Checking in With the Most Hated Family in America - The Westboro Baptist Church Pt. I
Who is the Westboro Baptist Church?
Are you for real right now?
Dude, I’m just a rhetorical tool for your blog posts, don’t take this up with me.
Fine, fine, fine. The Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) is a Kansas-based hate group notorious for their protests. They’d prefer you call them “pickets,” but who cares? At said protests, they’ll tout some of the most hateful signs you’ve ever seen, including (but I assure you not limited to) “F*g Troops,” “God loves dead soldiers,” “F*gs doom nations,” “No Tears For Qu**rs,” “Thank God For Sept. 11,” and “F*gs Burn In Hell.”
Woah woah woah, buddy, let’s slow down with the F-slur.
Listen, man, I don’t want to be here as much as you do. I’m just copying and pasting what I see. For what it’s worth, I’ve omitted rhetoric including a lot of egregious slurs because I don’t even want to go there.
Well that’s... something.
It’s not great.
Well how did this all begin?
Great question, Rhetorical Tool. It all began when Fred Waldron Phelps was born in Meridian, MI in 1939. He was born to a well-respected southern family and son to the father of a railroad detective. He was considered very bright and talented in his youth and graduated 6th of his class of 213 at the age of 17. Despite his laurels, his early life was also fraught with tragedy, including the death of his mother and maternal great aunt.
After his high school graduation, he waited to begin schooling at West Point. Just before going, he attended a baptist retreat and claimed he found his calling in preaching. Much to the disdain of his father, he dropped out of West Point and pursued a future as a preacher. In fact, his father was so upset he told Fred “You are not making people mad enough quick enough. I recommend you start kicking people in the shin. Just kick them in the shin. Then you won’t have to mess around with people getting mad because you’re certain to make them mad.”
Whoof.
We don’t have time to unpack that here, but I know a great podcast episode that goes into more detail.
So he became a priest?
He was, in fact, both a priest and a lawyer. He received an undergraduate degree in history from Washburn University in 1962 and a law degree from Washburn in 1964. However, his law career was soon muddied as members of the court sought his disbarment as early as 1969, only 5 years after he passed the bar, for inappropriate conduct in court. He was thrown into hot water in 1974 after relentlessly cross-examining Caroline Brady in a suit levied against her by Phelps himself. It was clear to the court that this was an exercise in vengeance and he was quoted saying that he’d wanted to sue her for a long time. This led him to having his license revoked on the state level, but he could still practice in federal court.
But not for long! On Feb. 3, 1989 he finally surrendered his license to the federal court after he and his five grandchildren Fred W. Phelps Jr., Margie Jean Phelps, Shirley Lynn Phelps-Roper, Jonathan Baxter Phelps, and Elizabeth Marie Phelps. Betty Joan Phelps as well as the wife of Fred Phelps Jr. made false allegations against several senior U.S. District Court judges in Kansas. All told, they:
Publicly accused U.S. District Court Judge Earl E. O'Connor of racial prejudice, religious prejudice and conspiracy to violate the civil rights of the seven Phelpses and others.
Publicly accused U.S. District Court Judge Richard Rogers of racial prejudice, dislike of civil rights cases, engaging in a racially motivated vendetta against the seven Phelpses and engaging in a conspiracy with O'Connor.
Claimed, among other things, that black people and minorities couldn't get a fair trial in federal court in Kansas.
This didn’t go over well for Phelps, clearly, and it was the incident that finally ended his career in law.
So how did the picketing start?
The first picket occurred in 1991 when the Westboro Baptist Church picketed Gage Park and its...unsavory reputation. They claimed that a homosexual man propositioned one of Phelps’s grandson’s for sex. This lead to a tirade of anti-gay protests demanding that Gage Park be “cleaned up.” However, this was just Phelps’s taste of fame, as soon the church began picketing soldiers’ funerals, LGBTQ+ related events, and even Swedish vacuums. Some notable pickets include that of the Sandy Hooke shooting victims, the funeral of Matthew Snyder, the Boston Marathon Bombing, and so many more.
Wow, that’s pretty terrible.
You bet it is. And this is a two parter, so there is only more content to come. Stay tuned for the next episode where we talk about the inner workings of the church and those who decided to leave it. That’s right, baby! Another two-parter!