Addicted to Hate

By JON MICHAEL BELL
Added: Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:00:00 UTC

Reposted from:
http://www.blank.org/addict/

This is an article/book from 1994 on the Phelps family and Westboro Baptist Church that was made available on the web after the author ran into difficulties getting it published. Nate Phelps' story is a bit out-of-date (see his American Atheists speech for an update), but I thought this was a very informative piece, and worthy of cross-posting. - Josh

For those unfamiliar with Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church:
'The Most Hated Family in America' by Louis Theroux, BBC2

Also see Nate Phelps' post about Richard Dawkins' question at the American Atheists conference: Why isn't that man in jail?

CHAPTER ONE

A TIME magazine article from 1950 hangs framed on the wall. It's about a college student's crusade against necking on a campus in Southern California.

That student's office in Kansas today is aclack with fax machines and ringing phones, but the chair behind the great mahogany desk is empty.

When the former campus evangelist finally bursts in, he is trailed by grandchildren-so many sixth-grade secretaries-gophering, sending faxes, fetching papers-and a glass of water for the reporter.

Thoughtful. It's 93 outside.

"Sit down," says Fred Phelps, rumored ogre, with an effusive Southern graciousness. "But I got to tell you, you know we're going to preach the word, the same thing I've been preaching for 46 years, and it's supremely, supremely irrelevant to us what anybody thinks or says. "You get a little bit of this message I'm preaching, you can't ask for anything more. God hates fags-that's a synopsis."

Continue reading:
http://www.blank.org/addict/

Download the full document as a PDF (101 pages)

TAGGED: -, BOOKS, RELIGION

RELATED CONTENT

Planet of the apes

Stephen Cave - Financial Times Comments

What we really know about our evolutionary past – and what we don’t

Magic at Every Age A review of Richard...

Stacy L. Memering,Viviana A.... Comments

Magic at Every Age
A review of Richard Dawkins, The Magic of Reality: How We Know What’s Really True

CCI: DAVE MCKEAN ON DAWKINS, CHRIST AND...

Andy Liegl - CBR (Comic Book... Comments

In front of a packed crowd during his panel titled "My Two Years with Dawkins, Christ and a Small Crab Called Eric" at Comic-Con International in San Diego, artist, writer and indie filmmaker Dave McKean recounted two recent life events on radically opposite ends of the philosophical spectrum: an all-ages book he illustrated with scientist and Atheism proponent Richard Dawkins called "The Magic of Reality," and a film he shot starring Michael Sheen in Port Talbot, Wales called "The Gospel of Us," a modern day interpretation of "The Passion" story chronicling Jesus Christ's final days of life on Earth.

Redeeming God in Canaan

Doctor Science - Obsidian Wings Comments

Last weekend I noticed two religion blogs, one Jewish and one evangelical (though not fundamentalist) Christian, discussing the same passages in the Bible: the ones commanding the Israelites to fight, slaughter, enslave, and dispossess the Canaanite inhabitants of the Land of Israel. To commit genocide, in fact.