It’s not getting a lot of play. But if it does, 99.9% of those who here it will revile these pukes as much as we do. Maybe that’s a good thing.
Stupendous Man: For future reference, it’s not really a “church” as such, and AFAIK it’s not affiliated with any of the mainstream denominations, like the Southern Baptist Convention, or the American Baptists. If you put “Westboro Baptist” into Google, what comes up is the God Hates Fags dot com website (not gonna do Fred the favor of linking to him here). Brace yourself–it’s REALLY ugly stuff. Pure-dee hatred. 
And, the point is, they’ve always had a thing running down in the bottom right-hand corner of their home page, under “Memorials”, that says, “Matthew Shepard has been in hell for 1442 days” or whatever number of days it is. So your news update blurb doesn’t sound like a specific anniversary (and there’s nothing on the website about a particular celebration)–it just sounds like a regular interview with Fred. They’re ALWAYS celebrating Matthew Shepherd’s entrance into hell, every day on their website.
Mr. Neutron, I just noticed your name. I was Mr. Neutron for several years at an earlier BBS I once belonged to!
May I call you Mr. N?
Once again, I have the Dopers to thank (if that’s the right word) for exposing me to a group of people that I never could dream existed. I’ve spent about twenty minutes now reading about Fred Phelps and rather than be angry or smug at my own intelligence, I’m sad. I’m really genuinely sad that there are people who honestly believe this…and sad that there are some people (not necessarily dopers) who believe he speaks for any part of mainstream Baptist faith or Christianity.
Jesus wept.
The net-nanny in use here at work is pretty relaxed about most things, but it drew the line on Phelps:
Bows deeply to Mangetout and Lissla Lissar
snort So he says. Read the bio of Phelps that was posted above. What he did was take on frivilous lawsuits and charge racism when there was in fact none. It was only an excuse to harass people.
I find it interesting that Phelp uses the same debating tactics as certain members of this board
“No, I didn’t call you a fag, that was God; I’m just passing on the message.” It just amazes me that these people can spew such hateful garbage and then blame it on God, as if they were mere conduits for the Almighty.
They don’t so much blame it on God, gobear, as they use what they believe (conveniently, since it doesn’t hurt them at all) the Bible says to justify all the hurtful things they do, names they use, etc.
You rarely see these sort of people, when challenged on their beliefs, either consider another point of view or change said view. Even when informed that they are doing more harm than (really, any) good. It’s a pity, and it drives people away from God. But they’re doing what they think God wants them to do, so who cares about anyone else, right?
Oh wait…
Re: the Phelps clan. Friedo (whom I haven’t seen around lately) has on his http://www.godhatesfundies.org website a thorough biography of Fred and his clan, which is worth reading. Effectively many family members hate him, with IMHO good reason, and many are committed or brainwashed into following him.
But aside from that group, in response to the OP, I don’t think there are any Americans, Baptist or not, who feel that Matthew Shepherd’s death is any reason to celebrate.
To add a lighter note to this, there is a story that Tallulah Bankhead once attended a high-church service in which the Bishop was coming down the aisle in cope and mitre, preceded by a thurifer carrying a lit thurifer from which the smoke of burning incense was wafting throughout the congregation. Tallulah reached out and said to the Bishop, “Darling, I love your dress, but I think you need to know that your purse is on fire!” 
I believe the correct link Polycarp referred to is http://www.godhatesfundies.com . The .org & .net have been taken by squatters (“This site coming soon- would you like to change your home page to spamtrap.com?”- :mad: I think God hates pop-ups, too).
Pop-ups (and Fred Phelps) make the baby Jesus cry.
Well, I twice tried to thank Scooby for correcting my cite, but the hamsters are feeling ornery today.
So once again thanks, Scooby.