinda give decent folks a bad name, too, doesn't it?
Cheers!
Chef Jeff
Matthew 18:6 (NIV)
But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.
It would seem that this passage is overlooked when it comes to the teachings of Christ; especially by the likes of these individuals. As you point out, their belief and the desire to have others follow them has become more important than following Christ. Our faith must be grounded in the will of God and not simply the bits and pieces that we choose from His Word.
1 Timothy 6:3-4 (NIV)
If anyone teaches false doctrines and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching, he is conceited and understands nothing...
It is all too easy to lord over others pointing the finger of blame while at the same time denying the fact that we too are sinners; falling short. Anyone will look better when their time is spent tearing others down. I am grateful that the love of Christ allows forgiveness for all.
Blessings,
Matt.
Thanks, Matt. One of the greatest things about Christianity is the desire for and call to forgive. I know many people, myself included, who are far less than perfect. If the world were entirely "fair" I doubt I could stand it! Every time I'd go over the speed limit I'd get a ticket, and every time I did something wrong I'd be in trouble for it.
I like to forgive anyone and everyone because I know I need more forgiveness in so many ways.
Cheers!
Chef Jeff
fishskinfreak2008 says:
15 months ago
OK, this doesn't seem like Michael Phelps' family. So is this Michael Phelps' family?