What's Behind Pastor's Anti-gay Messages

[Heimdall]

This little tidbit comes from the Opinion section of the Abilene Reporter News. I thought you folks might enjoy this column:

 

 

What's behind pastor's anti-gay messages?

By Leonard Pitts Jr.

February 28, 2006

Allow me to share with you an epiphany. I think Fred Phelps is gay.

Not that I'd have any way to know for sure, and not that there's anything wrong with that. But it seems obvious to me that Freddie has spent a little time up on ''Brokeback Mountain,'' if you catch my drift. I'm thinking he's secretly into show tunes, interior decorating and man-sized love.

Granted, that's not the first thing that comes to mind when you talk about the Fredster, who is defined by an apparently pathological hatred of all things homosexual. Perhaps you remember how his followers desecrated the funeral of Matthew Shepard, the gay college student who was beaten and left to die on a prairie fence in Wyoming eight years ago. They showed up at the funeral bearing signs that said, ''God Hates Fags.''

Now Phelps has updated his act. His ''thinking,'' if you want to use that word, is that the casualties of the Iraq war are divine retribution for this country's tolerance of homosexuality. So, he says, thank God for the IEDs, improvised explosive devices, that have sent so many American soldiers home dead or in broken pieces.

Phelps' followers - he pastors a church in Topeka, Kan., where most of the congregants are members of his family - have been showing up at military funerals to express this view. Picture it: as your son, sister, wife, brother is being consigned to the soil, these idiots pop up with signs, loudly celebrating his or her death.

Small wonder the state of Wisconsin enacted a law last week banning protests at military funerals. Or that more than a dozen other states are moving in the same direction.

Phelps has vowed to fight the restrictions on First Amendment grounds and the unfortunate truth is that he has a point. His message is bizarre, grotesque and calculated to hurt, yes. But the Constitution carves out no exception for messages that are bizarre, grotesque and calculated to hurt. The right to freedom of speech is a precious thing that extends even here.

At this point, you're probably saying to yourself that next to this guy, Pat Robertson is a model of statesmanlike restraint. You probably think he's crazy. And not ordinary crazy, mind you, but 20 pages, typewritten, single-space, both sides of the page with scribbles in the margins crazy.

Well, I don't think he's as crazy as he seems. Heck, nobody could be. No, he's not disturbed. He's just gay.

Hear me out. How often have we seen public moralists railing against that which they themselves secretly indulge? Think Jimmy Swaggart with his prostitute. Think Dr. Laura's pose in the nude. And for goodness' sake, how many times have we seen homosexuality condemned by those who turned out to be closeted themselves? There was Pat Robertson biographer-turned-gay activist Mel White, Spokane Mayor James West who spent his days opposing gay rights and his nights in gay chat rooms, and Gary Cooper and Michael Bussee, who founded a group that purported to cure people of homosexuality, but gave it up when they fell in love with each other.

Consider all that, and then consider the sick ferocity of Phelps' attack:

God hates ''fags.''

Gays are vomit-eating dogs.

Gays are ''worthy of death.''

Can you say ''self-hatred,'' boys and girls? Come on, isn't it obvious? The poor fellow is gayer than a Bette Midler AIDS benefit. In San Francisco.

He needs not our condemnation but our understanding. Maybe someday he'll find the strength to stop living this lie. He might just go on to be the greatest gay-rights activist this country has ever known. Maybe then, in the arms of the right man, he'll stop hurting.

Kind of chokes me up to think about it.

Of course, the Fredster will deny all this. He might even call me unpleasant names. Hey, that's his right. We may not see eye to eye on much, but on one thing, we agree.

Freedom of speech is a wonderful thing.

Leonard Pitts is a columnist for the Miami Herald, 1 Herald Plaza, Miami, Fla., 33132. Readers may contact him at (888) 251-4407 or via e-mail at lpitts@herald.com.

Tribune Media Services Inc.

 

Heimdall

[trashy]

Genius, pure genius!

[greasemonkey]

EXCELLENT!!!!

 

thanks for sharing, that was great!

[Ro-bear]

Excellent column; thanks for posting it.

[Biggles7268]

somebody needs to email that to the "fredster"

[Curtdude]

Why can't we queers get the hot ones from ClosetLand? Lord, lately the "recruits" have just been pathetic: too many saggin' asses and bad complexions. And not enough interior designers and other Official Poofters Crafts.

 

Phelps almost makes me wanna go straight he's so damned physically revolting!

 

Cool article.

[Lycorth]

Hehe, yes, I've always wondered myself whether Fred Phelps was really Freddy the Blade, if you follow me. Granted, I don't think I can seriously make that accusation, as I was once just as hateful towards homosexuals as he is and thought them demented monsters whom Gawd loathed with a passion.

 

But I woke up, of course. I pulled my head out of my ass and finally admitted that Biblegodzilla is the real monster, and gays are no more prone or immune to evil than anyone else. Fred is just a hate-filled whackadoo living in his own little bubble, and what's more he has his little fan club of Jesus-zombies with him to parrot his every word. Hence, he gets that rush of being supported by a bunch of people and feels convinced he is right - because the Babble tells him so.

 

So, even if he's not gay, there's something a little queer (ie, seriously fucked-up) about him.

[lothartx]

 

I wish I could write that well. I like a good sarcastic whit. I must hone my skills.

[Onyx]

I thought he looked gay when he put on his cowboy hat, I'm not really surprised, I had the same epiphany.

[The Sage Nabooru]

Honestly, after reading that guy's biography, I'm willing to say that fundie religion or no, he's just a sadist. I think he cares about the real issue of homosexuality about as much as he cares about where all the lost left socks go - he's just out to hurt as many people as he can, including his own family. I can't help but feel so sorry for all the women in his compound. I wonder if the place is so airtight and secure so they can't escape the nightly rape session with their cousins/husbands.

[godlessgrrl]

Hmm. Very interesting theory.

 

However my inclination is simply to regard him as a psychopathic narcissist, not a closeted homosexual.

 

But, my gaydar has been broken for awhile, so who knows?

 

Regardless, the man is a maggot. And as much as I hate maggots for how nasty they are, I hate even more to insult them by comparing them to someone like Fred Phelps.

[Amanda]

Perhaps he is gay, the theory certainly does have some valid merits. The preacher not only clearly has a problem, the guy clearly IS the problem!

 

People should have their own beliefs if it doesn't hurt someone else... this is killing people physically and emotionally! The gentleman who wrote that great article is at least standing up against this preacher, yet why aren't there more heterosexuals standing up for the gays? I know if enough people participated, it would soon be extremely socially unacceptable/politically incorrect to say these things as this preacher did.

[Luck Mermaid]

Agreed. While a closeted self-hating gay can do terrible things to other gays, not all gay bashers are secretly gay. They may be secretly bi-sexual, and Kinsey's studies seem to suggest that. But ultimately, they're just sick. I once read a chapters long novella by a child of Phelps, I don't know if it was in any part true or written by his son. But it basically said the guy, when not being 'upstanding psycho-violent icon', spent time lying in bed, binging on food and drugs, and beating his kids, sometimes raping his girls and making his kids beg and steal money. He also had this sporadic health kicks and food fads, once made his family eat 2 day old milk he'd curdled himself from powder and left lying around to ferment. Part of a new health plan.

 

I don't know if any of this is true though I just read it somewhere onthe net, which means it doesn't get much if any merit. But yeah, it's clear he's a bit 'queer' if by queer you mean broken and out to feed on others to stave off his feelings. But that's not queer, it's pretty ordinary.

[The Sage Nabooru]

I don't know if any of this is true though I just read it somewhere onthe net, which means it doesn't get much if any merit. But yeah, it's clear he's a bit 'queer' if by queer you mean broken and out to feed on others to stave off his feelings. But that's not queer, it's pretty ordinary.

 

The book was written by one of his own kids, who of course he now says is irredeemably destined for hell. Anyway, everything seems to indicate it did occur, even his old neighbors, ex-friends, and even the guy who used to be a co-pastor and teacher to him say he's just a sadistic bastard.

 

He wasn't always in that compound - his former life outside of it was well-witnessed. There are people who remember buying candy from his kids because they felt so sorry for them.

[Poonis]

Fred Phelps' anti-gay agenda and his hatred of homosexuals is equal to his desire to accept his own homosexuality.

 

This is true with all of us: if we bash homosexuality, that is the extent of our self-imposed shame preventing us from admitting our own homosexuality.

 

Those who are without qualm with homosexuality are either themselves openly gay, or truly are straight.

 

Where there is no acceptance there is only self-denial.

[Christopher Carrion]

Modern psychological studies into homophobia conducted right here in ol' Blighty demonstrate quite conclusively that those who exhibit the most acute homophobic tendencies also became the most emotionally and sexually aroused when exposed to homo-erotic materials.