Fred Phelps May Have Had A Change Of Heart Toward Gays, Rela

[doggie]

but it was too little too late.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/2 ... 78433.html

Pastor Fred Phelps, the infamous founder of the intolerant, quasi-religious Westboro Baptist Church, apparently had a change of heart before his death.

 

On Thursday, Planting Peace, an anti-bullying, equal rights group that founded the Equality House directly across the street from WBC's headquarters in Topeka, Kansas, posted a message to Facebook allegedly from former WBC member Zacharias Phelps-Roper, son of Shirley Phelps-Roper. In the message, Phelps-Roper says his grandfather had an epiphany in front of the Equality House before he was voted out of the WBC. The message reads:

Specifically, on the day that he was excommunicated, he stood outside of the front door of the church (but not within anyone's earshot but a few members of WBC who happened to be in the immediate vicinity)... I say, he spoke words to this effect to the Equality House: "You are good people." I feel like he had a change of heart after my grandmother nearly passed away, and he felt the pangs of loss ... he waited for news of her every day and night while she was in intensive care. I think this triggered a chain reaction whereby he developed great empathy for others... which would explain why he would support Planting Peace's anti-suicide and anti-bullying platforms, and their charities across the world.... I love my grandfather! And I believe people DO change, if they are inspired enough!

[MamaJunebug]

Mm-hm. Whatever he wants to say about his Pawpaw.

Meanwhile I'm told the Cathy family of Chick-fil-a has withdrawn funding of anti-gay concerns and that Mr. Cathy sat down with somebody from GLAAD or PFLAG or something and everything's hunky-dory now. May be. But I'm still not buying any of their sandwiches anytime soon, if ever.

[PennySycamore]

I read about this on DailyKos yesterday. I don't know what to believe but I do know that Fred was excommunicated by Westboro sometime before he died so this may be true. It doesn't change how much damage he did to LGBT people though over the years.

[Ellimenopy]

This was actually my theory for why he was excommunicated before he died. He was a complicated man, and his history with civil rights is way more than enough to believe that this was possible.

[DGayle]

To be frank, I don't care if he had an epiphany. He never went public, never apologized. It's not like death came suddenly. He started a major hate group, and never publicly spoke against them. A member of his family claiming to have overheard him say something isn't evidence that he had a chance of heart.

[salex]

My guess of what happened is that Fred had some form of dementia, and if anyone at Equality house was ever kind to him in even the simplest way, he might have been repeating to himself that "nice people" lived there. I also believe that the big excommunication was set up to eliminate any vote he might have had as the power struggle started in earnest. Shirley had long said she'd not be in charge since she lacked a penis, but I believe many people thought she'd rule from behind her husband's throne--but she seems much less in control than she was.

I will be amazed if the cult survives long without Fred, even in his wasted aged version.

[SoybeanQueen]

I would more likely believe that he saw the writing on the wall, both about his own declining health and his loss of control within the group, and tried to give some of the grandkids a way out. He had to know the other men were hoping to get rid of him. He also knew they didn't want Shirley to have such a large role in the "church." What if this last-minute change of heart was actually just his ploy to destroy the influence of the men who were going to take over?

Fred was a clever man. Crazy and mean, yes, but not stupid. I've read some articles about how he carefully crafted his image as a civil rights hero but the actual work he did was not terribly influential in the long run because no precedents were set and the people involved in the suits didn't win much at all. (It's been ages since I was on a Phelps-reading-binge, so I don't have links).

Basically, I'd buy manipulative and crafty before I'd buy total change of heart.

But, there has always been that rumor that he started his hate campaign because of something that happened to him as a young man, potentially him realizing he might like being with other men. If that's true, maybe a man who feels his life is coming to an end would finally have some clarity on the subject and decide it's pointless to hate something he cannot change about himself.

[SoybeanQueen]

I will be amazed if the cult survives long without Fred, even in his wasted aged version.

That's what I think, too. The prime hate-fuel was coming from him and Shirley, IMO, and she's probably not terribly motivated to keep the fires burning if they excommunicated her dad and demoted her back to women's work.

[peacelovecoffee]

To be frank, I don't care if he had an epiphany. He never went public, never apologized. It's not like death came suddenly. He started a major hate group, and never publicly spoke against them. A member of his family claiming to have overheard him say something isn't evidence that he had a chance of heart.

Yes, this exactly however, I call bullshit on this whole story. When it was made news right before his death that he was excommunicated, I knew this would eventually be what everyone would say but his evil, hatred, & pride was so much a part of who he was that I doubt, even on his death bed, he ever admitted any wrong doing. I suspect his excommunication had more to do with a power struggle than it did with him having a change of heart.

[lawlifelgbt]

If he really had a change of heart, then he needed to apologize and admit wrongdoing before he died.

That's how forgiveness begins when someone does something terrible like that. The person who did the wrong needs to make the first move.