Fred Phelps and Westboro Baptist Church God Hates Fags Campaign Coming to Albany

March 11, 2009 Update: The Westboro Baptist Church came to Albany and I took some photos and videos of it.

Here is a link to the slide show;

https://publish.associatedcontent.com/cms_queue.shtml?content_type=slideshow

Here is a link to a five minute movie I made called Fred Phelps Hates Albany:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDo13v1xDUg

Rev. Fred Phelps is coming to Albany, or at least some members of his church, the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas, are. If you don't know who Fred Phelps is, it isn't because he hasn't tried to get your attention.

Getting attention, particularly media attention, is one thing Phelps is good at, much like other leaders of small radical groups. Fred Phelps has spent the last two decades holding demonstrations against homosexuality. In recent years, he and his followers have picketed the funerals of soldiers returning from Iraq because they believe their deaths are God's punishment for America's toleration of homosexuality.

I have no doubt the media will be there when the Westboro Baptist Church members arrive on March 6 at 7:15 a.m. to picket Albany High School. The church's Web site states "we will tell you [students at Albany High] the only truth that might save your never dying souls, to wit: God Hates Fags, God Hates Fag Enablers, God Hates You, The Siege Is Here, You Hate Your Kids/You Eat Your Kids, Obama Is The Antichrist."

But there won't be anything new for the media to report, except that this is the first time the Westboro Baptist Church has picketed in Albany. The church has already carried out more than 39,000 demonstrations. Each one is similar. The members carry signs espousing the slogans that I quoted in the last paragraph. They shout at motorists. Some motorists shout back and give them the finger. Gay rights and other activists hold a counter-protest. And when all is said and done, a lot of heat has been generated by both sides but no light.

While preparing to write this article, I read dozens of articles on Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church, watched interviews and watched a documentary that the BBC did on Phelps. The documentary, filmed by Louis Theroux, has an ironic title - "The Most Hated Family In America." One would have thought it would be called "The Most Hate-Filled Family In America."

But maybe Theroux was hinting at something in the title. For if the hatred expressed by Fred Phelps and his church is troubling, as indeed it is, the hatred expressed toward Phelps and his church is equally troubling.

In the documentary, you see a car drive by with its license plate covered. A man hurls a heavy plastic drinking cup at the protesters and hits one of Phelps' grandsons in the face. While the child is not hurt seriously, he cries and you can see a mark on his face. People regularly call the church with death threats, and there are many bullet holes in the building from drive-by shooters. And on one occasion, the church was bombed.

Is the hatred of the counter-protesters any more righteous than that of Phelps and his church members? To me, Fred Phelps is a man to pity, not hate. His life has been a failure. After 55 years of preaching, his church has only 71 members, most of them his relatives. Even the late Jerry Falwell denounced Phelps. (Phelps in turn picketed Falwell's funeral.) My gut reaction after researching Fred Phelps is that he is an angry old man who seems to have suffered a psychological injury at some point in life.

His son Mark, one of his four estranged children (he has 13), backs up my surmise in a letter to the editor of a Topeka newspaper.

"He [Fred] can use foul language and come across with a booming voice to the community, but the truth is, like the Wizard of Oz, when Toto pulls the curtain back, instead of this big powerful individual, it's only a small, pathetic old man. I feel sorry for my father as I would for anyone who displays this kind of hate and evil viciousness. These can only be the manifestations of tortured, injured and agonizing souls."

Fred Phelps is a disbarred attorney. At one time, however, he represented blacks in civil rights actions, and two chapters of the NAACP honored him with awards for his service. What happened to Phelps since then? No one seems to know and, except for a few reporters in Topeka, no one seems to care.

Counter-protests are already being planned for the demonstration in Albany. Everything points to the event being a repeat of past demonstrations. The only thing that could be different is how the media handles the event. Will the media give us the same shallow reports that they have given at past demonstrations, or will they try to do something different? Will they be able to see that these people are the brainwashed followers of a demented man? Will they try to use Fred Phelps to blackball all Christians in the same way someone might use Joseph Stalin to blackball all atheists? Will they report the hate coming from the counter-protesters as well as the protesters? Will they discuss the First Amendment issues raised by the demonstration?

If not, they might as well stay home. Because the only thing duller than watching one more cookie cutter Westboro Baptist demonstration is watching one more same old, same old report of the event by the media.

Click here for more information on the Phelps Family and Westboro Baptist Church.