Fred Phelps is a Liberal.
November 1st, 2007 by Jared MorrisDon’t be played by Attorney Fred Phelps and his “family.”
Something strange hit me the first time, about two or three years ago, when I first saw videos online of Fred Phelps and his Westboro Attorney Church. The thought: “America, Media, Conservatives, Patriots, Liberals; you’re being played.” I tell you beyond a shadow of a doubt that, yes, the members of WBC are insane… but, not in the way you think. I make the statement now, one which many of you will find crazy. FRED PHELPS AND THE WESTBORO BAPTIST CHURCH ARE A GROUP OF FAR LEFTISTS ATTEMPTING TO MOCK THE CONSERVATIVE RIGHT IN AMERICA. And everybody is eating out of their hands.
The group are very good at what they do. Rattling cages. They have you all worked up so much that you can’t see throught their very obvious agenda. They paint a cartoon of American conservatives: “God lovin’, fag hatin’, hate lovin’ intolerants.” They present the picture that religious conservatives are so full of hate and prejudice that they’d even go so far as to blame America for military deaths, mine collapses and everything else because of the “scourge” of homosexuality the nation is embracing. I beg you to look closer at them. Look at them through indifferent eyes. Watch their videos. Guys, it’s all an act. A bad act. Please don’t take their bate.
Sure they are crazy. Crazy to push their extreme leftist agenda so far… but, they are not what they seem. They weave a tangled web, for sure. They are protesting troops funerals (typical anti-war leftist agenda) on the grounds of free speech (similar to trials Phelps took part in as a civil rights attorney) and now they are smearing Fred Thompson, saying he once held their beliefs. They are doing what they can to make the religious right look bad.
Uncovering the truth and leftist origins of the Westboro Baptist Church.
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Who are they: One Big Happy Family:
Sky News claims that WBC consists of “about 150 members”. BBC Two claims there are 71 members. A compilation of the names of Phelps’ grandchildren and great-grand-children, combined with his nine “loyal” children and their spouses, though, numbers 90 Individuals who followed Phelps Sr. after he was voted out of his old congregation, Eastside
Baptist Church (a traditional Baptist church), consisted of the Hockenbargers (whose offspring later married into the Phelps clan), George Stutzman, Chris Davis (who also married into the Phelps clan) and Theresa Davis (whose relationship, if any, to Chris Davis is unknown).
Leader/Founder Fred Phelps. Who is he? A Former Civil Rights Attorney. From wikipedia
Chartered law firm in 1964. The first notable cases were of a civil rights nature. “I systematically brought down the Jim Crow laws of this town,” he says.[10] Phelps’ daughter was quoted as saying, “We took on the Jim Crow establishment, and Kansas did not take that sitting down. They used to shoot our car windows out, screaming we were nigger lovers,” and that the Phelps law firm made up one-third of the state’s federal docket of civil-rights cases.[13] Â
Phelps took cases on behalf of African American clients alleging discrimination by school systems, and a predominately black American Legion post which had been raided by police, alleging racially-based police abuse. Phelps’ law firm obtained settlements for some clients.[14] Phelps also sued then-President Ronald Reagan over Reagan’s appointment of a U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, alleging this violated separation of church and state. The case was dismissed by the U.S. district court.[14] Phelps’ law firm, staffed by himself and family members also represented non-white Kansans in discrimination actions against Kansas Power and Light, Southwestern Bell, and the Topeka City Attorney, and represented two female professors alleging discrimination in Kansas universities.[13]
In the 1980s Fred Phelps received awards from the Greater Kansas City Chapter of Blacks in Government and the Bonner Springs branch of the NAACP for his work on behalf of black clients.[15]
Phelps Chartered also won one of the first reverse discrimination cases
Democrat Candidate:
Phelps has run in various Kansas Democratic Party primaries five times, but has never won. These included races for governor in 1990, 1994, and 1998, receiving about 15% of the vote in 1998.[34] In the 1992 Democratic Party primary for U.S. Senate, Phelps received 31% of the vote [35] Phelps ran for mayor of Topeka in 1993 [36] and 1997. [37]
(above Phelps and the Gores)
Sure, I’m crazy, huh? But don’t let this guy play your emotions, take an honest look at him. Fred Phelps is a crazy liberal.
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November 1st, 2007 at 12:38 pm
Jared,
Your conclusions are insane. Democrat does not equal liberal, FYI. I’ve interviews members of the Phelps family (not just on the video I posted on YouTube) and they are definitely NOT liberals. If, by liberal, you mean attempting to overthrow Jim Crow in one of their actually positive cases, then OK.
November 1st, 2007 at 2:13 pm
Fred Phelps is not a crazy liberal. I think that most all of the liberals that post on this board would consider his actions beyond the pale of human decency.
Let’s call Phelps and company what they truly are. Insane. I pity them. They must lead the most tortured life being filled with such hate.
November 1st, 2007 at 3:37 pm
Jared,
Huh? Your path as you try to place the Phelps clan as liberals is so twisted and convoluted, I had to go back a couple of times to figure out your reasoning.
Just so I understand — When the Phelps family holds up anti-gay signs, that is all a lie? When they spout Old Testament verses, they have no actual belief in their words, they are just trying to poison public opinion against conservatives?
These anti-Catholic and anti-gay people are liberals?
They are Christian fundamentalist wackjobs - pure and simple. As we all know, Christian fundamentalists enjoy a prominent seat in the tent of Repubican party.
November 1st, 2007 at 3:39 pm
For Mr. Phelps, seems like Mission Impossible
November 1st, 2007 at 4:21 pm
Jared, Pete has it right.
Why you chose to focus your piece on attempting to prove that Phelps is a liberal is beyond me.
Your label is immaterial; Phelps’ behavior is everything, and disgusting!
And then to conclude by showing a photo of Phelps and the Gores — Jared, without further information, that photo is meaningless.
You’ve done much better than this, Jared!
I’m disappointed, always thinking that you were above the rest of them at GMD. Now I am wondering, truly.
November 1st, 2007 at 4:35 pm
Everything bad is liberal, by definition, and everything good is conservative, as per the messages of Limbaugh, Coulter and the like. Don’t tell me, Jared, that you have bought into this baloney, although I sympathize with you on the kind of environment you are in over there off Will King Rd.
November 1st, 2007 at 6:05 pm
Yeaa. not a liberal, a loony.
Take a read through Exhibit A of case number 94CV766 filed in Shawnee County District Court in Topeka, Kansas .. it’s a detailed look at the group, it origins and tactics.
http://blank.org/addict/
November 1st, 2007 at 6:26 pm
You’re right Jared, we may have to summon up Senator Larry Craig and try to convert this Fred guy! Sounds like this Fred guy is BAD news but a crazy liberal is a stretch! Sounds more like Fred is from the hypocritical far Right. It also sounds like this Fred guy spouts ‘Religion’ and Church while practicing the exact opposite!
November 1st, 2007 at 6:31 pm
Can we put aside inane partisan ideas…for once? Seems Pete had it right…forget what you think or even believe their political agenda is and just accept that they are, indeed, “whack-jobs” and, regardless of our societies general beliefs, wouldn’t you say (with regards to Phelps and gang of ignorant louts) there are surely precious few who would go so far or even silently agree with them?
However, as I’ve said before, let them ride out their wave, be public, have their website. We can stand up to this minority and we do but not by shutting them up. Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t and as long as this group keeps themselves in what little limelight they think they have we, at least, can keep tabs on what they are up to, the vitriolic rhetoric being allowed to rant allows us all to continue to rant right back at them for isn’t this the only way we are all allowed freedom of speech? Shut anyone up, or try to, and before you know they will have every right to shut us up. Know thine enemy.
November 2nd, 2007 at 8:56 am
Hi Jared. I would agree that Phelps is not a liberal. His views are a distortion of Christianity. What troubles me is that some here use the word Fundamentalist Christian to describe Phelps yet they have no idea what that term actually means. If they did they would not use it to describe Phelps. Rather they would call him what he truly is; a non-Christian.
Fundamentalists Christians are simply those who hold to the fundamentals of the Christian faith. These fundamentals were affirmations of certain core doctrines of Christianity which were being denied by the liberal and modernist groups within Christianity. The fundamentals were published in 12 volumes entitled “The Fundamentals: A Testimony to the Truth” in the early 20th Century.
The goal was to state the core doctrines of the Christian faith as revealed in Scripture. These core doctrines were things like the inerrancey and authority of Scripture, virgin birth of Christ, substitutionary atonement, bodily resurrection of Christ, and the imminent return of Christ.
If you hold to these doctrines you would be considered a fundamentalist Christian in the strict sense of the word. Fundamentalism has nothing to do with violence, or insanity. In fact you probably work and play with fundamentalist Christians all the time. They are your neighbors. In fact a true fundamentalist Christian will be characterized by a love for God and a love for fellowman.
Sure some who hold to these doctrines act like they are insane but there are countless others who hold to these core doctrines who do not. Phelps is not crazy because he is a fundamentalist. He is crazy well…..becasue he is crazy. In fact I would say that he is not a true fundamentalist Christian because he violates the most basic tenet of fundamentalism, the authority of Scripture. He does not submit to the teachings of Scripture. Instead he creates his own beliefs and uses the Bible out of context to justify them. In the end Scripture is not the authority, he is.
To hold Phelps up as the epitome of fundamentalist Christianity because he claims to hold to certain Christian beliefs is like holding him up as the epitome of a true cowboy because he wears a cowboy hat.
Words mean something. We need to study history to find out what they mean.
- Peace
November 2nd, 2007 at 9:23 am
This Phelps guy and his followers are Bad news but on the flip side of this church’s reprehensible message , it is protected by the Constitution. I DO expect the judgment to be tossed on appeal. Protests are meant to be polarize issues and I’m sure this group of ‘non-liberals’ are basking in their glory regardless of any legal judgment. Hopefully, this church isn’t on the Congressional earmark funding list as so many are!
November 2nd, 2007 at 11:26 am
Dsmith, You are right and I was wrong. Phelps is not a fundamentalist Christian, or any other type of Christian.
I stayed up until 1 a.m. this morning reading the article that Carnifex provided a link to, and it shows very clearly that Phelps is an evil man, racked by insanity, sadism and a messianic complex.
He should be in jail for what he did to his children.
Jared, he’s not a liberal, he’s just a sick SOB.
November 3rd, 2007 at 6:55 pm
Phelps sounds like a ditto head to me.