A Presentation By Marie Beshears

The Westboro Baptist Church was founded in 1955 when Phelps moved to Topeka, KsThe Church was started in Phelps home and remains there today

Primitive BaptistCalvinisticOne has no bearing on his or her own salvation

Those who are saved are predestined by God

Phelps became a Baptist preacher at age 17He soon began protesting non-Christian acts

In 1964 Phelps earned his law degree from Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas

Phelps had trouble finding a judge to be a character witness for him

This caused him problems when he tried to join the Kansas Bar Association

He bypassed this problem by finding other individuals to write letters of recommendation for him

In 1979 Phelps is permanently disbarred by the Kansas Supreme CourtHe had harassed and sued a court reporter because she allegedly delivered a document late

The next year Phelps was suspended from federal courts until 1982 asa result of the same case

In 1991 Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church make their biggest attack on gaysThey call this the “Great Gage Park Decency Drive”This was the first of many pickets of a public park commonly known as a gay meeting place

In 1991 the Westboro Baptist Church started practicing their picketing campaigns outside of Kansas

The Westboro Baptist Church and Phelps have been the reason for anti-funeral picketing laws around the nation

The first big media stunt of the Westboro Baptist Church’s picketing the funeral of Matthew ShepherdHe was a gay student who was brutally simply because he was gay

The church was seen with signs reading “God Hates Fags”

The Church claims that America is being punished for allowing gay lifestyles

They also claim that the deaths of soldiers by IEDs is because of a small explosive attack on their compound in 1995

In 2006 The Westboro Baptist Church picketed the funeral of Matthew SnyderA gay American Marine that died in

battleThe Church’s picket included signs reading “Thank God for dead soldiers”

Snyder’s father sued the Church for invasion of privacy

Snyder’s father had to pay court costs to the Westboro Baptist Church after loosing the case

The Supreme Court Ruled that the First Amendment protected the Church’s right to protest funeralsThis did not change the anti-

funeral picketing laws in 43 states

David G. Savage, W. B. (2011, March 03). Supreme Court sides with churchgoers who picketed military funeral. Los Angeles Times .

Fred Phelps. (n.d.). Retrieved May 19, 2012, from Southern Poverty Law Center: http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-files/profiles/fred-phelps

Fred Phelps Timeline. (Spring 2012). Southern Poverty Law Center Intelligence Report (Issue Number: 101).

Froese, P., & Bader, C. (2010). America's Four Gods: What we say about God & what that says about us. Oxford University Press.