2 years ago Trevor Melanson struck up a conversation with his cab driver on his way to the Cranbrook BC airport.
It turned out he was talking with Nate, one of the sons of Fred Phelps Jr. Melanson wrote about his encounter with the 51 year old for the University of British Columbia student newspaper. Dad, the hateful preacher was picked up by The Tyee.
On Easter Sunday, Vision TV’s The Standard ran an interview with Nate Phelps. It’s obvious he remains deeply affected by the abuse in his childhood and he is clear he will continue to struggle to get rid of the shadows. Nate believes the Westboro Baptist Church is a family hyper-Calvinist cult and that his father Fred is a sociopath. Primitive Baptists and even the KKK reject the practices of the Phelps family.
The family has conducted about 43 thousand pickets.
The Phelps clan is barred from entering Canada, which makes the reality this quiet son tried to find peace in a small city near the BC/Alberta border all the more compelling. While it is empowering for many abuse survivors to speak up and speak out about their abuse, being a poster child for the public is not always empowering, especially for someone dealing with post trauma stress disorder and depression.
Since putting up his website and attempting to write and tell his story, Nate Phelps has been targeted by his family, even as they have alternately shunned and screamed at him.
Westboro Baptist Church (the Phelps family) has it’s marketing techiques down cold. Their slogans, colours, message and techniques have become infamous. The US Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League lists the WBC as a hate group.
April 4, 2010 Vision TV The Standard with Peter Klein: Nate Phelps interview
Joytv-The Standard-Nate Phelps INVU from Jonathan Roth on Vimeo.
Nate Phelps
A letter from a son who left, Mark Phelps 1993
BBC 2008 The Most Hated Family in America
The documentary is in 8 parts on YouTube
Addicted to Hate – Jon M. Bell
Somehow I get the feeling that many fundy Christians are quietly sitting back, silently applauding Fred Phelps’ for doing what they do not have the guts to do. We know that every extreme right wing conservative hates homosexuality and gay marriage. (Oh, right. They hate the “sin” not the “sinner”) Ha.
The Phelps believe that they are being true biblical Christians, preaching the precepts of their lord and god to a hedonistic world and church who have supposedly lost the gall to uphold these precepts. In a way you have to give them credit that they would go to these lengths, endure so much public disdain, to do and say what they really believe is important to their god of the bible. They obviously take their beliefs and their bible very seriously and do not mince words or downplay some of the more distasteful things god has to say in his word.
Anyone who reads their bible will notice that god does a lot of hating and could use some anger management. However, in defense of the bible and the bible god, here’s where the Westboro Baptists got it wrong. It’s really quite simple. Just read the passages where god is talking about homosexuals and the act of gay sex. (Lev 18:22 & 20:13, Romans 1:26-27)
Now, answer this question – “Who is god talking to?” In every case, god is speaking to his children, the Israelites or the followers of Jesus in the NT. He was not speaking to the world, but to the one race and remnant that HE CHOSE to follow him. Therefore, the message that “god hates fags” is not a message for the world or nations of the world who do NOT claim to follow the god of the bible, but for those who do profess to be part of god’s family.
The ironic thing is that Fred Phelps follows Calvinism which adheres to the Doctrine of Election. This doctrine says that certain people are predestined to follow god, keep his commandments, not by their own free will, but by god’s choosing them and keeping them from falling away ’til the end. So when god supposedly knows who his own are, what’s the point of pointing your finger (and scathing signage) at the world that’s going to hell in a hand basket through no fault of their own anyway? Doesn’t make sense.
This is where so many Christians get it wrong like the Phelps’.
They think that the words of the bible were meant for all mankind, but the commandments and precepts were exclusively for those who claim to follow the biblical god/Jesus. Just like the sacred writings of Islam were for Muslims or the Vedas for Hindus.
According to the bible, the “world” (worldly people and systems) is inherently wicked. In the NT, believers are told to leave the things of the world behind, not to try to impose personal beliefs on them or try to “reclaim” them. Believers are admonished to KEEP THEM AND THEIR HOUSE pure and undefiled, not to try to redeem the “fallen”, sinful world. The church, from what I read in the book, is supposed to stand as a beacon for the lost, with no shadow of turning.
Railing against the moral ills of the world when the church is just as sick is hypocritical and vain. So, since the church claims to be morally superior and claims to have the cure to what ails the word, I guess if the Phelps directed all their anger at the church instead of society in general, I’d say, “Go Get ‘Em!” Confrontation is the biblical way.
I applaud Nate for his courage in leaving the fold. I know it’s not easy to leave everything your life was built on no matter how wrong it is.
Funny how the Bible has this way of revealing the hearts of people. It could have been written in such a way as to spell it all out for us, but instead it’s written in a way that reveals our hearts. How and what we read into it often truly says more about us than it’s Author unfortunately. No wonder it’s likened to a mirror. But thankfully it also offers the possibility of forgiveness and change..
God bless Nate Phelps – I’m so glad he’s out of the clutches of that deception and wish him well. I also pray his family gets the ‘attitude adjustment’ they need and that they can be reunited some day.
I’ve 1st read all of the blog 2 comments, then I watched the -whole video- and replayed some of it to see into as what makes these whole situations tick.
I think these situations are very much to do with deep down inside human feelings.
These are feelings that we all have.
Rev Fred Phelps and his group expresses, it seems to me, a rather raw form of the human nature that exists within us all.
Rev Fred Phelps seems to have a rather high aptitude for Law
So, he seems quite extreme in the gifted area.
But maybe, with this very gifted area to the extreme is also something else to the extreme.
Where are Fred Phelps emotions and feelings at ?
What Nate Phelps has said about the whole personality and family dynamics within the Phelps family is interesting.
But what family dynamics were passed onto Fred Phelps throughout the generations.
This concerns us all:
-Exodus 20:
-5b visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;
About iniquities passed down
In this case though Nate Phelps on The Standard mentioned his father was raised in the deep south.
So, the whole dynamics there in and at that time, under the whole cultural and historical buttress would influence anybody living in it.
No matter when and where a persons is born.
That person is influenced by the dynamics of the cultural and historical buttress in which they are in.
Also, part of the picture, is the family dynamics.
All that has been passed down throughout the generations.
And there are the dynamics of the individual.
In this case, what kind of a person is Fred Phelps?
Fred Phelps son Nate mentioned on how his father was as a Lawyer and in the civil rights movement
But also how he was at home and about the bible story about Noah’s son Ham who is considered the 1st person of the black race.
Here are the scriptures:
Genesis 9:
-Ham:
-18 And the sons of Noah, that went forth from the ark, were Shem, and Ham, and Japheth: and Ham is the father of Canaan.
-son of Noah, cursed:
-22 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father (Noah), and told two of his brethren outside.
Nate Phelps also mentioned how his father is from a Calvinist background which believes in predestination and election.
Once you’re saved, you’re saved is a fairly common phrase amongst persons who’d embrace John Calvin’s beliefs.
After reading and listening to the Video
Here are some other things that came to my mind are:
St Augustine wrote in his Confessions about his feelings:
-An overwhelming reoccurring chaos that can disable
-I spoke to me Priest about this and he said, “That is human nature”
Here are two scriptures that I often use:
Psalm 46:10a Be still, and know that I am God;
Matt 11:28 Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Here’s how I use them:
I pray and meditate on them:
I am still because I know that Jesus Christ is God
I have come unto Jesus Christ and am rested