# Fred Phelps is dying. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 16, 2014, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fred-phelps-is-dying/683820 "2014-03-16T05:20:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 11
**Author:** ![Raygun99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Raygun99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raygun99)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fred-phelps-is-dying/683820/201 "2014-03-20T16:01:15Z")
[He gone.](http://www.wibw.com/home/headlines/Family-Member-Confirms-Fred-Phelps-Has-Died-251212461.html) ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fred-phelps-is-dying/683820/202 "2014-03-20T16:04:33Z")
And on a fresh page too. How convenient. ---
**Author:** ![Kenm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bc79bd/32.png) [@Kenm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kenm)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fred-phelps-is-dying/683820/203 "2014-03-20T16:08:36Z")
His remains should be hermetically sealed in a carbon-fibre coffin and a mountain parked over it. It’s bad enough we have to breathe Hitler atoms. ---
**Author:** ![Enderw24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba9def/32.png) [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fred-phelps-is-dying/683820/204 "2014-03-20T16:15:36Z")
Well, as someone who lives just about an hour away from WBC, I can say I won’t be attending his funeral. The Phelps clan are trolls. I’m sure at some level they really believe what they’re spouting, but I also know they crave attention more than they crave the need to inform people of their beliefs. I don’t plan to give them any. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fred-phelps-is-dying/683820/205 "2014-03-20T16:24:56Z")
[Freddie’s Dead](http://www.oldielyrics.com/lyrics/curtis_mayfield/freddies_dead.html) _Freddies dead That’s what I said Let the rap a plan Said he’d see him home But his hope was a rope And he should’ve known It’s hard to understand That there’s love in this man I’m sure all would agree That his misery was his._ ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fred-phelps-is-dying/683820/206 "2014-03-20T16:28:18Z")
Dump him in a hole and forget about him. I was discussing the excommunication business with **CoBa** , and we figure it was an effort to divorce the cult from the personality. Pushing Fred out before his death was probably preparation for holding things together when he kicked off, with a dash of power play mixed in. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fred-phelps-is-dying/683820/207 "2014-03-20T16:30:51Z")
Hard to even do the most human “condolences to his family” when some family members broke with him early because he was a jerk, and the others later broke with Phelps because they were bigger jerks. AFAIK they think that because he was dying, and there was no second coming, it means that Phelps was dying thanks to sin. ---
**Author:** ![lance\_strongarm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/87869e/32.png) [@lance\_strongarm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lance_strongarm)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fred-phelps-is-dying/683820/208 "2014-03-20T16:32:13Z")
> [@Enderw24](#): > > Well, as someone who lives just about an hour away from WBC, I can say I won’t be attending his funeral. You could go picket it. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fred-phelps-is-dying/683820/209 "2014-03-20T16:35:03Z")
Give my regards to Saint Peter. Or whoever has his job, but in hell. ---
**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, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fred-phelps-is-dying/683820/210 "2014-03-20T16:36:29Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > [Freddie’s Dead](http://www.oldielyrics.com/lyrics/curtis_mayfield/freddies_dead.html) > > _Freddies dead > That’s what I said > Let the rap a plan > Said he’d see him home > But his hope was a rope > And he should’ve known > It’s hard to understand > That there’s love in this man > I’m sure all would agree > That his misery was his._ There’s no wrong reason to listen to this song, so I’m doing it now. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fred-phelps-is-dying/683820/211 "2014-03-20T16:36:51Z")
_toiletflush.wav_ ---
**Author:** ![WolfpackJeep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpackjeep/32/2921_2.png) [@WolfpackJeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WolfpackJeep)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fred-phelps-is-dying/683820/212 "2014-03-20T16:56:59Z")
My favorite comment so far, via Frank Coniff (TV’s Frank from MST3K) on Facebook: “May he rest in hate.” ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fred-phelps-is-dying/683820/213 "2014-03-20T17:33:39Z")
For all the attention he got, he was never more than a two bit carnival geek, a religin based version of GG Allin or a flip-side Anton LaVey. He made a nice villain to boo and hiss at but he wouldn’t have been on the list of the Top 10,000 Enemies of gay rights. He had no political power, just a modicum of fame that anyone who’s willing to abandon any kind of shame and decency and publicly roll around in excrement and point at passersby with a stick that’s exactly pointed enough to be legal is bound to gain. If anything he GAINED sympathy for gay rights by making perhaps a few people see “he’s really just saying in public what my church says in quieter and more polite language” and by building bridges between the families of dead gays and dead servicemen by his clan’s increasingly promiscuous and random protests. But as far as actual damage, a thousand legislators on the state and national level could be found who are FAR more dangerous to the cause of gay rights. Not one gay couple was ever denied the right to marry or adopt a child and not one gay employee was ever fired with impunity because of anything Fred Phelps did. But, whatever. I hope there’s an afterlife just long enough for him to be the official prison bitch of every overly endowed circus freak who ever got sent to Hell. ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fred-phelps-is-dying/683820/214 "2014-03-20T17:42:54Z")
I find it ironic that they can ask for privacy during his funeral. I guess they forgot that verse about reaping what you sow. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fred-phelps-is-dying/683820/215 "2014-03-20T17:46:46Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > But, whatever. I hope there’s an afterlife just long enough for him to be the official prison bitch of every overly endowed circus freak who ever got sent to Hell. Then I hope the doctrine of Divine Favor doesn’t extend to the area of penis endowment, or else this won’t be possible (and Forrest Tucker sits at the right hand of God) ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Kobayashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4af34b/32.png) [@Mr.Kobayashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Kobayashi)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fred-phelps-is-dying/683820/216 "2014-03-20T17:56:01Z")
> [@Kenm](#): > > His remains should be hermetically sealed in a carbon-fibre coffin and a mountain parked over it. > > It’s bad enough we have to breathe Hitler atoms. Or in a casket made of solid lead which is buried in an underwater subduction zone and taken into Earth’s mantle, like nuclear waste (although in life he was far more toxic). That way he can’t return as a lich. ---
**Author:** ![Enderw24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba9def/32.png) [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fred-phelps-is-dying/683820/217 "2014-03-20T18:02:32Z")
> [@lance\_strongarm](#): > > You could go picket it. I could. Not going to though. It’s not even a “you’re just sinking to their level…” Thinking. Fuck that. You want to protest, go for it. I’m just saying that they’re trolls and I think on some level, even in mourning, they’d enjoy having all this attention lavished on them. I’m not feeding that . ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fred-phelps-is-dying/683820/218 "2014-03-20T18:08:35Z")
Fred Phelps has finally done something to make the world a better place. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fred-phelps-is-dying/683820/219 "2014-03-20T18:08:54Z")
If you picket his funeral, then you’re as bad as he was. ---
**Author:** ![Laggard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de053/32.png) [@Laggard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laggard)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fred-phelps-is-dying/683820/220 "2014-03-20T18:10:57Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > If you picket his funeral, then you’re as bad as he was. Yeah but no. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fred-phelps-is-dying/683820.md?page=10) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fred-phelps-is-dying/683820.md?page=12)