This just in....

[aliantha]

The only good thing about this particular piece of crapola is that these nutcases likely didn't have enough money for plane tickets to Australia, so they could actually follow through on their threat.

[Holsety]

I wonder how much gay porn Phelps has hidden away in his basement?

It would be awesome if someone traced phelps' IP and matched it to the host of a bunch of gay porn sites or somethin.

And for a lot of them, it's not even their fault. As mentioned before, it's almsot exclusively one family, and many of them were deliberately raised that way from childhood. I think one of the more disturbing things when I saw the Louis Theroux documentary about them was the way the granddaughter--for example--seemed perfectly normal, but would calmly talk about how all these people were evil and would burn in hell--to her, it's just a fact, she's been told it her entire life and isn't capable of seeing it any other way.
(She is also the one who says she won't marry or ever have a boyfriend because the rapture is going to come in her lifetime.)

Interestingly enough, there are some kids of phelps who walked out on him.

During 1993–94 interviews with the Topeka Capital-Journal, the four Phelps children (out of thirteen, Mark, Nate, Katherine and Dotty) who had left the church asserted that their father's religious beliefs were either nonexistent to begin with or have dwindled down to nearly nothing. They insist that Westboro actually serves to enable a paraphilia of Phelps, wherein he is literally addicted to hatred. This statement would serve as the inspiration for the title of the book about Phelps' life, which was never published due to fear of lawsuit, but became public when the author sued the publisher, who maintained that it was a work for hire and therefore could not be taken to another publisher, attaching a copy of the manuscript to the suit as an exhibit thus making it public record. The record was eventually sealed, although the document had already been released over the Internet.

Two of his sons, Mark and Nate, insist that the church is actually a carefully planned cult that allows Phelps to see himself as a demigod, wielding absolute control over the lives of his family and congregants, essentially turning them into slaves that he can use for the sole purpose of gratifying his every whim and acting as the structure for his delusion that he is the only righteous man on Earth.[19] In 1995, Mark Phelps wrote a letter to the people of Topeka to this effect; it was run in the Topeka Capital-Journal.[20] The children's claim is partially backed up by B.H. McAllister, the Baptist minister who ordained Phelps. McAllister said in a 1993 interview that Phelps developed a delusion wherein he was one of the few people on Earth worthy of God's grace and that everyone else in the world was going to Hell, and that salvation or damnation could be directly obtained by either aligning with or opposing Phelps. As of 2006, Phelps maintains this belief.[19] Phelps and his family picket up to approximately six locations every day, including many in Topeka and some events farther afield. On Sundays, up to 15 churches may receive pickets.[21] By their own count, WBC has conducted over 30,000 pickets, in all 50 states, in over 500 cities and towns.[22] Their travel budget exceeds $200,000 annually.[23]

COnsidering that its two of his children who were raised in his household, I'm willing to take their word.

Also from the wiki article:

He compared Colbert's comments to the "blaspheming comics" of Sodom and Gomorrah and referred to both Colbert and Stewart as "sacrilegious buffoons."

Ya, actually I think Fred basically hit the mark here Though it might be worth saying that Colbert is not only a donaldson fan but a sunday school teacher (he's a practising Roman Catholic).

they do hear themselves - the volume is incredibly high. the problem is that they hear nothing but themselves. (that ain't God talking to them. even His voice is drowned out.)

29And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord:

30And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.

31And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.

Truth be told, I prefer Hillel's priorities (love comes first) to Jesus', but I figured Freddy might not trust a jew.

That first one is the sh'ma btw.

[Cagliostro]

Oh those religious fanatics, if they could ony hear themselves.

they do hear themselves - the volume is incredibly high. the problem is that they hear nothing but themselves. (that ain't God talking to them. even His voice is drowned out.)

when the Last Temptation came out i could not get a seat - sold out. i went to the bus full of of protesters and asked if any of them had seen the film. they of course had not. they trusted the word of some guy at the national level. someone none of them had ever met or talked with. but by-gum he said it was bad and that was good enough.

I still think one of the greatest stunts ever (the Scientology protest in England may have just supplanted this) was Kevin Smith protesting his own movie, Dogma. Same thing really; nobody had seen the movie, and nobody knew of Kevin Smith there other than what they had heard, therefore he was not recognized while protesting. On one of those Evening With Kevin Smith DVDs talks about it.

[Wyldewode]

After reading Hosety's post, I'd say (in my semi-professional opinion) that the man is a paranoid schizophrenic with active delusions, quite probably has narcissistic personality disorder, and possibly obsessive compulsive personality disorder as well.

[Damelon]

Oh those religious fanatics, if they could ony hear themselves.

they do hear themselves - the volume is incredibly high. the problem is that they hear nothing but themselves. (that ain't God talking to them. even His voice is drowned out.).

The best description I've heard of them, Sarge.