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Fred Phelps, the founder of the Westboro Baptist Church, is reportedly near death.
Rev. Fred Phelps leads the controversial Westboro Baptist Church.Washington Post
By
Meredith Clark
Fred Phelps, the founder of the fundamentalist, anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church, is said to be dying in a Kansas hospice facility.
Nate Phelps, one of the pastor’s estranged children, posted on Facebook Saturday night that his father “is now on the edge of death.” Speaking of his 84-year-old father, who became notorious for displaying signs reading “God Hates Fags” at high profile funerals for soldiers and public figures, the younger Phelps wrote,
I’ve learned that my father, Fred Phelps, Sr., pastor of the “God Hates Fags” Westboro Baptist Church, was ex-communicated from the “church” back in August of 2013. He is now on the edge of death at Midland Hospice house in Topeka, Kansas.
I’m not sure how I feel about this. Terribly ironic that his devotion to his god ends this way. Destroyed by the monster he made.
I feel sad for all the hurt he’s caused so many. I feel sad for those who will lose the grandfather and father they loved. And I’m bitterly angry that my family is blocking the family members who left from seeing him, and saying their good-byes.
Phelps also said that his father had been excommunicated from his own church in August 2013, but did not say why or what he was dying of. The Westboro Baptist Church has not yet made a statement about Phelps.
Meredith Clark
Meredith Clark is a freelance writer and editor. She was previously a senior news producer for "Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj," a reporter with MSNBC.com, the digital politics and culture editor at Glamour and a senior news and politics editor at Refinery29. She has written for Vulture, Rolling Stone, Self, Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, The Daily Beast and Bustle.
