# Fred Phelps is dead. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 20, 2014, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fred-phelps-is-dead/684169 "2014-03-20T17:59:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![penultima\_thule](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penultima_thule/32/3833_2.png) [@penultima\_thule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/penultima_thule)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fred-phelps-is-dead/684169/21 "2014-03-20T21:30:17Z")
I would have thought that Fred going to hell was an astute career move. ---
**Author:** ![joyfool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@joyfool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joyfool)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fred-phelps-is-dead/684169/22 "2014-03-20T21:31:45Z")
I thought the OP’s article was from the cDc and figured they were treating him like the removal of a plague or something. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fred-phelps-is-dead/684169/23 "2014-03-20T21:36:05Z")
No funeral! [http://www.wibw.com/home/headlines/251212461.html](http://www.wibw.com/home/headlines/251212461.html) ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fred-phelps-is-dead/684169/24 "2014-03-20T21:43:39Z")
Don’t Call Me Shirley: > [@](#): > > God must have killed him for being too soft on gays. Musicat: > [@](#): > > I guess God hates Phelps. What an interesting thing to say about a guy who lived into his 80’s. I get where it’s coming from (his anti-gay slogans), but no one lives forever, and I can’t see an octogenarian’s death as being indicative of any divine attitude toward him. If anything, his long life would argue for the opposite position. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fred-phelps-is-dead/684169/25 "2014-03-20T21:46:50Z")
As other people have pointed out, he lived long enough to see sweeping and amazing successes for gay rights and was also thrown out of his own church. Funny thing about living a long time: sometimes there’s a big twist at the end! ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fred-phelps-is-dead/684169/26 "2014-03-20T21:51:56Z")
Somewhere out there, there is a funeral home handling his arrangements. I’m sure one embalmer just turned to another and said, “I guess he really wasn’t full of shit. Here’s your $20…” ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fred-phelps-is-dead/684169/27 "2014-03-20T21:56:52Z")
\*Poor Fred is dead Poor Fred Phelps is dead All gather round his coffin now and cry… He loved the birds of the forest And the bees of the field He loved the mice and the vermin in the barn And he treated the rats like equals, which he knew was right! And he loved the little children He loved everybody and everything in the world Only he never let on, so nobody ever noticed\* with apologies to Rodgers and Hammerstein. ---
**Author:** ![Katriona](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/katriona/32/113_2.png) [@Katriona](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Katriona)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fred-phelps-is-dead/684169/28 "2014-03-20T21:59:57Z")
> [@Idle\_Thoughts](#): > > I heard somewhere (heard, not read, so I don’t have a cite and what I heard may not be true of course) that his family actually had the audacity to say they want the funeral to be a private matter. > > Either that wasn’t really said or (if it was) they’re massively trolling us (which is what they usually do every other time, I think). IIRC, they recently started claiming the church as a whole doesn’t believe in funerals and memorials, so they may not have much of anything. I’ll see if I can dig up a cite. Found it: > **[Why Fred Phelps Was Excommunicated From WBC](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/fred-phelps-excommunicated-wbc_n_4981300)** > > Why Fred Phelps Was Excommunicated From WBC > [@](#): > > Speculation about the funeral arrangements for Phelps may be pointless, as a WBC member previously told The Huffington Post that WBC does not believe in having funerals or memorials because “We don’t worship the dead in this church, so there’d be no public memorial or funeral to picket if any member died.” ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fred-phelps-is-dead/684169/29 "2014-03-20T22:08:16Z")
From the end of the CNN article I linked to in post 14: _…Shirley Phelps-Roper, Phelps’ daughter, said Westboro will not hold a funeral. “We do not worship the dead,” Phelps-Roper told CNN._ ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fred-phelps-is-dead/684169/30 "2014-03-20T22:16:10Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > [CNN.com](http://CNN.com)’s coverage: [http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/20/us/westboro-church-founder-dead/index.html?hpt=hp\_c2](http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/20/us/westboro-church-founder-dead/index.html?hpt=hp_c2) > > Clarence Darrow is said to have once remarked, “I never wished anyone dead, but I’ve read some obituaries with a great deal of satisfaction.” Excellent quote and perfect for this situation. ---
**Author:** ![mascaroni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/dc4da7/32.png) [@mascaroni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mascaroni)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fred-phelps-is-dead/684169/31 "2014-03-20T22:30:07Z")
> [@StusBlues](#): > > Organizing, promotion, personal energy. Wouldn’t you like to have a guy as dedicated as Fred Phelps working for a good cause? As has been posted in another thread he was a strong proponent of civil rights in the sixties. What turned him into the bigot that he became? No fags in Heaven. But do they allow E-Cigarettes up there? ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fred-phelps-is-dead/684169/32 "2014-03-20T22:37:59Z")
> [@mascaroni](#): > > As has been posted in another thread he was a strong proponent of civil rights in the sixties. What turned him into the bigot that he became? We don’t know that he was really a proponent of civil rights. We know that he was a civil rights attorney for a time, but he may have just found it a profitable industry to work in in its early days. ---
**Author:** ![sisu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@sisu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sisu)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fred-phelps-is-dead/684169/33 "2014-03-20T23:10:02Z")
I keep hearing “ding dong the witch is dead” ---
**Author:** ![Sarabellum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sarabellum/32/3492_2.png) [@Sarabellum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sarabellum)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fred-phelps-is-dead/684169/34 "2014-03-20T23:11:28Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > [CNN.com](http://CNN.com)’s coverage: [http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/20/us/westboro-church-founder-dead/index.html?hpt=hp\_c2](http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/20/us/westboro-church-founder-dead/index.html?hpt=hp_c2) > > Clarence Darrow is said to have once remarked, “I never wished anyone dead, but I’ve read some obituaries with a great deal of satisfaction.” Quoted for truth. Good riddance. ---
**Author:** ![mascaroni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/dc4da7/32.png) [@mascaroni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mascaroni)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fred-phelps-is-dead/684169/35 "2014-03-20T23:14:17Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > We don’t know that he was really a proponent of civil rights. We know that he was a civil rights attorney for a time, but he may have just found it a profitable industry to work in in its early days. You may well be right, I don’t claim any expertise in 1960’s American (what we call in the UK) Legal Aid. It may well have been a lucrative source of income for at the time, but it doesn’t really pan out with the character he became. I’ve read that he was disbarred in the Seventies. Was that the tipping point? God hates fags. But He’ll smoke the occasional cigar… ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fred-phelps-is-dead/684169/36 "2014-03-20T23:17:13Z")
The world is a better place without him. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fred-phelps-is-dead/684169/37 "2014-03-20T23:21:18Z")
I would post in this thread but it would give whatshisname and his family too much satisfaction. If he passed on without a single word said it would be the most profound, deserved and pointed put down he and his family could receive. Of course, as my post demonstrates, that is never going to happen. ---
**Author:** ![Antinor01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fred-phelps-is-dead/684169/38 "2014-03-20T23:47:40Z")
> [@sisu](#): > > I keep hearing “ding dong the witch is dead” I was hearing Lily Allen’s Fuck You. Not an exact match, but the theme fits. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2014, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fred-phelps-is-dead/684169/39 "2014-03-21T00:04:43Z")
No funeral? So what are they going to do, plant him out back in the middle of the night, or send him off to be cremated, The. End.? How did he get kicked out of his very own church, anyway? Did the members take a vote and say, enough is enough, you’re banished? Why? and why did they do this when they did, instead of years ago? What’s going to happen to the church now? ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2014, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fred-phelps-is-dead/684169/40 "2014-03-21T00:11:51Z")
I’m glad the old [ding-dong’s](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHQLQ1Rc_Js) dead. And I’m sorry for the people he hurt. But in the end, his existence probably (and ironically) did more to advanced the pro-gay movement than many pro-gay activists. ‘Cause even gay-haters think the Phelpses are nuckin’ futs. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fred-phelps-is-dead/684169.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fred-phelps-is-dead/684169.md?page=3)