Fred Phelps

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Fred Phelps bigraphy, stories - American pastor and activist

Fred Phelps : biography

November 13, 1929 –

Fred Waldron Phelps, Sr. (born November 13, 1929) is an American pastor heading the Westboro Baptist Church (WBC), an independent Baptist church based in Topeka, Kansas. Phelps is a disbarred lawyer, founder of the Phelps Chartered law firm, and a former civil rights activist. A member of the Democratic Party, he has occasionally run for political office. In the election for United States Senator for Kansas in 1992, he received 49,416 votes (30.8%) in the Democratic primary, coming in second after Gloria O’Dell (who subsequently lost to later presidential candidate Bob Dole).

Phelps’s followers frequently picket various events, such as military funerals, gay pride gatherings, high-profile political gatherings, university commencement ceremonies, performances of The Laramie Project, mainstream Christian gatherings and concerts with which he had no affiliation, arguing it is their sacred duty to warn others of God’s anger.

In response to Phelps’ protests at military funerals, President George W. Bush signed the Respect for America’s Fallen Heroes Act into law in May 2006, and, in April 2007, Kansas governor Kathleen Sebelius signed into law a bill establishing a 150-foot no-picketing buffer zone around funerals. , 8 other states have enacted similar laws and 10 more were considering it. On August 6, 2012, President Obama signed , the Honoring America’s Veterans and Caring for Camp Lejeune Families Act of 2012, U.S. House of Representatives (accessed 2013-02-21) which, among other things, requires a 300-foot and 2-hour buffer zone around military funerals.

He is known for the slogans that he and his ministry use against people he deems sinful; his church is built around a core of anti-homosexual theology, with many of their activities stemming from the slogan "God hates fags", which is also the name of the group’s main website. –>Gay rights supporters have denounced him as a producer of anti-gay propaganda and violence-inspiring hate speech. The church is considered a hate group and monitored by the Anti-Defamation League and Southern Poverty Law Center.

Life

Childhood

Phelps was born in Meridian, Mississippi, the elder of two children to Catherine Idalette Johnston and Fred Wade Phelps. His father was a railway police man for the Columbus and Greenville Railway and his mother was a homemaker.

On September 3, 1935, when Phelps was five years old, his mother died of esophageal cancer at the age of 28. After the death of their mother, Phelps and his younger sister were raised by their great-aunt Irene Jordan in Meridian. Jordan later died in a car accident in 1950. On December 25, 1944, Phelps’ father married Olive Briggs, and Phelps and his sister were raised by their father and stepmother in Meridian. By the mid-1950s, Phelps was estranged from his parents, never spoke to them, and returned all their letters unopened.http://cjonline.com/indepth/phelps/stories/080394_phelps14.shtml

Education

Phelps was a member of the Boy Scouts of America, receiving the Eagle Scout Award.http://www.kansas.com/2012/12/18/2608194/2006-what-led-fred-phelps-to-his.html In May 1946, at the age of 16, Phelps graduated from high school and was admitted to United States Military Academy in West Point, New York. After attending a Methodist revival meeting, however, Phelps decided to become a minister and chose not to attend West Point. In August 1947, Phelps enrolled as a student at Bob Jones University, but dropped out after only three semesters. He then attended the Prairie Bible Institute for the remaining two semesters of his freshman year. In 1951, he earned a two-year degree from John Muir College. While at John Muir, Phelps was profiled in Time magazine for preaching against "sins committed on campus by students and teachers … promiscuous petting … evil language … profanity … cheating … teachers’ filthy jokes in classrooms … [and] pandering to the lusts of the flesh". In October 1951, while attending the Arizona Bible Institute, Phelps met Margie M. Simms and married her in May 1952.