Beware of the Man of One Book

Westwood Baptist Church (WBC) of Topeka, Kansas has to be the most venomous place in the US, the subject of a documentary entitled, The Most Hated Family in America. Essentially, it is a hate group masquerading as a church. Members of WBC hate just about everything and everybody, including their own country and its Constitution that allows them to spew their perverted, hate-filled messages. One of their most disgusting practices is to picket the funerals of American servicemen with signs proclaiming, for example, God Hates Fags, God Hates America, Thank God for AIDS, Thank God for 9/11, and on and on ad nauseum.

WBC picketers in 2006 disrupted the funeral of Matthew Snyder, a Marine killed in Iraq. The following year a federal jury in Baltimore awarded $11 million in damages to Albert Snyder, the Marine's father. The award was reduced to $5 million, and overturned on appeal for infringement of free speech. Then Snyder was hit with a $16,510 bill for court costs. The US Supreme Court recently agreed to hear the case.

Westwood Baptist was founded in 1955 by Fred Phelps, once a civil rights attorney, who claims that most of the world’s natural disasters and terrorist attacks are God’s punishment for a society that tolerates homosexuality. Phelps harbors the delusion that he is the only righteous man on earth, according to some of his sons who describe the church as a well-organized cult. The congregation of WBC is primarily Phelps’ family and some friends and neighbors. Phelps has 13 children and his daughter, Shirley Phelps-Roper, has 11, her first born out of wedlock. Curious, since the church is loudly opposed to fornication.

Phelps describes himself as an old school Baptist and Calvinist, although both groups disavow Phelps and his church. His anti-homosexual theology forms the core of his church’s doctrine, which uses “God Hates Fags” as both a church slogan and main website. He uses quotes from the Bible to justify his claim that God hates what Phelps considers sinners. Both Phelps and his daughter, Shirley were banned from the UK for inciting hatred, and WBC is designated a hate group by the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Here is a short list of the many things WBC hates, although they make “God” responsible for the hatred:
Homosexuals
Jews
Muslims
Priests & Catholics
Protestants
Hindus
Eastern Orthodoxy (Greece)
America
Sweden
Italy
Ireland
Lady Gaga
The Laramie Project
Et al.

Westboro Baptist Church
3701 W 12th Street
Topeka, KS 66604
(785) 273-0325

Does anyone beside me find the first three digits of WBC’s zip code to be a bit ironic?