Season of Hating, Pt III: Have a Fred Phelps Kind of Christmas - Righteously Arrogant and Sublimely Ridiculous

A Facebook event called “The Quran Roast of D.C.” had appeared earlier in the week. “This is the day america must stand up against islam and the islamic immigration which is illegally being implemented on our nation,” the event’s description said.

The organizers had invited more than 2,000 people to the event, and given Republican frontrunner Donald Trump’s gross rhetoric against Muslims, and the crowds he’s been drawing, it seemed possible that a good number of them might actually show up.

But the 70-plus confirmed attendees turned out to be more like six men, most of them dressed like bikers, and one middle-aged woman.

Why I Hate Duck Dynasty. (As If It Matters)

“They’re full of murder, envy, strife, hatred. They are insolent, arrogant God-haters. They are heartless. They are faithless. They are senseless. They are truthless. They invent ways of doing evil.”

The "Duck Dynasty" flap has made me angry, and not for the usual reasons.

First of all, I'm angry because I have to write about it.

Don't get me wrong. I absolutely love exposing hypocrisy - even in myself. But the hypocrisy embedded in Duck Dynasty's Robertson clan as well as A&E and it's critics is so obvious, there is no exposing it. But I have to write about it because, hey, people EXPECT me to.

Secondly, I'm angry because I have to deal with an icon (of sorts) who is perhaps the shallowest of persons - and few will believe me.

I have not seen Duck Dynasty. That is my hypocrisy - criticizing something that I have not fully experienced. I have no desire to see Duck Dynasty just as I have no desire to see reruns of the Beverly Hillbillies, nor to meet Fred Phelps. Yes, this aspect of my animosity makes me look just as hypocritical as Pat Robertson expounding on the homosexuality he knows nothing about, but I cannot help it.

I viewed the other Phil Robertson tape. The one I posted on OpEdNews last week. The one in which Phil Robertson said that gays "invent ways of doing evil."

A&E:

"While reiterating that Robertson’s views are not those of the channel, A&E noted Friday that he has publicly said he would “never incite or encourage hate.” The show itself is more than one man’s views, it added.

“It resonates with a large audience because it is a show about family, a family that America has come to love. As you might have seen in many episodes, they come together to reflect and pray for unity, tolerance and forgiveness,” A&E said.

      “They’re full of murder, envy, strife, hatred. They are insolent, arrogant God-haters. They are heartless. They are faithless. They are senseless. They are truthless. They invent ways of doing evil.”

"...never incite or encourage hate." "pray for unity tolerance and forgiveness." All of this seems to be on the surface: just what does he pronounce to his offspring off camera? What has he instilled in them all these years that is not evident and open to the public? Could the family of such a patriarch call him a hypocrite - and get away with it?

Is it possible that the family "America has come to love" is really the family America loves to hate, but with long beards? Is it the Phelps/Westboro Baptist family in disguise?

America is so easy to deceive.

Out Of Evil?: More Phelpses Leave The Clan And Reverse Course

In the simplified world of Megan Phelps-Roper, she is an outcast. She is, in fact, dead...to her family. Her shelter? It is the rest of the world.

Being the daughters of the most hated man in America and, some say, one of the most hated men in history (polls show him just below Hitler and Stalin, but above Quran-burning Terry Jones) Megan Phelps-Roper and Grace Phelps-Roper now have the sympathy of everyone They also have admiration for coming forth about their "captivity":

"In a city in a state in the center of a country lives a group of people who believe they are the center of the universe; they know Right and Wrong, and they are Right. They work hard and go to school and get married and have kids who they take to church and teach that continually protesting the lives, deaths, and daily activities of The World is the only genuine statement of compassion that a God-loving human can sincerely make. As parents, they are attentive and engaged, and the children learn their lessons well." - Megan Phelps-Roper

Perhaps the anomaly in the saga of Megan and Grace is that they both state that they still love their family - even their mother.

Shirley Phelps Roper is the second-in-command at Westboro. She has increasingly become the face of Westboro and does more active picketing than her aging father. She has even taken on her father's demeanor, smiling when chanting the most hateful slogans. And even though Shirley must have suffered the same wrath as her siblings, she seems euphoric at being considered the most faithful of her father's followers. Unfortunately, it's a following that is dwindling as time goes by and the children, like Megan and Grace, discover that not everyone in the world is sinner hated by God.

Other Phelps siblings have "escaped" from the grasp of "pastor" Fred Phelps: as far back as 1980, Nate Phelps and his brother Mark left the clan. Their sister Kathy was forced back and beaten after an attempt. Another grandchild, Libby Phelps Alvarez escaped several years ago (see interview below).

In a deposition concerning the manuscript of a book, Addicted To Hate, the whole unfettered story of the Phelps clan and Fred Phelps himself contains details so lurid and insane, that most would be hard-pressed to believe it:

• Phelps was long addicted to barbiturates and amphetamines
• Mark and Nate were forced into a "Fagan Operation" - requiring them to steal so that they could make their father's daily quota - ostensibly for selling church candy or light bulbs door-to-door.
• Phelps beat all of his children mercilessly and even starved out his daughter Margie (for one month)
• Phelps beat his wife extensively and ostensibly hacked off her hair when she was not "submissive enough"
• Nate was threatened by a police office (Phelps' friend) with "kneecapping" if he saw his girlfriend - of whom Fred disapproved
• Nate's girlfriend subsequently committed suicide as a result of the Phelps clan taunting
• Phelps' unethical law practices got him disbarred from the Kansas State Bar Association
• Phelps insisted that all his children have law degrees and that all their spouses have law degrees as well.
• Marriages were enacted only with Phelps' approval
• The Phelps clan was taught that Fred Phelps was their "portal to heaven" and they and they alone were going to heaven in this world. 

"It wasn't fantasy, it wasn't hyperbole," he [Nate] said. "He was cruelly, viciously violent -- physically, verbally and psychologically."

The Phelps clan refuses to comment on the recent defection of Megan and Grace. when they do comment, will it be with the usual "They're lying!"? 

Probably.

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