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In case you don't know, Fred Phelps Sr. is the "head pastor" of Westboro Baptist Church, the jolly folks who brought us www.godhatesfags.com and several tacky protests at soldiers' funerals. Despite the name, the church is not actually Baptist; Phelps quit his local Baptist church in a huff after they refused to place more emphasis on hellfire and ***-hatred. He has also been described as a "first-class nut" by Jerry Falwell, of all people. Nobody goes further than this crowd in blind hatred of homosexuals.
They also dislike the Jews and have a suspiciously condescending attitude towards nonwhites in general, but mostly they hate gays (I am indebted for this info to Wikipedia's staggeringly large entry on the Church). They believe homosexuality is the greatest of sins or some such (worse than robbery, rape, patricide...), and that it is also sinful to not rejoice at the news of disasters because all disasters are a sign of God's wrath against the Sodomites.
Their psychosis goes above and beyond the usual pharisee-ism, to the point where it honestly baffles me. It's not even remotely normal for ostensibly straight people to spend that much time obsessing over gay sex. So, it seems to me there are several possibilities here to explain it:
*Phelps is a deeply closeted, self-loathing homosexual. I'd actually be surprised if this were not the case; I'm listing it as a "possibility" just because I'm not sure it's a sufficient explanation by itself.
*The man's frigging nuts. Literally, I mean, as in some schizo-type disorder. This would explain a lot, but he's suspiciously capable both of managing a community of several hundred people and at scheming for publicity. He's a disbarred attorney and apparently the church is kept afloat partly by suing everyone who tries to restrict their protests. A bit canny for a man totally separated from reality.
*Drugs. Supposedly he was charged a few years ago with pot possession. The problem is that pot is supposed to mellow you out. But he could be combining other stuff with it.
*He's playing the Cult Leader game. The WBC is comprised of a few hundred people, almost all related to Phelps by blood or marriage. They live in a massive enclosed compound in Kansas. Yeah, it sounds like Waco to me too, though there's no evidence yet that he's boning little girls.
*This is a massive surrealist prank, and Phelps is just an unusually persistent dadaist with no sense of responsibility.
Um...any guesses?
They also dislike the Jews and have a suspiciously condescending attitude towards nonwhites in general, but mostly they hate gays (I am indebted for this info to Wikipedia's staggeringly large entry on the Church). They believe homosexuality is the greatest of sins or some such (worse than robbery, rape, patricide...), and that it is also sinful to not rejoice at the news of disasters because all disasters are a sign of God's wrath against the Sodomites.
Their psychosis goes above and beyond the usual pharisee-ism, to the point where it honestly baffles me. It's not even remotely normal for ostensibly straight people to spend that much time obsessing over gay sex. So, it seems to me there are several possibilities here to explain it:
*Phelps is a deeply closeted, self-loathing homosexual. I'd actually be surprised if this were not the case; I'm listing it as a "possibility" just because I'm not sure it's a sufficient explanation by itself.
*The man's frigging nuts. Literally, I mean, as in some schizo-type disorder. This would explain a lot, but he's suspiciously capable both of managing a community of several hundred people and at scheming for publicity. He's a disbarred attorney and apparently the church is kept afloat partly by suing everyone who tries to restrict their protests. A bit canny for a man totally separated from reality.
*Drugs. Supposedly he was charged a few years ago with pot possession. The problem is that pot is supposed to mellow you out. But he could be combining other stuff with it.
*He's playing the Cult Leader game. The WBC is comprised of a few hundred people, almost all related to Phelps by blood or marriage. They live in a massive enclosed compound in Kansas. Yeah, it sounds like Waco to me too, though there's no evidence yet that he's boning little girls.
*This is a massive surrealist prank, and Phelps is just an unusually persistent dadaist with no sense of responsibility.
Um...any guesses?
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