Saturday, April 3, 2010

In the Name of Religion


Estranged B.C. son of American anti-gay preacher speaks out

Cranbrook man says his father blames world's problems on homosexuality

Soft-spoken Cranbrook cab driver Nate Phelps is coming forward on Easter Sunday to speak out against one of America's most outspoken anti-gay crusaders -- his own father.
Phelps, who has been quietly living in B.C. with his wife and four children, is the estranged son of Pastor Fred Phelps, head of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan.
Members of the WBC gained notoriety in Canada in 2008 after announcing plans to picket the funeral of Tim McLean, who was beheaded on a Greyhound bus.
Pastor Phelps claimed the grisly murder was God's revenge for Canada's liberal policies on abortion, gay rights and divorce.
Nate Phelps, who broke away from his father and his beliefs in 1980, first revealed his identity to a customer in his cab in Cranbrook.
The fare happened to be University of B.C. journalism student Trevor Melanson.
Melanson went on to write an award-winning feature about Nate Phelps that was published in the Ubyssey and on thetyee.cain 2009.
In his first in-depth television interview with journalist Peter W. Klein, Phelps describes a childhood dominated by a fear of going to hell, and says the WBC shares some of the same traits as a cult. Phelps says his father regularly beat his mother and 11 siblings, used racial epithets, and blamed the world's problems on homosexuality.
In recent years the radical group has outraged many for conducting verbally abusive protests at the funerals of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq. Phelps claims that America's losses are God's punishment for increasing social acceptance of homosexuality.
On his "church" website, ( godhatesfags.com)Phelps publishes a list of planned protests that he dubs "the love crusades."
In the interview, Phelps says his father was once a brilliant and well-respected lawyer who led several anti-segregation cases and was honoured by the NAACP as a civil rights hero.
Nate Phelps now considers himself an atheist. The interview airs on Joytv's talk program The Standard on Sunday at 8 p.m.
dryan@vancouversun.com

3 comments:

  1. I've read about this during the past couple of weeks and in my opinion, this church in Kansas has no business associating itself with Baptists or any other truly Christian denomination. This is NOT what Christians are about. I feel for Nate Phelps and I'm not surprised he's taken an atheistic stand. It breaks my heart to hear about how many people are being hurt or misled by some churches out there who have lost the reality of why they are there in the first place.

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  2. I totally need to re-post this.

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  3. Wendy, honestly, I was so stunned when I read this article, I didn't know how to respond to it. All I can say is that this fool gives me far more power and influence, as a homosexual, than I deserve. What disturbs me is that there are people like him who feel this way, and followers of him who feel the same way.
    What people won't do in the name of religion.
    My hope is that people will read this and know in their hearts how crazy Fred Phelps, and people who are like him, really are. It's difficult to believe there are people on this earth who distort religion to this degree and actually have these ludicrous beliefs. It sure must be nice to be Mr. Phelps and to see the world in such black and white terms.
    But to equate homosexuality with such evil makes me shake my head. Where do some people get this stuff?

    Thanks for your interest in this post, urbanpionqueer.

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