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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe Lessons of My Father – Nathan Phelps Speaks Out on Fred Phelps’ Death
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 24 2014 On behalf of Nathan Phelps, son of former Westboro Baptist Church leader Fred Phelps, Recovering From Religion issues the following official statement:
Fred Phelps is now the past. The present and the future are for the living. Unfortunately, Freds ideas have not died with him, but live on, not just among the members of Westboro Baptist Church, but among the many communities and small minds that refuse to recognize the equality and humanity of our brothers and sisters on this small planet we share. I will mourn his passing, not for the man he was, but for the man he could have been. I deeply mourn the grief and pain felt by my family members denied their right to visit him in his final days. They deserved the right to finally have closure to decades of rejection, and that was stolen from them.
Even more, I mourn the ongoing injustices against the LGBT community, the unfortunate target of his 23 year campaign of hate. His life impacted many outside the walls of the WBC compound, uniting us across all spectrums of orientation and belief as we realized our strength lies in our commonalities, and not our differences. How many times have communities risen up together in a united wall against the harassment of my family? Differences have been set aside for that cause, tremendous and loving joint efforts mobilized within hours
and because of that, I ask this of everyone let his death mean something. Let every mention of his name and of his church be a constant reminder of the tremendous good we are all capable of doing in our communities.
The lessons of my father were not unique to him, nor will this be the last we hear of his words, which are echoed from pulpits as close as other churches in Topeka, Kansas, where WBC headquarters remain, and as far away as Uganda. Lets end the support of hateful and divisive teachings describing the LGBT community as less than, sinful, or abnormal. Embrace the LGBT community as our equals, our true brothers and sisters, by promoting equal rights for everyone, without exception. My father was a man of action, and I implore us all to embrace that small portion of his faulty legacy by doing the same.
http://recoveringfromreligion.org/584-2/
Thinkingabout
(30,058 posts)Towards days without hate. I am sorry for you, again thanks for sharing.
Warpy
(111,359 posts)and that was to reject what he stood for and to avoid being anything like him.
I'm convinced that some people are on earth to give us examples of what happens when people turn rotten, to instruct us not to follow their example.
tavalon
(27,985 posts)and some of the lessons of my maternal grandfather. Unfortunately, it isn't as easy as it might seem. Living a life against is no life. Finding a new path is the hard and less traveled road.
peace,
kp
Curmudgeoness
(18,219 posts)I commend him for speaking out.
tavalon
(27,985 posts)I'm sorry for your loss, one that has gone on and on for you. Maybe, it can ease now. I don't know.
AuntPatsy
(9,904 posts)Are better than far too many others
imthevicar
(811 posts)Wake us up and unite us to see the injustice visited upon the LGBT Community. He was also a Canary in the coal mine. if he was silenced, no matter how much hate he spewed. That would spell the end of free speech. Irony is a strange thing....
SunSeeker
(51,726 posts)skepticscott
(13,029 posts)of letting Fred Phelps' death "mean something". He doesn't deserve to have any meaning attached to his death or his despicable life. The rest of us don't need to remember his religiously-based hatred and bigotry to know what's right and decent, or to recognize those who are still against it. If not for Phelps and people like him, marriage equality wouldn't even be a fight, it would have been the law of the land by now. So let's just leave him out of the conversation from now on. Forever. If his son wants to do what's right, good for him, but tell him to leave his father's name where it belongs. On the dung heap of history.
Raine1967
(11,589 posts)that was filled with hate, mean something in the bigger picture.
I know it a strange thing, but Phelps was his Dad. I don't think anyone is trying to say Fred meant something -- not the person, but rather ...
his legacy can be used to show what real hate can do and how real hate can be shunned in order for good to happen.
skepticscott
(13,029 posts)to show us any of that. Sucks that you don't get to decide what kind of person you're going to be son to, but Nathan will just have to cope with having had a horrible human being for a father. Trying to make him an inspiration of any kind is really sick.
Raine1967
(11,589 posts)No one is trying to make Phelps an inspiration.
I think you are missing the point.
roody
(10,849 posts)bluestate10
(10,942 posts)conquers hate. Nathan Phelps stated that rock solid principle beautifully.
cr8tvlde
(1,185 posts)gopiscrap
(23,765 posts)pipoman
(16,038 posts)The test will be time. We will see what happens to the family going forward. If more turn out like Nathan, society wins, if any turn out like Fred, society loses.