Hatred Personified: Fred Phelps and the Religious Cult He Leads

Many of you may have heard about Fred Phelps and his church, the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas. Odds are if you did you were saddened, angered and disgusted. Fred Phelps and his family picket across the world spreading hate and evil while using religion to justify their cause.

They openly express a deep-rooted and evil hatred of homosexuals and picket with signs that say things like, "God Hates Fags" or "Fags Die, God Laughs". They believe there is no redemption or excuse for being gay and that homosexuals as well as "fag-enablers" are all damned to Hell. Their hatred knows no bounds and they have even blamed the tragedy of September 11th, 2001 on the homosexual lifestyles of Americans.

As if this isn't bad enough, Fred Phelps has trained his family to believe that soldiers dying in Iraq are a good thing that God has orchestrated. They picket at the funerals of soldiers who die in combat and hold up signs saying, "Thank God for 9/11", or "God Hates You" while praising the death of American soldiers. Most of the picketers are young children and teenagers all brainwashed into believing what they are doing is "God's work".

Fred Phelps' hatred flows to everyone including Jews, Irish, Swedish and much more. They run several websites that all express deeply disturbed and warped views of the messages found in the Bible. Many theologists have presented proof that Fred Phelps is not interpreting the Bible correctly, however, his radical approach brings him and his followers all the attention.

According to Wikipedia, a "cult roughly refers to a cohesive social group devoted to beliefs or practices that the surrounding culture considers outside the mainstream". This is one of the views of a cult and this particular definition can include those who may follow a certain genre of music or art, for example. A perfect example would be people who love "The Rocky Horror Picture Show". The type of cult that Fred Phelps leads, however, is much more sinister and is the very representation of the Webster's dictionary definition of a cult: "a quasi-religious group, often living in a colony, with a charismatic leader who indoctrinates members with unorthodox or extremist views, practices or beliefs".

The "colony" of Fred Phelps would be his congregation that is almost entirely made up of his own bloodline. The documentary Fall From Grace gives an inside view of these people and even interviews children who openly express their hatred of "fags" even though they have no clue what it means to be a "fag". One child in the film shouts that the "fags" are evil and going to burn in Hell. This profoundly sad look into the hearts of children brought tears to my eyes.

The hatred of Fred Phelps has manifested itself in many ways throughout his lifetime and has evolved to create terrorists in our own backyards. They wave the American flag upside down, kick it on the ground and stomp on it. They sing their own version of "God Bless America" that includes lyrics supporting the death of soldiers and "godless" Americans. Unfortunately we cannot discriminate on freedom of speech, although I strongly believe that this behavior should actually be considered terrorism and child abuse. However, we must allow this expression to maintain our unbiased representation of the right to free speech.

What is amusing is that the Phelps group often expresses how they will never back down, never stop "doing God's work". What they fail to recognize, however, is the fact that if they lived in some other country there is a good chance they'd be dead by now. They do recognize that America was once a great country, but now blame its downfall completely on the homosexual community and those that support the right to be gay.

Of the 13 children Phelps has created, four are no longer associated with the church. During a phone interview with two of these children in in the film Fall From Grace the audience begins to truly understand the deep psychological illness this man suffers from. Intensely evil, one of his children describes him as actually being addicted to hatred.

Fred Phelps must get his daily fix of anger and hatred or he can not survive. What is scary, however, is the fact that what he has created in his children is far worse than his own actions. His spawn are much angrier then Fred Phelps could ever be simply due to the fact that he raised them. From the first breath of life they took these sad people were breed into the cult of fear Phelps created.

One pastor who commented against Fred Phelps during the film said it best when he said that fear is the complete opposite of love, and with fear and lack of love you will always create hatred. He continued by saying that Fred Phelps is the man most in this world who needs love but is by far the least deserving of it.

When I first watched the documentary I was so angry it brought tears to my eyes. I have since fought the feelings of anger by wanting to remove myself as much as possible from the Fred Phelps cult. Feeling angry and hating Fred Phelps makes us just like him. By loving Fred Phelps and his congregation, we win.

For more information I strongly encourage you to watch the documentary, Fall From Grace. If you want to see firsthand the specific evil Fred Phelps and his followers spread you can visit his website www.godhatefags.com