S
Sound of Trumpet
Guest
http://www.claytoncramer.com/weblog/2004_01_18_archive.html#107500380049184155
Does The Rev. Fred Phelps Work for the ACLU?
You might think so, from the results of his actions. You know who
Phelps is, don't you? He would probably call me way too liberal about
homosexuality. Let me tell you a story that should give you some idea
of how warped and hate-filled Phelps is.
Focus on the Family, Dr. James Dobson's organization, held a
conference last year in which former homosexuals talked about how they
had been liberated from their sin, and were now living happy lives as
heterosexuals. This shouldn't be any great surprise; I've pointed out
in the past that at least some homosexuals have successfully changed
not just their behavior, but their orientation. They have not just
stopped having sex with people of the same sex; they now have sexual
attraction to the opposite sex, and are happy with the change. Dr.
Robert L. Spitzer, the psychiatrist responsible for getting
homosexuality removed from DSM-III conducted one such study, and in
spite of his preconceptions, concluded that at least some homosexuals
were capable of making this change. Therapies both secular and
religious have proven successful.
The Rev. Fred Phelps showed up to protest--and has even held similar
protests in front of Focus on the Family's headquarters. What was
Phelps upset at Focus on the Family about? Phelps is so angry about
homosexuality that he and his friends showed up to picket at the
funeral of Randy Shilts, a homosexual San Francisco journalist who
died of AIDS. They picketed at the funeral of Matthew Shepard, a
homosexual murdered by some gay-bashers in Laramie, Wyoming. As near
as I can tell, Phelps' upset with Focus on the Family is that they
teach that it is possible for homosexuals to become straight. Phelps,
as near as I can tell, believes that homosexuality is so evil that
homosexuals should die in sin and depravity, instead of becoming
straight and Christian. Phelps is pretty clearly a very sick puppy.
So, how is Phelps helping the ACLU? The ACLU is intent on removing the
Ten Commandments from public land everywhere in America. They have
been only somewhat successful with this. So Phelps decided that the
appropriate response to the presence of Ten Commandments monuments in
city parks around the country was to demand the right to erect his own
"religious monument" in those parks--and that monument would be
vigorously and bluntly anti-homosexual. Phelps' theory is that if one
expression of religion is allowed, all must be allowed--and has
threatened suits to get his anti-homosexual stones put into city
parks.
The Boise City Council responded to the threat of this suit by Phelps
by doing what frightened little puppies always do: submissive
urination:
BOISE - The Ten Commandments Monument which has stood in Boise's Julia
Davis Park since 1965 will be moved.
On Tuesday night, by a 4 to 2 margin, the city council voted to return
the monument to its original donor, the Fraternal Order of Eagles. The
Group will display the monument at the entrance to their building on
Overland Rd. in Boise.
Councilman Alan Shealy made the motion, in light of possible lawsuits
from Kansas Minister Fred Phelps, who was denied his request to place
an anti-gay monument in Julia Davis Park.
Shealy told us moving The Ten Commandments Monument from one public
place to another was preferable to costly legal fees.
I've long thought that Phelps' actions were repulsive and
discreditable. (Consider, for example, my remarks in 1994.)
Now Phelps' is not only crazy--but doing the Anti-Christian Litigation
Unit's job for them.
UPDATE: Here's a letter by one of Phelps' sons, describing what is
wrong with his father:
What is he like? Well, it's been 19 years since I left home, but his
behavior still appears to be the same. He considers his environment to
be against him without admitting, acknowledging or taking
responsibility for how he contributes to that. He likes to show
himself as being moral, pro-family, pro-Bible, but his actions just
don't add up to that. I believe in God and the Bible, and my father's
behavior doesn't fit the description of behavior that would show in
the life of one who loves God; behavior characteristics such as Love,
Joy, Peace, Longsuffering, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness,
Gentleness, Self-control. Instead, my father's behavior characterizes,
I believe, Hate, Outbursts of Wrath, Contention, Jealousy,
Vengefulness, Misery, Harshness, and Selfish ambition. He mis-states
the truth about his own behavior, about others, about the Bible, with
apparent ease and regularity. He behaves with a viciousness the likes
of which I have never seen. He accepts no genuine accountability in
his life and is subject to no one. His lifestyle betrays the sacred
trust of what a pastor, husband, father and grandfather should be. I
suppose if a comparison were made between the life of Jesus Christ and
my father, there would not be much to compare.
I also realize that my father is a very unstable person who is
determined to hurt people. And because he is so bound to be hateful
and hurtful, and because he's so untrustworthy, I believe it's a good
idea to respond to him with caution much like the caution used when
dealing with a rattlesnake or a mad dog. You see, the causes that he
crusades for, including the Bible, are not the issue here. He simply
wants to hate and to have a forum for his hate. If the causes he
focuses on were the issue, that is, if they really meant something to
him in his heart and he meant for the things he does to be for the
good, his behavior would not be what it is. He would not betray his
message with his behavior. But, when he needs to, to vent his hate, he
readily goes outside the bounds of any previously stated 'value' or
'cause' he may have supported. He experiences no moral dilemma when it
comes to doing what he wants to do. If it weren't the homosexuals, it
would be something else.
And this is the guy that the Boise City Council is letting control
their decisions.
Another interesting aspect of Phelps is that he is exactly the sort of
person you would expect to work for the ACLU. Before he was disbarred,
Phelps built up a reputation for filing civil rights suits, and
received awards from civil rights organizations for that work:
Before he was disbarred and surrendered his law license, Fred Phelps
gained a reputation as a sharp, competent civil rights attorney whose
eloquent and fiery orations mesmerized juries.
"You always had to be ready for him," a veteran lawyer in Topeka
said.
Phelps was considered a gifted and skilled trial lawyer, one of the
best in eastern Kansas.
His prominent cases:
One of Phelps' most notable cases was won on behalf of Evelyn Rene
Johnson, a black school girl who sued Topeka Unified School District
501, alleging she received an inferior education in Topeka schools.
In an out-of-court settlement, Johnson received $19,500 from the
school board in U.S. District Court late in 1978. Johnson received
$8,907 in a trust, and Phelps received the rest as fees. The case,
which had been sealed by a federal judge at the request of the school
board's insurance company, became public in April 1979. Filed in 1973,
the suit alleged the school hadn't fully implemented mandates by the
U.S. Supreme Court in Brown vs. Board of the Education of Topeka.
Johnson, 10 when the case was filed, had been a student at Parkdale
Elementary School.
In August 1979, Phelps filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of
Carla Michelle Miller, then 11 and a student at Lafayette Elementary
School, charging that USD 501 discriminated against blacks and other
minorities. Phelps filed the class-action suit in U.S. District
Court.
Phelps contended economically disadvantaged black students were being
forced to remain in predominantly black schools in an environment
generating a feeling of "inferiority as to their status in the
community, thus affecting their hearts and minds in a way unlikely
ever to be undone."
....
Phelps won several honors for his work on civil rights cases.
In 1986, Phelps received two civil rights awards, the Omaha Mayor's
Special Recognition Award and an award by the Greater Kansas City
Chapter of Blacks in Government.
In 1987, Phelps received an award from the Bonner Springs branch of
the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People for his
"undauntedness" and his "steely determination for justice during his
tenure as a civil rights attorney."
A former Phelps employee from those days described why Phelps
represented so many poor black plaintiffs:
She said the lawyers in the Phelps firm often took civil rights and
employment discrimination cases when other lawyers wouldn't. For many
people with legitimate claims, the Phelps firm was their last resort,
she said.
The firm often represented people who couldn't afford a lawyer.
Filing so many civil rights and employment discrimination cases made
members of the firm somewhat unpopular, especially among big
businesses the Phelps sued on behalf of clients. The criticism heaped
on the Phelpses for filing so many civil rights cases tended to bring
the Phelpses closer together as a family, Billingsley said.
I'm sure the ACLU would also love this other Phelps' lawsuit:
In 1984, Phelps sued the president of the United States.
The reason? Phelps opposed then-President Ronald Reagan's appointment
of an ambassador to the Vatican.
The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Topeka, asked a judge to
prohibit the president from opening diplomatic relations with the
Vatican. Phelps argued that sending an ambassador to the Vatican
violated the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Phelps's son Fred Phelps, Jr. was a guest at the Clinton
inauguration.
Oh, I did find an interesting article in one of the left-wing
newspapers that explains why Phelps started his anti-homosexuals
campaign in the 1980s, after a long history of civil rights activism.
They interviewed Phelps' daughter, one of the eleven Phelps kids who
are attorneys:
"We took on the Jim Crow establishment, and Kansas did not take that
sitting down. They used to shoot our car windows out, screaming we
were ****** lovers." In the '70s and '80s, the Phelps law firm made up
one-third of the state's federal docket of civil-rights cases,
according to Phelps-Roper. They represented minority Kansans in
separate actions against Kansas Power & Light, the Topeka city
attorney's office, and Southwestern Bell, and they represented female
professors who were alleging discrimination at two Kansas
universities.
Now 69, Phelps was disbarred from Kansas state courts in 1979 for too
vigorously cross-examining a court reporter who then accused him of
waging a personal vendetta against her. Phelps-Roper claims the state
targeted her father for his civil-rights efforts; he continued
fighting cases through federal court until he retired in 1989. "His
ability in a courtroom was legendary," she says.
Phelps-Roper, who says her husband's half-brother is gay, believes her
family?s view makes perfect sense. "You are born black; everyone grows
old; you're either a man or a woman," she said. "These people
[homosexuals] are identified by a perverted sex act. Period." She
added that two brothers who don't agree with the family's politics
moved to California.
The family started protesting homosexuality in the late 1980s after
Phelps-Roper's then-toddler son was allegedly propositioned by a
homosexual in a Topeka park, she said. The Phelpses picketed the city
to patrol gay sexual activity in the park, later taking their
vitriolic show on the road, targeting gay funerals such as Shepard?s,
as well as living homosexuals.
Hmmm. I still think Phelps is a nutcase, but this might well explain
why he is a nutcase on this subject.
Does The Rev. Fred Phelps Work for the ACLU?
You might think so, from the results of his actions. You know who
Phelps is, don't you? He would probably call me way too liberal about
homosexuality. Let me tell you a story that should give you some idea
of how warped and hate-filled Phelps is.
Focus on the Family, Dr. James Dobson's organization, held a
conference last year in which former homosexuals talked about how they
had been liberated from their sin, and were now living happy lives as
heterosexuals. This shouldn't be any great surprise; I've pointed out
in the past that at least some homosexuals have successfully changed
not just their behavior, but their orientation. They have not just
stopped having sex with people of the same sex; they now have sexual
attraction to the opposite sex, and are happy with the change. Dr.
Robert L. Spitzer, the psychiatrist responsible for getting
homosexuality removed from DSM-III conducted one such study, and in
spite of his preconceptions, concluded that at least some homosexuals
were capable of making this change. Therapies both secular and
religious have proven successful.
The Rev. Fred Phelps showed up to protest--and has even held similar
protests in front of Focus on the Family's headquarters. What was
Phelps upset at Focus on the Family about? Phelps is so angry about
homosexuality that he and his friends showed up to picket at the
funeral of Randy Shilts, a homosexual San Francisco journalist who
died of AIDS. They picketed at the funeral of Matthew Shepard, a
homosexual murdered by some gay-bashers in Laramie, Wyoming. As near
as I can tell, Phelps' upset with Focus on the Family is that they
teach that it is possible for homosexuals to become straight. Phelps,
as near as I can tell, believes that homosexuality is so evil that
homosexuals should die in sin and depravity, instead of becoming
straight and Christian. Phelps is pretty clearly a very sick puppy.
So, how is Phelps helping the ACLU? The ACLU is intent on removing the
Ten Commandments from public land everywhere in America. They have
been only somewhat successful with this. So Phelps decided that the
appropriate response to the presence of Ten Commandments monuments in
city parks around the country was to demand the right to erect his own
"religious monument" in those parks--and that monument would be
vigorously and bluntly anti-homosexual. Phelps' theory is that if one
expression of religion is allowed, all must be allowed--and has
threatened suits to get his anti-homosexual stones put into city
parks.
The Boise City Council responded to the threat of this suit by Phelps
by doing what frightened little puppies always do: submissive
urination:
BOISE - The Ten Commandments Monument which has stood in Boise's Julia
Davis Park since 1965 will be moved.
On Tuesday night, by a 4 to 2 margin, the city council voted to return
the monument to its original donor, the Fraternal Order of Eagles. The
Group will display the monument at the entrance to their building on
Overland Rd. in Boise.
Councilman Alan Shealy made the motion, in light of possible lawsuits
from Kansas Minister Fred Phelps, who was denied his request to place
an anti-gay monument in Julia Davis Park.
Shealy told us moving The Ten Commandments Monument from one public
place to another was preferable to costly legal fees.
I've long thought that Phelps' actions were repulsive and
discreditable. (Consider, for example, my remarks in 1994.)
Now Phelps' is not only crazy--but doing the Anti-Christian Litigation
Unit's job for them.
UPDATE: Here's a letter by one of Phelps' sons, describing what is
wrong with his father:
What is he like? Well, it's been 19 years since I left home, but his
behavior still appears to be the same. He considers his environment to
be against him without admitting, acknowledging or taking
responsibility for how he contributes to that. He likes to show
himself as being moral, pro-family, pro-Bible, but his actions just
don't add up to that. I believe in God and the Bible, and my father's
behavior doesn't fit the description of behavior that would show in
the life of one who loves God; behavior characteristics such as Love,
Joy, Peace, Longsuffering, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness,
Gentleness, Self-control. Instead, my father's behavior characterizes,
I believe, Hate, Outbursts of Wrath, Contention, Jealousy,
Vengefulness, Misery, Harshness, and Selfish ambition. He mis-states
the truth about his own behavior, about others, about the Bible, with
apparent ease and regularity. He behaves with a viciousness the likes
of which I have never seen. He accepts no genuine accountability in
his life and is subject to no one. His lifestyle betrays the sacred
trust of what a pastor, husband, father and grandfather should be. I
suppose if a comparison were made between the life of Jesus Christ and
my father, there would not be much to compare.
I also realize that my father is a very unstable person who is
determined to hurt people. And because he is so bound to be hateful
and hurtful, and because he's so untrustworthy, I believe it's a good
idea to respond to him with caution much like the caution used when
dealing with a rattlesnake or a mad dog. You see, the causes that he
crusades for, including the Bible, are not the issue here. He simply
wants to hate and to have a forum for his hate. If the causes he
focuses on were the issue, that is, if they really meant something to
him in his heart and he meant for the things he does to be for the
good, his behavior would not be what it is. He would not betray his
message with his behavior. But, when he needs to, to vent his hate, he
readily goes outside the bounds of any previously stated 'value' or
'cause' he may have supported. He experiences no moral dilemma when it
comes to doing what he wants to do. If it weren't the homosexuals, it
would be something else.
And this is the guy that the Boise City Council is letting control
their decisions.
Another interesting aspect of Phelps is that he is exactly the sort of
person you would expect to work for the ACLU. Before he was disbarred,
Phelps built up a reputation for filing civil rights suits, and
received awards from civil rights organizations for that work:
Before he was disbarred and surrendered his law license, Fred Phelps
gained a reputation as a sharp, competent civil rights attorney whose
eloquent and fiery orations mesmerized juries.
"You always had to be ready for him," a veteran lawyer in Topeka
said.
Phelps was considered a gifted and skilled trial lawyer, one of the
best in eastern Kansas.
His prominent cases:
One of Phelps' most notable cases was won on behalf of Evelyn Rene
Johnson, a black school girl who sued Topeka Unified School District
501, alleging she received an inferior education in Topeka schools.
In an out-of-court settlement, Johnson received $19,500 from the
school board in U.S. District Court late in 1978. Johnson received
$8,907 in a trust, and Phelps received the rest as fees. The case,
which had been sealed by a federal judge at the request of the school
board's insurance company, became public in April 1979. Filed in 1973,
the suit alleged the school hadn't fully implemented mandates by the
U.S. Supreme Court in Brown vs. Board of the Education of Topeka.
Johnson, 10 when the case was filed, had been a student at Parkdale
Elementary School.
In August 1979, Phelps filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of
Carla Michelle Miller, then 11 and a student at Lafayette Elementary
School, charging that USD 501 discriminated against blacks and other
minorities. Phelps filed the class-action suit in U.S. District
Court.
Phelps contended economically disadvantaged black students were being
forced to remain in predominantly black schools in an environment
generating a feeling of "inferiority as to their status in the
community, thus affecting their hearts and minds in a way unlikely
ever to be undone."
....
Phelps won several honors for his work on civil rights cases.
In 1986, Phelps received two civil rights awards, the Omaha Mayor's
Special Recognition Award and an award by the Greater Kansas City
Chapter of Blacks in Government.
In 1987, Phelps received an award from the Bonner Springs branch of
the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People for his
"undauntedness" and his "steely determination for justice during his
tenure as a civil rights attorney."
A former Phelps employee from those days described why Phelps
represented so many poor black plaintiffs:
She said the lawyers in the Phelps firm often took civil rights and
employment discrimination cases when other lawyers wouldn't. For many
people with legitimate claims, the Phelps firm was their last resort,
she said.
The firm often represented people who couldn't afford a lawyer.
Filing so many civil rights and employment discrimination cases made
members of the firm somewhat unpopular, especially among big
businesses the Phelps sued on behalf of clients. The criticism heaped
on the Phelpses for filing so many civil rights cases tended to bring
the Phelpses closer together as a family, Billingsley said.
I'm sure the ACLU would also love this other Phelps' lawsuit:
In 1984, Phelps sued the president of the United States.
The reason? Phelps opposed then-President Ronald Reagan's appointment
of an ambassador to the Vatican.
The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Topeka, asked a judge to
prohibit the president from opening diplomatic relations with the
Vatican. Phelps argued that sending an ambassador to the Vatican
violated the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Phelps's son Fred Phelps, Jr. was a guest at the Clinton
inauguration.
Oh, I did find an interesting article in one of the left-wing
newspapers that explains why Phelps started his anti-homosexuals
campaign in the 1980s, after a long history of civil rights activism.
They interviewed Phelps' daughter, one of the eleven Phelps kids who
are attorneys:
"We took on the Jim Crow establishment, and Kansas did not take that
sitting down. They used to shoot our car windows out, screaming we
were ****** lovers." In the '70s and '80s, the Phelps law firm made up
one-third of the state's federal docket of civil-rights cases,
according to Phelps-Roper. They represented minority Kansans in
separate actions against Kansas Power & Light, the Topeka city
attorney's office, and Southwestern Bell, and they represented female
professors who were alleging discrimination at two Kansas
universities.
Now 69, Phelps was disbarred from Kansas state courts in 1979 for too
vigorously cross-examining a court reporter who then accused him of
waging a personal vendetta against her. Phelps-Roper claims the state
targeted her father for his civil-rights efforts; he continued
fighting cases through federal court until he retired in 1989. "His
ability in a courtroom was legendary," she says.
Phelps-Roper, who says her husband's half-brother is gay, believes her
family?s view makes perfect sense. "You are born black; everyone grows
old; you're either a man or a woman," she said. "These people
[homosexuals] are identified by a perverted sex act. Period." She
added that two brothers who don't agree with the family's politics
moved to California.
The family started protesting homosexuality in the late 1980s after
Phelps-Roper's then-toddler son was allegedly propositioned by a
homosexual in a Topeka park, she said. The Phelpses picketed the city
to patrol gay sexual activity in the park, later taking their
vitriolic show on the road, targeting gay funerals such as Shepard?s,
as well as living homosexuals.
Hmmm. I still think Phelps is a nutcase, but this might well explain
why he is a nutcase on this subject.