Westboro Baptist Church Head Fred Phelps Dies After 84 Bigoted, Shameful Years

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Pastor Fred Phelps Sr. passed away this week at the age of 84. Details are still very sketchy at this point, but we do know the death occurred last night at 11:15 PM and happened from natural causes.

Phelps rose to prominence as the leader of the famed Westboro Baptist Church, or more informally as the anti-gay hate group that pickets funerals and blames pretty much every negative event on a perceived decline in America’s collective morality. Under his leadership, the religious organization preached hate outside more than 53,000 funerals and in doing so, infuriated untold millions of sensible, decent people.

Phelps first took over the Westboro Baptist Church all the way back in 1955, but the group didn’t strike a chord with the general public until the early 1990s when its teachings became more radical and more public. At first, the group concentrated on protesting alleged outdoor homosexual activity in Topeka, Kansas, but within a few years, Phelps and company began picketing football games, pop concerts, military funerals and more. There was a backlash, of course, but Pastor Phelps reportedly became convinced that negativity was further proof that the Church’s stance was, in fact, correct.

Over the years, many have argued the Westboro Baptist Church shouldn’t be allowed to protest. It should be pretty clear to most that the loss of our collective rights that would come from such a blow to the First Amendment would ultimately be more detrimental; however, it should be noted that as Phelps and company chastised the world, they often brought people together, unifying them in love, understand and acceptance. As a population, we might not agree on everything, but almost all of us can agree hate is not nor will it ever be the answer.

The world is, without question, a friendlier and far more logical place without Phelps Sr. in it. Pop Blend’s thoughts go out to everyone with an alternate lifestyle who the Westboro Baptist Church ever tried to make feel ashamed. Keep being you.

Mack Rawden
Editor In Chief

Mack Rawden is the Editor-In-Chief of CinemaBlend. He first started working at the publication as a writer back in 2007 and has held various jobs at the site in the time since including Managing Editor, Pop Culture Editor and Staff Writer. He now splits his time between working on CinemaBlend’s user experience, helping to plan the site’s editorial direction and writing passionate articles about niche entertainment topics he’s into. He graduated from Indiana University with a degree in English (go Hoosiers!) and has been interviewed and quoted in a variety of publications including Digiday. Enthusiastic about Clue, case-of-the-week mysteries, a great wrestling promo and cookies at Disney World. Less enthusiastic about the pricing structure of cable, loud noises and Tuesdays.