Community | March 17, 2011 | 54 comments

Estranged son of anti-gay Westboro pastor says father does 'evil'

source: http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/03/16/westboro.nate.phelps/index.html?hpt=Sbin

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rustyred
(CNN) -- An estranged son of anti-gay Kansas pastor Fred Phelps said Wednesday that the spiritual leader of Westboro Baptist Church hit his wife and beat his children with a mattock handle until they bled.
"I think what he does out there is evil," said Nathan "Nate" Phelps, during an appearance on HLN's "Issues with Jane Velez-Mitchell."
Nate Phelps is the seventh of the Westboro Baptist minister's 12 children. The younger Phelps severed ties with his family on his 18th birthday and said he hasn't had contact with his father in three decades. Nate Phelps is currently writing a book about his family.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled earlier this month that Westboro's practice of picketing the funerals of fallen soldiers with offensive placards is constitutionally protected free speech. The picketing, which includes chants and placards stating "God Hates Fags" and "Thank God for Dead Soldiers," have enraged supporters of the U.S. military and the families and friends of slain soldiers.
Nate Phelps called his pastor father "one of the best reasons that America has been forced to get off the fence and address this issue (of gay rights)."
"But at the same time you can't ignore the fact that he's done a lot of damage," Phelps said. "He's hurt a lot of families, not only in the gay community, but the families of these soldiers."
The younger Phelps said his father also hurt his own family.
"He used his fists. He used his knees and he used ... the handle of a mattock," said Phelps, referring to a pick-like digging tool. "He used that in such a way that it split the skin on the back of the kid's legs so they bled."
"If they want to call that discipline, that's fine. But I call it abuse," Phelps said.
The son said Fred Phelps also hit his mother, but not with the handle of the mattock.
Phelps has also said his father abused prescription drugs when he was in law school. He didn't back down from the claim during the HLN interview.
Velez-Mitchell read a statement from Nate Phelps' sister, Shirley Phelps-Roper, denying the claim.
"Yikes. Hell no. His (Nate Phelps') imagination goes on and on," Roper wrote "This lie should not have come out of his mouth when he decided to reject the word of God. Nothing he can say will change the fact that God hates (homosexuals) and their enablers and therefore God hates America and America is doomed."
Nate Phelps responded that his sister "just cynically lies about what happened."
Likewise, Phelps said his father manipulates facts and circumstances to reach false conclusions.
"My father can make any connection to anything that anyone has done or hasn't done in their life and point to that to say that that's evidence they're damned and going to hell," Phelps said. "He's convinced that homosexuality is the ultimate sin against God.
"So since the United States is taking steps to move in the direction of equality for gays in America, he says that has doomed America," Phelps said. "So anyone who is connected to America, so anyone who is supporting America in any sense is subject to the wrath of God."
When asked what he would say to his father if he could, Nate Phelps replied, "I've never had a relationship with my father. I wouldn't know what to say to him."
There was no immediate public response from Fred Phelps to his son's televised remarks.
http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/03/16/westboro.nate.phelps/index.html?hpt=Sbin
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54 comments // Estranged son of anti-gay Westboro pastor says father does 'evil'

  • sugarlilly
    • 0
      sugarlilly  

    • & in 30 years when Fred Phelps' youngest son is feeling brave enough, he'll write a book about how his father molested him growing up. you hate that which you are.

    • 1 year ago
  • dreamsenvoy
  • LowShred
  • Jeremy_Benson
    • +1
      Jeremy_Benson  
    • LowShred:

      No, because the rest of his family is brainwashed to support him and Phelps is an excellent lawyer anyway. The family won't corroborate and the jury will be unable to convict due to lack of evidence.

    • 1 year ago
  • sageohio
    • 0
      sageohio  

    • yes its true to say some of the Phelps granddaughters are some hotties and its a shame they'll never experience true love.
      listen to them in interviews and they've already given up on serious relationships because of this so-called religion. they dont or cant date because of it.
      guess they never read the part of the wholly babble of being fruitful and mulitplying.

    • 1 year ago
  • Pollywollydoodle
  • August_K
    • +4
      August_K  

    • Sadly that's how MOST of these supposedly religious wack jobs control people.......
      with FEAR and relentless cult style brainwashing.

      Now that I think about it, most religions use fear (and guilt) to control people.

      Now that the truth is coming out maybe authorities will check on the
      welfare of the other kids in his cult?

    • 1 year ago
  • KSirys
    • +8
      KSirys  

    • Fucking coward, how about he tries that on someone that will hit back? Yeah, all in the name of Jesus, fucking coward!

    • 1 year ago
  • wizardofoz
    • +3
      wizardofoz  
    • KSirys:

      +^d! Ksirys, Fucking coward indeed! I'm glad the children are speaking up now. As more and more children and victims speak up, the better off they all will be.

    • 1 year ago
  • KSirys
  • coxian_armada
  • randallr01
  • KSirys
  • Leen61
  • PeteLeS33
  • bike10
  • COMMONSENSEFORCOMMONGOOD_COM
  • thepatient
  • jennilamb007
  • freecrack
  • KSirys
  • freecrack
    • +2
      freecrack  
    • KSirys:

      i get the fear bit, but i still dont get it.
      i mean i get being afraid of being punished brutaly, but once public he would be safe as daddy goes bye bye.
      but the bigger point is the kid has had no contact with dear ol dad for three decades.

      the first time "god hates fags" was evident to him he should have made a move.

      i know im a harsh prick on this

    • 1 year ago
  • KSirys
    • +1
      KSirys  
    • freecrack:

      Not at all, i understand your concern. But, it's just like the woman that gets beat and doesn't tell anyone about it, or a kid who was sexually abused by a priest and doesn't tell anyone until he's 30 or 40... it's the same thing and it could be attributed to shame, pain of going through it again, guilty feelings sexual abuse causes, and there are people who believe it was their fault; that they caused the abuse for whatever reason.

      Also, amnesia or traumatic dissociation prevents people from reporting it because they don’t remember until many years later.

      We never know why a person takes so long in reporting the abuse, but lets just be happy that they finally did it and now we know who the coward is that should be punish. Those are the people we need to focus on...

    • 1 year ago
  • jennilamb007
    • +7
      jennilamb007  

    • I commend this man for coming forward. It would take a lot of bravery to admit that he sprung from the loins of this hateful, pathetic excuse for a man. I figure it would be a lot like saying Hitler or Manson was your dad. I am not at all surprised to hear about the twisted goings on in the Phelps household and I'm not surprised by the daughter's reaction either. She is obviously brainwashed. The whole congregation is brainwashed. I guess nothing will be done with this group until they pull a Waco or a Jim Jones Kool-Aid party.

    • 1 year ago
  • UtopianSky
  • wyndesonge
  • FLeggplant
    • +22
      FLeggplant  

    • “You can tell you have created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do”
      Anne Lamott

    • 1 year ago
  • Pollywollydoodle
  • Equinator
  • carmalite
  • artemis6
  • twinite
  • Littlewolf
  • bundlebear
  • Varex_Sythe
    • +16
      Varex_Sythe  

    • Ah, it's comforting to know that there are still people out there that practice good old fashioned family values...

      Sarcasm aside, I have to wonder... Assuming that Nate is being factual, what kind of insanity does his sister have to be infected with where she does not chastise her father for the beatings and his hateful mannerism, yet she knows that it is socially considered wrong and denies the violence ever occurred? Unless something comes up to disprove Nate, I am going to believe his recollection, because let's be honest, Westboro and its followers are fucking insane.

    • 1 year ago
  • carmalite
    • +4
      carmalite  
    • Varex_Sythe:

      Sen. Davit Vitter was speaking to Baptist Church members about family values while he was seeing prostitutes. And the dummies who "believe in family values in Louisiana" still voted him into office again. They know they are liars and they know they don't take their religion seriously, and they don't care. Its just a social club for them.

    • 1 year ago
  • UtopianSky
    • +4
      UtopianSky  
    • Varex_Sythe:

      You say:
      "vwhat kind of insanity does his sister have to be infected with where she does not chastise her father for the beatings and his hateful mannerism, yet she knows that it is socially considered wrong and denies the violence ever occurred?"

      Stockholm syndrome. Battered wives and battered children often believe they are at fault, and the abuser was right for beating them. They love their abuser, and believe that they love them as well.

      Being abused damages the mind more than the body.

    • 1 year ago
  • Varex_Sythe
  • CalPal
    • +2
      CalPal  
    • Varex_Sythe:

      You love someone, you protect them.

      That's the most twisted part of the syndrome: you have no one else to love but the abuser, so you're forced to protect him/her, even though the logical thing to do would be to get as far away as possible from them. She's most likely lying to protect him, which is terrible, really.

    • 1 year ago
  • FLeggplant
    • +16
      FLeggplant  

    • So, since this pathetic hater (Phelps Sr.) lives in America I guess he's doomed and God hates him too.
      If he really believed that God hates America because of Gay people then he would move far away as to avoid God's wrath.
      I feel for his children.
      Must have been hell growing up in a family filled with hate and violence.
      The true Hell is here on earth.

    • 1 year ago
  • ecoalex
    • +13
      ecoalex  

    • The Phelps "family" is a cult with all the sickness a cult is.It is no surprise Papa Phelps is an abuser.He is one deranged SOB.

    • 1 year ago
  • Nephwrack
    • +13
      Nephwrack  

    • i think phelps and his clan know exactly how evil they are. they make their money from the grief and anger of good people.

    • 1 year ago
  • August_K
  • organized_chaos
    • +12
      organized_chaos  

    • I wish someone could just sit Fred Phelps down and give him a damn history lesson. Evolution is FACT. We came from Apes. Apes are bisexual. Our ancestors were bisexual. Then, many many years later religion came long and it has evolved like a game of telephone. One religious group's belief should NOT control the rights of others. Period. Especially since it actually goes against Human rights. Humans were here before the Bible.

    • 1 year ago
  • rustyred
  • Nephwrack
  • littlwarrior
    • +14
      littlwarrior  

    • Fred Phelps doesn't understand his own malice and hate, he lives in a place where it is easier to make everyone else wrong and himself constantly right. Its the only way he knows how to cope. He will come to regret his rage in time, even if it is when finally gets to hell and finds out that all the gay guys have made a river of fire cruise line and wont let him on cause he was an ass. If all the gays are going to hell who in the hell wants to go to heaven?

    • 10 months ago
  • freecrack
    • +2
      freecrack  
    • littlwarrior:

      if the generalizations of gays hold any water, and heaven is paradise, then the gays are in heaven.as who could qualify to decorate paradise more than the gays?
      plus no breeding, and an eternity with out children is paradise.

    • 1 year ago
  • MikeMaddigan
  • ClassicalGas
    • +13
      ClassicalGas  

    • Fred Phelps is a seriously twisted individual and I am amazed that his 'family' has not walked off and left him in the dust. At least Nate had the sense to save himself. I wish the other children could be removed from that toxic atmosphere.

    • 1 year ago
  • HarukoHaruhara
  • TommyNY
    • +9
      TommyNY  

    • I think any guy that hits a women or child are a pussy. Lock him up in prison and lets see how tough he really is playing with the big boys in there.

    • 1 year ago
  • freecrack
  • rustyred
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