(PCM) Fred Phelps, who founded the Westboro Baptist Church, died late Wednesday evening, March 19, 2014.
While reports were rampant this week that he was at death’s door, along with rumors that he had been kicked out of his own church, we last heard official word that was having some health issues last Sunday: “I can tell you that Fred Phelps is having some health problems,” WBC spokesman Steve Drain told the Lawrence Journal-World. “He’s an old man, and old people get health problems.”
Nate Phelps, one of Fred Phelps’ estranged children, wrote a Facebook post on March 15 saying his father was “on the edge of death at Midland Hospice house in Topeka, Kansas.”
There will reportedly be no public funeral (story) Church member Margie Phelps tweeted “We don’t worship the dead in this church, so there’d be no public memorial or funeral to picket if any member died.”
Many would agree that he caused a lot of needless pain to many American citizens, from fallen soldiers to gays, even to Christian (and non-Christian) religious groups by protesting and picketing at funerals for just about anyone who didn’t see God the same way he did.
Many will celebrate his death, other will let him quietly pass into the darkness. We should keep in mind that he has friends and family, children and grandchildren, who lost a father, grandfather, and friend…
So watch what you may wish to shout at or about him. If you had a family member or friend who derailed themselves from ‘normal’ society – how would you want to be treated while grieving your loss.
Be nice. He’s getting his just rewards, and reacting like the WBC acts, and putting yourselves down to their level, won’t help anybody.